Nausicaa and the Phaeacians — Odysseus meets the princess

Book 6 of The Odyssey by Homer

While Odysseus slept beneath the twin olive trees, exhausted and battered by the sea, Athena sped to the city of the Phaeacians. This people had once lived near the savage Cyclopes, who raided them constantly, but their great king Nausithous had led them far away to the island of Scheria, where they dwelt in peace beyond the reach of envious men. Now their king was Alcinous, a man of wisdom favored by the gods, and his queen was Arete, whom the people honored like a goddess.

Athena went to the richly decorated chamber where the king's daughter Nausicaa lay sleeping, a girl as lovely as an immortal in form and grace. Two handmaids of surpassing beauty slept on either side of the door, which was shut fast. The goddess slipped through like a breath of air and stood at the girl's pillow, taking the form of her friend, the daughter of Dymas. She whispered that Nausicaa was shamefully idle, for her fine linen lay unwashed, and her wedding day might not be far off. She urged the princess to rise at dawn and ask her father for a wagon to carry the clothes to the washing pools by the river.

When morning came, Nausicaa woke remembering the dream and went straight to her parents. She found her mother sitting by the hearth with her handmaids, spinning sea-purple yarn, and her father just going out to a council of the Phaeacian lords. She asked him shyly for the wagon, saying only that she wished to wash the household linen, and he, understanding more than she said, ordered the mules harnessed at once. Her mother packed a hamper of food and a goatskin of wine and a golden flask of oil for anointing after the bath. Nausicaa climbed up, took the whip and the reins, and drove out toward the river with her handmaids walking alongside.