obtained them, delights in her daughter's charity and prudence. Then
she and her husband promise the wanderer their protection before
retiring to rest.

_Book VIII._ At daybreak the king conducts his guest to the public
square, where Minerva has summoned all the inhabitants. To this
assembly Alcinous makes known that a nameless stranger bespeaks their
aid, and proposes that after a banquet, where blind Demodocus will
entertain them with his songs, they load the suppliant with gifts and
send him home.

The projected festive meal is well under way when the bard begins
singing of a quarrel between Ulysses and Achilles, strains which so
vividly recall happier days that Ulysses, drawing his cloak over his
head, gives way to tears. Noting this emotion, Alcinous checks the
bard and proposes games. After displaying their skill in racing,
wrestling, discus-throwing, etc., the contestants mockingly challenge
Ulysses to give an exhibition of his proficiency in games of strength
and skill. Stung by their covert taunts, the stranger casts the discus
far beyond their best mark, and avers that although out of practice he
is not afraid to match them in feats of strength, admitting, however,
that he cannot compete with them in fleetness of foot or in the dance.
His prowess in one line and frank confession of inferiority in another
disarm further criticism, and the young men dance until the bard
begins singing of Vulcan's stratagem to punish a faithless spouse.[4]

All the Phaeacians now present gifts to the stranger, who finds
himself rich indeed, but who assures Nausicaa he will never forget she
was the first to lend him aid. Toward the close of the festivities the
blind bard sings of the wooden horse devised by Ulysses and abandoned