Meeting Phaeacian princess Nausicaa- the ritual washing before courtship, and alliance

Meeting Phaeacian princess Nausicaa- the ritual washing before courtship, and alliance

Book 6 of the Odyssey - Meeting Phaeacian princess Nausicaa

Odysseus awakes in a forest and hears women playing ball while washing their clothes. He finds that he is also naked and un-garbed and exposed he entreats the women to help him out without revealing his political identity as he is exposed as it is. Princess Nausicaa and her hand maidens comprised the playing nubile women. The previous night the princess had a dream in which Athena or the princesses wisdom based on the influences of divine providence reminded and convinced her that it was time to do the wash to be clean and more appealing to the males who were courting her. Thus the princess could be convinced by wisdom concerning cleanliness, hygiene and make courtship to engage in washing her clothes. It is also wisdom that makes a cleaned and washed Odysseus seem extra attractive, a naked clean wisdom. She instructs Odysseus as to how to reach the palace in the capital city and how to entreat and approach Arrete the queen of Phaeacia. She would not accompany him back to the palace but rather meet him there as she felt it would be more appropriate not to be seen accompanied by a strange male while entering the city. This behaviour alludes to the social sense and educate the princess had which goes along with her social wisdom concerning why she washed her clothes. A prayer of hospitality based on wisdom to Athena sets Odysseus off towards t5he city.

It seems Athena wanted Odysseus to wash his divine clothes as he wanted the same of the princess, they meet naked and exposed and both partake in a ritual bathing to wash themselves before strategising as to how to greet the rules of Phaeacia. The ritual bathing that is both considered attractive and wise in this land is also the precursor for the instructions and meeting of the elites and royalty of the island. The bathing is also part of a courtship ritual, or adds to it as wisdom and belief, and this courtship ritual extends to the idea of a marriage or courtship between the Greeks and the rules of the island.
Plus the vision of the need of washing , or ritual baptism, was to help court people and the courtship was with Odysseus.

Just to remind everyone that one can examine the mythological of the Myth of Et and Plato's Republic in my book Plato's Mythologizing the myth of Er, available from ink waterpress a division of firstbooks. go to https://www.inkwaterbooks.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=petridis&osCsid=506265ca528d90913964d82832ae6802&x=0&y=0
If you go to www.amazon.com you can order it directly. Look Up Chrysovalantis Petridis or the book title.

The text looks at the Metaphoric analysis of the myth of Plato's time and their interpretation of myths such as Hercules and Homer, a must have if you enjoy the analysis of the Odyssey and Hercules found within this blog.( Also start reading with the oldest blog entry Feb 2008.