Book 7 · Book Guide
Odysseus makes his way from the grove into the Phaeacian city, hidden by a magic mist Athena pours around him so no one can see or question him. Disguised as a young girl, the goddess guides him to the palace of King Alcinous and Queen Arete, and tells him that the surest way home is to win the queen’s favor.
Inside the dazzling bronze-and-gold palace, Odysseus clasps Arete’s knees and begs for passage home. The Phaeacians welcome him, feed him, and promise to send him on his way. When the queen recognizes the clothes he wears as her own daughter’s, Odysseus tells how he came from Calypso’s island, was shipwrecked, and was helped by Nausicaa, though he still does not reveal his name. Impressed, Alcinous even offers him his daughter’s hand, but in any case swears to give him a ship home.
Both Nausicaa and Athena give Odysseus the same odd advice: walk past the king and put your case to the queen. Arete is honored, the poem says, as no other woman on earth — Alcinous holds the throne, but the house runs through her, and she even settles disputes among men. If she likes you, you’re saved. So Odysseus crosses the hall straight to her and wraps his arms around her knees — the formal gesture of a man begging protection, which put him under the gods’ shield. Then he does something shrewder still: he sits down in the ashes of the hearth, the humblest seat in the house, and waits.
Alcinous’s orchard bears fruit all year long: pear ripening on pear, grape on grape, the harvest never ending. Homer’s audience were farmers who knew exactly what seasons allow, and this was the signal that Phaeacia isn’t quite the mortal world. It’s paradise imagery — the same language later ages would use for Eden — marking the last enchanted country before real, stony Ithaca.
Notice the order of events: Odysseus is bathed, seated, fed, and toasted, and only then does anyone ask who he is. That’s hospitality done by the book — grill a stranger while he’s hungry and you shame your own house. Alcinous even wonders aloud whether the visitor might be a god. Odysseus’s answer is dry: gods don’t eat like this. Give me dinner, I’m as mortal as they come. The custom of not pressing a guest’s name lets him stay anonymous for two more books — and gives the poem one of its best reveals.
As Nausicaa reaches home, Odysseus rises to enter the town. Athena wraps him in a thick mist so none of the proud, unwelcoming Phaeacians will see him on the road. Then she meets him herself, disguised as a girl with a water jug, and offers to lead him to the king’s house.
The disguised goddess leads him through the city, telling him to keep silent and look at no one. She explains that the way to win passage home is to appeal to Queen Arete, whom the king and people honor above all women, and tells the story of the royal family’s descent from Poseidon. Then she departs.
Odysseus stops to wonder at the palace: walls of bronze, golden doors, gold and silver watchdogs made by Hephaestus, torch-bearing golden statues, and busy weaving women. Outside lies an orchard where fruit ripens all year round and two springs water the garden. At last he crosses the threshold.
Still wrapped in mist, Odysseus walks through the hall to where the king and queen sit, and throws his arms around Arete’s knees. The mist falls away, revealing him to the astonished company. He begs for help to reach home, then sits down humbly in the ashes by the hearth.
The hall is silent until old Echeneus reminds Alcinous that it is wrong to leave a suppliant in the ashes. The king raises Odysseus, seats him in a place of honor, and has him fed. Then he calls for a wine offering to Zeus, protector of suppliants.
Alcinous tells his people they will discuss sending the stranger home in the morning, and wonders aloud whether the guest might be a disguised god. Odysseus assures him he is only a mortal, and a deeply unlucky one, and asks only to eat and then be sent home to see his own land again.
When the other guests have gone, Arete, who has recognized the clothes as ones she made herself, asks the stranger plainly who he is and where he got them.
Odysseus answers, still without naming himself. He tells how he was shipwrecked and washed up on Calypso’s island, where she kept him seven years and offered him immortality; how she finally released him on a raft; how Poseidon wrecked it; and how he swam ashore and was found and helped by Nausicaa, who fed, washed, and clothed him.
Alcinous mildly faults his daughter for not bringing the stranger home herself, but Odysseus defends her, saying he hung back out of respect. Pleased, the king says he would gladly have such a man marry Nausicaa and stay, but will not hold him against his will. He swears to send him home the next day in one of the Phaeacians’ famously swift ships, however far away his home may be.
Odysseus rejoices and prays that Alcinous keep his word. Arete has a comfortable bed made up under the porch, and the weary hero lies down to sleep, while the king and queen retire to their inner room.
A guide to our plain-English translation of Book 7. Read the full book →
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