DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4593#0049
THE IONIAN ISLES 33
years on the fabled isle of Calypso. Through the
intervention of the gods, she had granted him release
and furnished him with timber and tools; he had made
a raft, or boat, and launched forth on the deep for
Ithaca. But the ocean god was not going to let him
off so easily. In a tremendous storm the raft went to
pieces, and if a submarine goddess had not given
him a life-preserver he would have perished. He
nears the shores of a strange isle. He is in danger
of being dashed to pieces on its rocky cliffs; the skin
is torn from his hands. At last he finds the mouth of
a river, swims up, lands on the bank, heaps together
a pile of leaves as a protection against rheumatism,
and, half dead from exhaustion, sinks into a profound
slumber.
Now, how is Homer to get him out of this naked
pauperism and introduce him once more into organ-
ized and reputable society? Of course he had the
whole pantheon of gods at his disposal and could
use the deus ex machina whenever he wished. Noth-
ing could have been easier than to ask Athene to
come down, wake up the hero and give him a new
suit of clothes. She does supply him from her
wardrobe on one occasion. But as a general thing
Homer does not care to drag in the gods by the
ears. He is more fond of using them to give impulse
and direction to human action. What, then, is the
ingenious device he uses to wake up and clothe his
hero? The laughing music, the playful scream of a
girl's voice.
Nausicaa, a beautiful Diana-like princess, upon
whose charms Homer loves to dilate, is sleeping in
her chamber in the palace of King Alcinoiis, her
3
years on the fabled isle of Calypso. Through the
intervention of the gods, she had granted him release
and furnished him with timber and tools; he had made
a raft, or boat, and launched forth on the deep for
Ithaca. But the ocean god was not going to let him
off so easily. In a tremendous storm the raft went to
pieces, and if a submarine goddess had not given
him a life-preserver he would have perished. He
nears the shores of a strange isle. He is in danger
of being dashed to pieces on its rocky cliffs; the skin
is torn from his hands. At last he finds the mouth of
a river, swims up, lands on the bank, heaps together
a pile of leaves as a protection against rheumatism,
and, half dead from exhaustion, sinks into a profound
slumber.
Now, how is Homer to get him out of this naked
pauperism and introduce him once more into organ-
ized and reputable society? Of course he had the
whole pantheon of gods at his disposal and could
use the deus ex machina whenever he wished. Noth-
ing could have been easier than to ask Athene to
come down, wake up the hero and give him a new
suit of clothes. She does supply him from her
wardrobe on one occasion. But as a general thing
Homer does not care to drag in the gods by the
ears. He is more fond of using them to give impulse
and direction to human action. What, then, is the
ingenious device he uses to wake up and clothe his
hero? The laughing music, the playful scream of a
girl's voice.
Nausicaa, a beautiful Diana-like princess, upon
whose charms Homer loves to dilate, is sleeping in
her chamber in the palace of King Alcinoiis, her
3