The Wine Red Sea: Journeys of Odysseus

Nausicaa, Book VI

Nausicaa, in order to avoid gossip, advises Odysseus to travel alone to her father's estate. There, he should wait for some time in order to allow the girls to arrive at the palace. Then when sufficient time passed, Odysseus should make his way to the palace and approach the queen, her mother and “grasp my mother's knees - if you want/to see the day of your return, rejoicing soon,/even if your home is a world away” (VI, 340-342). Nausicaa's advice is excellent and also more trenchant than she believes, for Odysseus' house is literally a world away - the Phaeacians homeland is a sort of middle ground straddling the land of the gods and the land of men.