Odyssey 7.64 · Book 7, lines 64–68
Apollo's arrow, and Queen Arete
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τὸν μὲν ἄκουρον ἐόντα βάλʼ ἀργυρότοξος Ἀπόλλων νυμφίον ἐν μεγάρῳ, μίαν οἴην παῖδα λιπόντα Ἀρήτην· τὴν δʼ Ἀλκίνοος ποιήσατʼ ἄκοιτιν, καί μιν ἔτισʼ, ὡς οὔ τις ἐπὶ χθονὶ τίεται ἄλλη, ὅσσαι νῦν γε γυναῖκες ὑπʼ ἀνδράσιν οἶκον ἔχουσιν.
Him, indeed, being without a son, silver-bowed Apollo struck down in his hall, a bridegroom, leaving one only daughter, Arete; and her Alcinous made his wife, and honored her, as no other woman on earth is honored, of all the women who now keep a household under their husbands.
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The setting
Continuing the royal history. Rhexenor died young, struck by Apollo, leaving a single daughter, Arete; Alcinous married her — his own niece — and honored her above all women.
A note on this passage
The house nearly failed. Rhexenor died a bridegroom, sonless, killed by Apollo's arrow — the god's sudden shaft, the epic's usual image for a man cut down in his prime. He left only a daughter, Arete, and Alcinous made her his wife and raised her higher than any woman alive.
The undercurrent is why Athena spends these lines on a queen. Everything bends toward Arete. A daughter left where a son should have been becomes the center of the household, honored past all others. Athena is preparing Odysseus for the room he must enter: it is the woman, not only the king, whose favor decides a suppliant's fate.
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