Nausicaa's maidens.

That drama of Nausicaa is lost; and if I dare say so of any play
of Sophocles', I scarce regret it. It is well, perhaps, that we
have no second conception of the scene, to interfere with the
simplicity, so grand, and yet so tender, of Homer's idyllic
episode.

Nausicaa, it must be remembered, is the daughter of a king. But
not of a king in the exclusive modern European or old Eastern
sense. Her father, Alcinous, is simply primus inter pares among a
community of merchants, who are called "kings" likewise; and Mayor
for life--so to speak--of a new trading city, a nascent Genoa or
Venice, on the shore of the Mediterranean. But the girl Nausicaa,
as she sleeps in her "carved chamber," is "like the immortals in
form and face;" and two handmaidens who sleep on each side of the
polished door "have beauty from the Graces."

To her there enters, in the shape of some maiden friend, none less
than Pallas Athene herself, intent on saving worthily her
favourite, the shipwrecked Ulysses; and bids her in a dream go
forth--and wash the clothes. {6}


Nausicaa, wherefore doth thy mother bear
Child so forgetful? This long time doth rest,
Like lumber in the house, much raiment fair.
Soon must thou wed, and be thyself well-drest,
And find thy bridegroom raiment of the best.
These are the things whence good repute is born,