“Look to the lid thyself, and cast a cord Around it, lest, upon thy voyage home, Thou suffer loss, when haply thou shalt take A pleasant slumber in the dark-hulled ship.”
Ulysses, the sagacious, heard, and straight He fitted to its place the lid, and wound And knotted artfully around the chest A cord, as queenly Circè long before Had taught him. Then to call him to the bath The housewife of the palace came. He saw Gladly the steaming laver, for not oft Had he been cared for thus, since he had left The dwelling of the nymph with amber hair, Calypso, though attended while with her As if he were a god. Now when the maids Had seen him bathed, and had anointed him With oil, and put his sumptuous mantle on, And tunic, forth he issued from the bath, And came to those who sat before their wine. Nausicaä, goddess-like in beauty, stood Beside a pillar of that noble roof, And looking on Ulysses as he passed, Admired, and said to him in winged words:—
“Stranger, farewell, and in thy native land Remember thou hast owed thy life to me.”
Ulysses, the sagacious, answering said:— “Nausicaä, daughter of the large-souled king Alcinoüs! so may Jove, the Thunderer, Husband of Juno, grant that I behold My home, returning safe, as I will make To thee as to a goddess day by day My prayer; for, lady, thou hast saved my life.”
He spake, and near Alcinoüs took his place Upon a throne. And now they served the feast To each, and mingled wine. A herald led Thither the gentle bard Demodocus, Whom all the people honored. Him they placed Amidst the assembly, where he leaned against A lofty column. Sage Ulysses then Carved from the broad loin of a white-tusked boar A part, where yet a mass of flesh remained Bordered with fat, and to the herald said:—