Nausicaa in the ancient sources

Homer (7)

1. Homer, Odyssey 6.1–84Athena sends a dream to NausicaaWhile Odysseus lies asleep, Athena goes to the house of Alcinous in Scheria and comes in a dream to his daughter Nausicaa, in the likeness of one of her friends. She tells the princess that her wedding day is near and that she should take the family's clothes to the river to wash. Nausicaa wakes and asks her father for a mule-wagon, her mother packs food and wine and oil, and the girl drives off with her maids.
2. Homer, Odyssey 6.85–144Nausicaa's washing and ball game; Odysseus wakesNausicaa and her maids reach the river, wash the clothes and spread them on the shore to dry, and then bathe and play ball. A ball thrown by Nausicaa goes astray into a pool, and the girls' cries wake Odysseus. He comes out of the thicket, covered in brine and holding a leafy branch before him, and the maids run off in fear, but Nausicaa stands her ground.
3. Homer, Odyssey 6.145–250Odysseus meets NausicaaOdysseus speaks to Nausicaa from a distance, praising her beauty and comparing her to Artemis and to a young palm tree he once saw at Delos, and begs for a rag to wear and the way to the town. She answers kindly, bids her maids give him food and oil, and after he has bathed Athena makes him look taller and stronger. Nausicaa tells her maids that she would be glad to have such a man for a husband, and he eats ravenously.
4. Homer, Odyssey 6.251–331The way to the cityNausicaa tells Odysseus to follow her wagon at a distance, to avoid the gossip of the townsfolk, and gives him directions to her father's palace, telling him to go past her father and clasp her mother's knees. Odysseus prays to Athena in a grove outside the city, and the goddess hears him, though she does not yet appear to him, for fear of Poseidon.
5. Homer, Odyssey 8.454–586Demodocus sings of the wooden horseNausicaa meets Odysseus as he comes from the bath and says that she hopes he will remember her in his own country, for to her he owes his life. At the meal he gives Demodocus a piece of meat from his own portion and asks him to sing of the wooden horse. The bard sings of the sack of Troy, and Odysseus weeps again, and Alcinous asks him to say who he is and why he grieves.
6. Homer, Odyssey 7.1–77Athena guides Odysseus to the palaceNausicaa reaches home, and Odysseus walks to the city, where Athena in the shape of a young girl with a pitcher meets him and offers to show him Alcinous' house. She covers him with a mist so that no Phaeacian sees him, tells him of the line of Alcinous, and tells him to approach the queen Arete first.
7. Homer, Odyssey 7.240–347Odysseus tells of CalypsoOdysseus tells how he stayed seven years with Calypso on Ogygia, built a raft and was wrecked, and how Nausicaa found him and helped him. Alcinous says his daughter erred in not bringing him to the house herself, and Odysseus excuses her. Alcinous wishes that such a man might be his son-in-law, promises a ship on the morrow, and they go to rest.