_Like any deathless goddess fair and bright, Nausicaa.... ... “Nausicaa,” said she, “why Thus idly does your mother’s daughter lie, The garments wrought with bright embroideries Unheeded? yet your wedding-day draws nigh;_ _When clad in goodly raiment you must go, And on your marriage train the like bestow._ · · · · · _Not long shall yet your maidenhood be worn. Even now, amid the land where you were born, Phaeacia’s princes woo you. Up, and bid My lord your father yoke at break of morn_ _A mule-team and a cart whereon to lay Girdles and gowns and broidered blankets gay.”_[12] We who are watching behind the scenes know quite well who is this celestial visitor; and that the whispered words which have set Nausicaa’s cheeks tingling are a mere ruse of Athena to bring help to the luckless Odysseus. But Nausicaa has no hint of this; and waking with the morning sun streaming upon her, she smiles in wonder and hope. Then she dresses quickly and goes down to find her parents, musing upon the words of the goddess. The queen is sitting in the great hall, amid her handmaidens, winding the ‘dim sea-purple’; and the king, coming out to join the princes in council, meets Nausicaa on the threshold. Is there anywhere a more charming scene than this? _“Papa dear, will you let me have to-day A high wheeled waggon yoked, to take away The goodly clothes and wash them in the stream? For in the house all lying soiled are they._ _“Now for yourself it is no more than fit That, when the councillors at council sit, In clean array among your lords you go: Also your house has five sons born in it,_ _“Two of them wedded now, but three are yet Young bachelors, who evermore must get New-washed attire when to the dance they go; And now on all this charge my mind is set.”_ _So spake she, for her mouth for maiden shame To her own father marriage might not name. Howbeit he understood and answered her: “Go, child: I grudge not any wish you frame,_ _“Mules or aught else: this thing my thralls shall do, And yoke the high wheeled tilted wain for you.”_[12]