After Odysseus comes out stark naked from the bushes, the one girl that helps him, is the same girl that stays with him for the rest of the book. This Princess is different from all the other girls because she did not run away from him. According to Homer, this is because Athena "planted courage within her heart" (line 152-153). The clear-eyed Pallas, who has been trying to help Odysseus the entire time and even convinced Zeus to move him off Calypsos island, may have been trying to help him again. If she had fled with the rest of the girls, Odysseus would have been stuck, a helpless, naked man. Even Nausicaa admits that after he washed up, she wished that he could be her husband (line 268-270). Perhaps the view of the other Phaeacians is more accurate, that the princess is always looking for a foreign man to call her husband (page 177). Perhaps when Odysseus comes out of the olive thicket, this man is a dream come true for the daughter of Alcinonus.
Good, Tommy. Anothing thing to consider would be why Athena came to Nausicaa in a dream as a friend, rather than as a goddess. Great job!
ReplyDelete