"Therefore, sir, do you on your
part affect no more concealment nor reserve in the matter about which
I shall ask you; it will be more polite in you to give me a plain
answer; tell me the name by which your father and mother over yonder
used to call you, and by which you were known among your neighbors
and fellow-citizens. There is no one, neither rich nor poor, who is
absolutely without any name whatever, for people's fathers and
mothers give them names as soon as they are born. Tell me also your
country, nation dêmos, and city, that our ships may
shape their purpose accordingly and take you there. For the
Phaeacians have no pilots; their vessels have no rudders as those of
other nations have, but the ships themselves understand what it is
that we are thinking about and want; they know all the cities and
countries in the whole world, and can traverse the sea just as well
even when it is covered with mist and cloud, so that there is no
danger of being wrecked or coming to any harm. Still I do remember
hearing my father say that Poseidon was angry with us for being too
easy-going in the matter of giving people escorts. He said that one
of these days he should wreck a ship of ours as it was returning from
having escorted some one, and envelop our city with a high mountain.
This is what the old man used to say, but whether the god will carry
out his threat or no is a matter which he will decide for
himself.
And now, tell me and tell me
true. Where have you been wandering, and in what countries have you
traveled? Tell us of the peoples themselves, and of their cities -
who were hostile, savage and uncivilized [not
dikaios], and who, on the other hand, hospitable and
endowed with a god-fearing noos. Tell us also why you are made
unhappy on hearing about the return of the Argive Danaans from Troy.
The gods arranged all this, and sent them their misfortunes in order
that future generations might have something to sing about. Did you
lose some brave kinsman of your wife's when you were before
Troy? A son-in-law or father-in-law - which are the nearest relations
a man has outside his own flesh and blood? Or was it some brave and
kindly-natured comrade - for a good friend is as dear to a man as his
own brother?"
