Odyssey 7.43 · Book 7, lines 43–47
Odysseus marvels at the city
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θαύμαζεν δʼ Ὀδυσεὺς λιμένας καὶ νῆας ἐίσας αὐτῶν θʼ ἡρώων ἀγορὰς καὶ τείχεα μακρὰ ὑψηλά, σκολόπεσσιν ἀρηρότα, θαῦμα ἰδέσθαι. ἀλλʼ ὅτε δὴ βασιλῆος ἀγακλυτὰ δώμαθʼ ἵκοντο, τοῖσι δὲ μύθων ἦρχε θεά, γλαυκῶπις Ἀθήνη·
And Odysseus marveled at the harbors and the trim ships, the assembly-grounds of the heroes themselves and the long walls, towering high, fitted with palisades, a wonder to behold. But when at last they reached the glorious halls of the king, bright-eyed Athena, the goddess, began speaking to them:
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The setting
Shrouded in Athena's mist, Odysseus walks unseen through Scheria. As he goes he takes in the sights of the Phaeacian city, up to the doors of the royal palace, where Athena turns to him.
A note on this passage
Now the traveler's eye takes in Phaeacia: the harbors, the trim ships drawn up, the meeting-grounds of the people, and the long high walls topped with stakes, a real working port and a wonder to look at. Then the sightseeing ends at a threshold: the glorious halls of the king, where Athena turns to speak.
Odysseus looks at a city the way a man who has lost his own looks at any city that works. The harbors and walls and assembly-places are the furniture of ordered civic life, exactly what Ithaca has been missing while the suitors eat it hollow. The poem lets him admire from outside a wholeness he is still fighting to get home to.
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