Odyssey 7.61 · Book 7, lines 61–63
The line of Nausithous
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τῇ δὲ Ποσειδάων ἐμίγη καὶ ἐγείνατο παῖδα Ναυσίθοον μεγάθυμον, ὃς ἐν Φαίηξιν ἄνασσε· Ναυσίθοος δʼ ἔτεκεν Ῥηξήνορά τʼ Ἀλκίνοόν τε.
And with her Poseidon lay, and begot a son, great-hearted Nausithous, who was king among the Phaeacians; and Nausithous begot Rhexenor and Alcinous.
Word by word
The setting
Athena, disguised as a girl, is telling Odysseus about the royal house he is about to enter. She traces the Phaeacian line back to its divine root: Poseidon fathered Nausithous, whose sons were Rhexenor and Alcinous, the present king.
A note on this passage
A quick genealogy, the kind the poem hands a stranger before a great house. The sea-god Poseidon begets Nausithous, who founds the Phaeacian kingship; Nausithous in turn fathers Rhexenor and Alcinous. Three generations are laid down in three lines, plain as a family register.
The quiet weight is in the first name of the list. The Phaeacians, who will ferry Odysseus home, are Poseidon's own grandchildren — and Poseidon is the god hunting him across the sea. The people who save him share the blood of the god who wrecks him. The poem sets that tension down without a word of comment.
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