Nausicaa drives home, and after a while Odysseus sets out for the city. Athena wraps him in a thick mist so that no rude Phaeacian will mock or question him, and she meets him in the form of a young girl carrying a water jar. Pretending not to know the way, he asks her to lead him to the palace of Alcinous, and she obliges, warning him that the Phaeacians are not fond of strangers, since they are a seafaring people whose ships are swift as a bird or a thought. She also tells him about Queen Arete, whom Alcinous honors above all women. Arete is wise and respected by the people, and she even settles quarrels among men. If Odysseus wins her favor, he can hope to see his home again. Then Athena departs for Athens.
Odysseus pauses outside the palace, amazed. Its walls are bronze, with a frieze of blue enamel; its doors are gold, with silver posts and lintel; and on either side stand immortal gold and silver dogs made by Hephaestus to guard the house. Inside, golden statues of youths hold torches to light the feasts, and fifty serving women grind grain and weave fine cloth, for Phaeacian women are as skilled at the loom as their men are at sailing. Beyond the courtyard lies a wondrous orchard where pears, pomegranates, apples, figs, olives, and grapes ripen all year round, never failing in winter or summer, because the west wind keeps them always growing. Two springs water the gardens and the town.
Still hidden in mist, Odysseus walks through the hall, where the Phaeacian lords are pouring their last offerings to Hermes before bed. He throws his arms around Arete's knees, and at that moment the mist clears. Everyone falls silent in astonishment. He begs the queen for help in returning home, then sits down in the ashes of the hearth, the traditional place of a suppliant. For a while no one moves, until the eldest of the lords, Echeneus, reminds Alcinous that it is shameful to leave a stranger sitting in the ashes. The king takes Odysseus by the hand, seats him in a polished chair in place of his own son Laodamas, and has food and wine brought, with a libation to Zeus, protector of suppliants.
Alcinous announces that the next day they will hold a feast for the stranger and plan his voyage home. He also wonders aloud whether the newcomer might be a god in disguise, as the gods sometimes visit the Phaeacians openly. Odysseus assures him that he is merely a suffering mortal, and that nothing is as shameless as a hungry belly, which forces a man to eat even in grief. After the guests leave, Arete notices that he is wearing clothes she and her women made, and she asks who he is and where he got them. Odysseus avoids giving his name, but he tells her about his time on Calypso's island, the destruction of his raft by Poseidon's storm, his long swim, and his meeting with Nausicaa at the river.
Alcinous criticizes his daughter for not bringing the stranger home herself, but Odysseus protects her by saying it was his own idea to come separately, out of caution. Pleased with this courtesy, the king says he would gladly give Nausicaa to such a man as a wife and give him a house and property if he chose to stay. But he will not keep anyone against his will, and he promises that Phaeacian sailors will carry Odysseus home the next day, however far away it is — even beyond Euboea, the most distant place they know. Odysseus prays that Alcinous will earn undying fame for this kindness. Then the servants make up a bed for him in the portico, and at last he sleeps in comfort.
