Odyssey Study Guide Contents
The 6th book of the Odyssey begins and ends at night.Nausicaa's mother is engaged in the activity most mature females engage in in the Odyssey, weaving. Nausicaa wants to wash clothes, presumably another female activity. There is apparently an awful lot of clothing that no one has been taking care of. A slow wagon takes the clothing, provisions, and Nausicaa, while the attendants walk behind. Clothes washing involves the fast action of a bubbling pool and stomping of feet like a grape pressing. Washers get soaked. Wet clothes are laid out on the stony shore, not on branches or lines. Diversions must be brought along to pass the time while the clothing dries. Here they are food, wine, oil for after the bath, and balls for tossing.
Odysseus appears to be modest enough to cover his genitals and to wish the young women would look away while he washes, but this may only serve to heighten the transformation. Before he was salty, with hair plastered down. When he emerges from the water he looks gorgeous. Although Nausicaa is young, she finds Odysseus to be just the type of husband she envisioned.
