“Here, good old stranger, is the house you bade me show.  You will see heaven-descended kings sitting at table here.  But enter, and have no misgivings in your heart; for the courageous man in all affairs better attains his end, come he from where he may.  First you shall find the Queen within the hall.  Arete is her name....  Alcinoues took Arete for his wife, and he has honored her as no one else on earth is honored among the women who to-day keep houses for their husbands.  Thus has she had a heartfelt honor, and she has it still, from her own children, from Alcinoues himself, and from the people also, who gaze on her as on a god and greet her with welcomes when she walks about the town.  For of sound judgment, woman as she is, she has no lack; and those whom she regards, though men, find troubles clear away.  If she regards you kindly in her heart, then there is hope that you may see your friends and reach your high-roofed house and native land.”

Saying this, clear-eyed Athene passed away, over the barren sea.  She turned from pleasant Scheria, and came to Marathon and wide-wayed Athens and entered there the strong house of Erechtheus.  Meanwhile Odysseus neared the lordly palace of Alcinoues, and his heart was deeply stirred so that he paused before he crossed the brazen threshold; for a sheen as of the sun or moon played through the high-roofed house of generous Alcinoues.  On either hand ran walls of bronze from threshold to recess, and round about the ceiling was a cornice of dark metal.  Doors made of gold closed in the solid building.  The door-posts were of silver and stood on a bronze threshold, silver the lintel overhead, and gold the handle.  On the two sides were gold and silver dogs; these had Hephaestus wrought with subtle craft to guard the house of generous Alcinoues, creatures immortal, young forever.  Within were seats planted against the wall on this side and on that, from threshold to recess, in long array; and over these were strewn light fine-spun robes, the work of women.  Here the Phaeacian leaders used to sit, drinking and eating, holding constant cheer.  And golden youths on massive pedestals stood and held flaming torches in their hands to light by night the palace for the feasters.

In the King’s house are fifty serving maids, some grinding at the mill the yellow corn, some plying looms or twisting yarn, who as they sit are like the leaves of a tall poplar; and from the close-spun linen drops the liquid oil.  And as Phaeacian men are skilled beyond all others in speeding a swift ship along the sea, so are their women practiced at the loom; for Athene has given them in large measure skill in fair works and noble minds.