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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1898 edition. Excerpt: ... of Phaeacia. There of a truth would the luckless Odysseus have perished, beyond that which was ordained, had not grey-eyed Athene given him sure counsel. 1 Od. xiii. 2S5. Od. xiii. 290. It was she who put it into the mind of the sleeping maiden Nausicaa, daughter of Alkinoos, king of Phaeacia, to go with her maidens to wash her clothes at the very spot where Odysseus was crouching among the dry leaves in the adjacent wood. Having finished their work, the maidens begin to play at ball. Nausicaa misses her aim, and the ball rolls into the river. The cry they raise at the loss rouses Odysseus from his lair. All flee in terror but Nausicaa. She, by the influence of Athene, is moved with pity for his sad condition, and provides him with food and raiment. Athene then sheds grace about his head and shoulders, and wins for him the admiration and the favour of the lovely princess. Athene by these means secures him a favourable reception at the court of Alkinoos and Queen Arete, who provide him with a swift ship to bear him to his home, laden with costly presents.1 Nor does she leave him now that he is once more in the halls of his fathers, for the struggle with the insolent suitors--a contest hopeless without her aid--has yet to be waged. As Odysseus cannot yet safely show himself in his palace in his true shape, Athene, like a good fairy, changes his form and dress according to the exigencies of the case. Sometimes she arrays him in all the splendour of youth and beauty and costly apparel; at others in the guise of a loathsome beggar. Come now, she says, thy 1 Od. xxii. 20. 'Od. xiii. 399. Od. xxiv. 496. 'Od. xxii. 223. She metamorphoses Laertes fair skin will I wither, and make waste thy yellow hair, and wrap thee in a...

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