Nausicaa's Serving Maids
Artist: Rupert Bunny (Australian, 1864-1947)
Date: c. 1926-1929
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Nausicaa
Nausicaa, also spelled Nausicaä or Nausikaa, is a character in Homer's Odyssey. She is the daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of Phaeacia. Her name means "burner of ships".
In Book Six of the Odyssey, Odysseus is shipwrecked on the coast of the island of Scheria (Phaeacia in some translations). Nausicaä and her handmaidens go to the seashore to wash clothes. Awakened by their games, Odysseus emerges from the forest completely naked, scaring the servants away, and begs Nausicaä for aid. Affected by the unfortunate hero, she gives Odysseus some clothes and takes him to the edge of the town. Keeping him secret, she goes ahead into town, telling him to go directly to Alcinous's house and make his case to Nausicaä's mother Queen Arete, the family's matriarch. Odysseus approaches Arete and wins her approval, and he is received as a guest by King Alcinous.
During his stay, Odysseus recounts his adventures to Alcinous and his court, a frame story for a substantial portion of the Odyssey. Alcinous then generously provides Odysseus with the ships that finally bring him home to Ithaca.
Nausicaä is young and beautiful; Odysseus says she resembles the goddess Artemis. She has several brothers. According to Aristotle and Dictys of Crete, she later married Odysseus's son Telemachus, and had one or two sons, Poliporthes or/and Persepolis.
