Odyssey 7.7 · Book 7, lines 7–9
The old nurse of Apeire
Read the full text in our reader
αὐτὴ δʼ ἐς θάλαμον ἑὸν ἤιε· δαῖε δέ οἱ πῦρ γρῆυς Ἀπειραίη, θαλαμηπόλος Εὐρυμέδουσα, τήν ποτʼ Ἀπείρηθεν νέες ἤγαγον ἀμφιέλισσαι·
But she herself went into her chamber; and the old woman of Apeire kindled a fire for her, the chambermaid Eurymedousa, whom curved ships once brought from Apeire.
Word by word
The setting
Nausicaa withdraws to her room. The poem pauses on the servant who tends her fire — Eurymedousa, an old woman carried to Scheria long ago in the ships.
A note on this passage
A quiet domestic close-up. The princess goes to her chamber, and an old serving-woman kindles the fire for her. The poem gives the servant a name, a homeland, and a history: Eurymedousa, brought from Apeire in the ships.
The undercurrent is how she came. She is a prize of raiding — carried off ‘once’ from a far country to the Phaeacian court. Homer names her tenderly and states her captivity plainly in the same breath; the comfort of the great house rests on someone else's uprooting, mentioned without apology.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 7.7 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
From the Great Library
You are reading a page of the Odyssey — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Odyssey 7.7 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/7.7/