“O queen,” he said, “I implore your aid—­but tell me, are you a goddess or are you a mortal woman?  If you are a goddess and dwell in heaven, I can only conjecture that you are Jove’s daughter Diana, for your face and figure resemble none but hers; if on the other hand you are a mortal and live on earth, thrice happy are your father and mother—­thrice happy, too, are your brothers and sisters; how proud and delighted they must feel when they see so fair a scion as yourself going out to a dance; most happy, however, of all will he be whose wedding gifts have been the richest, and who takes you to his own home.  I never yet saw any one so beautiful, neither man nor woman, and am lost in admiration as I behold you.  I can only compare you to a young palm tree which I saw when I was at Delos growing near the altar of Apollo—­for I was there, too, with much people after me, when I was on that journey which has been the source of all my troubles.  Never yet did such a young plant shoot out of the ground as that was, and I admired and wondered at it exactly as I now admire and wonder at yourself.  I dare not clasp your knees, but I am in great distress; yesterday made the twentieth day that I had been tossing about upon the sea.  The winds and waves have taken me all the way from the Ogygian island, {55} and now fate has flung me upon this coast that I may endure still further suffering; for I do not think that I have yet come to the end of it, but rather that heaven has still much evil in store for me.

“And now, O queen, have pity upon me, for you are the first person I have met, and I know no one else in this country.  Show me the way to your town, and let me have anything that you may have brought hither to wrap your clothes in.  May heaven grant you in all things your heart’s desire—­husband, house, and a happy, peaceful home; for there is nothing better in this world than that man and wife should be of one mind in a house.  It discomfits their enemies, makes the hearts of their friends glad, and they themselves know more about it than any one.”

To this Nausicaa answered, “Stranger, you appear to be a sensible, well-disposed person.  There is no accounting for luck; Jove gives prosperity to rich and poor just as he chooses, so you must take what he has seen fit to send you, and make the best of it.  Now, however, that you have come to this our country, you shall not want for clothes nor for anything else that a foreigner in distress may reasonably look for.  I will show you the way to the town, and will tell you the name of our people; we are called Phaeacians, and I am daughter to Alcinous, in whom the whole power of the state is vested.”