There I lay amongst the
leaves all the night long and from dawn to mid-day. Then came thy
daughter down to the river. I was aware of her playing with her friends,
and to her I made my supplication. She gave me bread and wine, and she
bestowed these garments upon me, and she showed an understanding that
was far beyond her years.'

Then said Alcinous the King, 'Our daughter did not do well when she did
not bring thee straight to our house.'

Odysseus said, 'My Lord, do not blame the maiden. She bade me follow
with her company, and she was only careful that no one should have cause
to make ill-judged remarks upon the stranger whom she found.'

Then Alcinous, the King, praised Odysseus and said that he should like
such a man to abide in his house and that he would give him land and
wealth, in the country of the Phaeacians. 'But if it is not thy will to
abide with us,' he said, 'I shall give thee a ship and a company of men
to take thee to thy own land, even if that land be as far as Eubaea,
which, our men say, is the farthest of all lands.' As he said this
Odysseus uttered a prayer in his heart, 'O Father Zeus, grant that
Alcinous the King may fulfil all that he has promised--and for that may
his fame never be quenched--and that I may come to my own land.'

Arete now bade the maids prepare a bed for Odysseus. This they did,
casting warm coverlets and purple blankets upon it. And when Odysseus
came to the bed and lay in it, after the tossing of the waves, rest in
it seemed wonderfully good.

At dawn of day he went with the King to the assembly of the Phaeacians.
When the Princes and Captains and Councillors were gathered together,
Alcinous spoke to them saying:

'Princes and Captains and Councillors of the Phaeacians! This stranger
has come to my house in his wanderings, and he desires us to give him a
ship and a company of men, so that he may cross the sea and come to his
own land. Let us, as in times past we have done for others, help him in
his journey. Nay, let us even now draw down a black ship to the sea, and
put two and fifty of our noblest youths upon it, and let us make it
ready for the voyage. But before he departs from amongst us, come all of
you to a feast that I shall give to this stranger in my house. And
moreover, let us take with us the minstrel of our land, blind Demodocus,
that his songs may make us glad at the feast.'

So the King spoke, and the Princes, Captains and Councillors of the
Phaeacians w