He marked the harbors, the ships, the assembly ground, and the high walls with their timber crown. At the palace she stopped. “This is the house. Go straight in. A bold man gets what he needs even as a stranger. Find the queen first — Arete.”
Arete and Alcinous shared one bloodline from Poseidon through Nausithous. Rhexenor died young without a son and left Arete; Alcinous married her and honored her above every wife who keeps a house. The people greeted her like a goddess when she walked the city.
“She is wise and kind,” Athena said. “When women are her friends she helps their husbands settle quarrels too. Win her goodwill and you may hope to see your own people and reach home alive.” Then the goddess left Scheria for Athens and the house of Erechtheus.
She told him of Arete’s line: Poseidon fathered Nausithous by Periboea; Nausithous had Rhexenor and Alcinous; Apollo killed Rhexenor still a bridegroom without a son; Arete was his daughter, and Alcinous married her and honored her above every wife who keeps a house.
“The people greet her like a goddess when she walks the city,” Athena said. “She is wise and kind. When women are her friends she helps their husbands settle quarrels too. Win her goodwill and you may hope to see your friends again.”
Odysseus paused at the bronze threshold. The palace shone like sun or moon: bronze walls, a blue enamel cornice, gold doors on silver posts, silver lintel, golden latch. Immortal dogs of gold and silver — Hephaestus’s work — stood watch and never aged.
Chairs lined the hall with fine coverings the women had woven. Golden youths held torches for the night feast. Fifty maids ground grain, wove, or spun; Athena had taught them craft as she taught the men the sea. Their cloth was tight enough to turn oil.