Stranger — since you do not seem to me a base man or a senseless one — Olympian Zeus himself distributes happiness to men, to the good and the bad, to each as he wishes. He has given you these things somehow, and you must bear them. But now, since you have come to our city and land, you will not lack clothes or anything else fitting for a hard-pressed suppliant. The Phaeacians hold this city and land. I myself am the daughter of great-hearted Alcinous. On him the Phaeacians’ force and power depend.”
Stand still. Where are you fleeing at the sight of a man? Do you think he is an enemy? There is no mortal living, or who will ever be born, who will come as an enemy to the Phaeacians’ land. We are very dear to the deathless ones. This is some wretched wanderer who has come here. We must take care of him. Strangers and beggars are all from Zeus. A gift, though small, is welcome. Come — give the stranger food and drink, and bathe him in the river where there is shelter from the wind.”
They stood and called to each other and brought Odysseus to shelter as Nausicaa ordered. They set clothes beside him — a cloak and a tunic — and gave him soft olive oil in the golden flask and told him to bathe in the streams. Then Odysseus said: “Stand off a little that way, girls, while I myself wash the brine from my shoulders and anoint myself with oil. It is a long time since oil came near my skin. I will not bathe in front of you. I am ashamed to stand naked among fair-haired girls.”
They went off a little and told the girl. Odysseus washed the brine from his back and broad shoulders and wiped from his head the scurf of the barren salt sea. When he had bathed all over and anointed himself and put on the clothes the unwed girl had given him, Athena made him taller to look upon and sturdier, and from his head she made his locks flow in curls like the hyacinth flower. He sat on the shore shining with beauty and grace. The girl gazed in wonder.
Then she spoke to her handmaids: “Listen, so I may say something. It is not without the will of all the gods who hold Olympus that this man has come among the godlike Phaeacians. Before he seemed to me base, but now he is like the gods who hold wide heaven. If only such a one might be called my husband and live here — and it might please him to stay. But come, girls — give the stranger food and drink.” They set food and drink beside him. Enduring shining Odysseus drank and ate eagerly. He had not tasted food for a long time.