Odyssey 7.334 · Book 7, lines 334–338
White-armed Arete orders the bed made
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ὣς οἱ μὲν τοιαῦτα πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἀγόρευον· κέκλετο δʼ Ἀρήτη λευκώλενος ἀμφιπόλοισιν δέμνιʼ ὑπʼ αἰθούσῃ θέμεναι καὶ ῥήγεα καλὰ πορφύρεʼ ἐμβαλέειν στορέσαι τʼ ἐφύπερθε τάπητας χλαίνας τʼ ἐνθέμεναι οὔλας καθύπερθεν ἕσασθαι.
So they spoke such things to one another; and white-armed Arete bade her handmaids set bedsteads under the portico, and throw on fair purple blankets, and spread coverlets on top, and lay woolly cloaks over them to wrap round.
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The setting
The exchange between Odysseus and Alcinous is over. Now the household prepares the guest for the night, in the roofed portico (αἴθουσα) along the courtyard where honored guests slept.
A note on this passage
The talk ends and the house turns to the guest's bed. White-armed Arete gives the orders: her maids are to set bedsteads under the portico, throw fair purple rugs over them, spread coverlets, and lay thick woolly cloaks on top for warmth. It is the fixed bedding-scene of a great house, told in its full comfort.
Notice whose voice does it. Alcinous is king, but it is Arete who commands the household and sees the stranger settled — the same quiet authority Athena told Odysseus to court first, clasping her knees before anyone else's. The purple and the piled wool are not idle detail either: xenia is measured in exactly this, how well a house beds the man at its door.
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