***
When I first saw him, he was stark naked and a bit startled. Covered in dirt, with just a leafy branch to hide his bare flesh. Like a wild, scary animal he looked but there was something in his eyes that kept me from backing off. Inexplicable sadness, dwelling deep within his gaze, a silent plea of someone looking for a home.
So I stayed, unlike my maids who ran screaming for the nearest bushes. I waited for his words. He did not approach me but addressed me from afar, thinking his nakedness might frighten me. And he spoke like a nobleman, like a poet. Glued to my spot I blurted out an answer and heard myself accepting his plea.
My maids gave him clothes. Where was their fear now? All I could here was excited giggles. He bathed in the sea and covered his body. I looked at him as he came back. “Before he seemed to me uncouth, but now he is like the gods, who hold broad heaven.” I knew he would mean no harm to any of us.
That’s how I bought an unknown man to my father’s palace. A man with no name and nowhere to rest his head at night. There he was, breathtakingly handsome in his new robes, eating from the king’s table, drinking his wine.
He started to speak. He told a story of the war, a journey, sorrows, solitude wit and longing. He told a story of this world and that of beyond. The story of life and death. Before our eyes my unkempt stranger turned into a warrior king. The long lost ruler of Ithaca, son of Laertes, the crafty hero of Troy.
My father promised that he would send him home, back to his wife.
“Farewell, stranger, and hereafter even in thy own native land mayest thou remember me, for to me first thou owest the price of thy life.”- I told him at the door-post.
” So may Zeus grant, the loud-thundering lord of Here, that I may reach my home and see the day of my returning. Then will I even there pray to thee as to a god all my days, for thou, maiden, hast given me life.”-he answered.
Given him life. Indeed I have. I clothed him when his body was bare and fed him when he was hungry. I was the last ray of light in his darkness.
And I flickered and I shone and showed him the way to his fulfillment. In return, I received gratitude. And a story to marvel at. A story where I could play my part, a fleeting appearance in someone else’s life.
‘Farewell stranger… to me first thou owest the price of thy life.” -was all I could say before completing my part. I bowed, quit the stage and retreated to my bedchamber. My maids were flocked around me as I took a mirror and studied my reflection in silence. Fair as Artemis, he had said. I smiled a smile of someone who knew a big secret.The reflection smiled back. There was a faint twinkle of sadness in our eyes.
“My name is Nausicaa “and I am the daughter of great-hearted Alcinous, upon whom depend the might and power of the Phaeacians.” -I recited, with no words leaving my mouth, my eyes fixed on those of the maiden in the mirror.
“My name is Nausicaa and one time I saved a stranger’s life.
My name is Nausicaa, Burner of Ships and I gave him a ship to sail home.
My name is Nausicaa and he parted from me, blessing me, instead of loving me.”
***
When I finally gathered all my courage to start this blog, fair haired Nausicaa popped up in my head. I have kept this draft here for too long, so why not. Let it see the light.
The Palace of King Alcinous 