Odyssey 8.391 · Book 8, lines 391–393
Each prince owes the stranger a gift
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Alcinous — ἀρχοὶ κραίνουσι, τρισκαιδέκατος δʼ ἐγὼ αὐτός· τῶν οἱ ἕκαστος φᾶρος ἐυπλυνὲς ἠδὲ χιτῶνα καὶ χρυσοῖο τάλαντον ἐνείκατε τιμήεντος.
The princes hold sway, and I myself am the thirteenth; and let each of them bring for him a fresh-washed cloak and a tunic, and a talent of precious gold.
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The setting
Alcinous is finishing his charge to the Phaeacian nobles. Twelve kings hold power in the land, and he counts himself the thirteenth; he sets out what each must contribute to send the stranger off richly.
A note on this passage
Alcinous closes his instructions by doing arithmetic. The Phaeacians are ruled by twelve princes, and he makes himself the thirteenth; from each of them he asks the same three things — a fresh-washed cloak, a tunic, a talent of gold — so the sum is fixed and the burden shared.
Under the plain accounting runs the machinery of guest-friendship. A stranger is not sent off empty-handed; he is loaded with wealth, and the cost is spread across the ruling class as a public levy. By counting himself into the thirteen, Alcinous ties his own standing to the gift: the king leads the giving by making everyone give.
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