he was the lord of all Phaeacians, and people listened to his voice as
if he were a god. She was the nurse of white-armed Nausicaä at the
palace, and she it was who kindled her the fire and in her room prepared
her supper.

And now Odysseus rose to go to the city; but Athene kindly drew thick
clouds around Odysseus, for fear some bold Phaeacian meeting him might
trouble him with talk and ask him who he was. And just as he was
entering the pleasant town, the goddess, clear-eyed Athene, came to meet
him, disguised as a young girl who bore a water-jar. She paused as she
drew near, and royal Odysseus asked:--

"My child, could you not guide me to the house of one Alcinoüs, who is
ruler of this people? For I am a toil-worn stranger come from far, out
of a distant land. Therefore I know not one among the men who own this
city and this land."

Then said to him the goddess, clear-eyed Athene: "Yes, good old
stranger, I will show the house for which you ask, for it stands near my
gentle father's. But follow in silence: I will lead the way. Cast not a
glance at any man and ask no questions, for our people do not well
endure a stranger, nor courteously receive a man who comes from
elsewhere. Yet they themselves trust in swift ships and traverse the
great deep, for the Earth-shaker permits them. Swift are their ships as
wing or thought."

Saying this, Pallas Athene led the way in haste, and he walked after in
the footsteps of the goddess. So the Phaeacians, famed for shipping, did
not observe him walking through the town among them, because Athene, the
fair-haired powerful goddess, did not allow it, but in the kindness of