was in those days when any would make a petition to the throne.

He seemed a petitioner of so great state and of so superior a deportment
that Alcinous himself arose to do him honour, and causing him to leave
that abject station which he had assumed, placed him next to his throne,
upon a chair of state, and thus he spake to his peers:

"Lords and councillors of Phaeacia, ye see this man, who he is we know
not, that is come to us in the guise of a petitioner: he seems no mean
one; but whoever he is, it is fit, since the gods have cast him upon our
protection, that we grant him the rites of hospitality while he stays with
us, and at his departure a ship well manned to convey so worthy a
personage as he seems to be, in a manner suitable to his rank, to his own
country."

This counsel the peers with one consent approved; and wine and meat being
set before Ulysses, he ate and drank, and gave the gods thanks who had
stirred up the royal bounty of Alcinous to aid him in that extremity. But
not as yet did he reveal to the king and queen who he was, or whence he
had come; only in brief terms he related his being cast upon their shores,
his sleep in the woods, and his meeting with the princess Nausicaa, whose
generosity, mingled with discretion, filled her parents with delight, as
Ulysses in eloquent phrases adorned and commended her virtues. But
Alcinous, humanely considering that the troubles which his guest had
undergone required rest, as well as refreshment by food, dismissed him
early in the evening to his chamber; where in a magnificent apartment
Ulysses found a smoother bed, but not a sounder repose, than he had
enjoyed the night before, sleeping upon leaves which he had scraped
together in his necessity.