Homer describes Scheria with admiration; that land was rich, and the people
were excellent sailors and shipbuilders, detested war and loved to sail
and trade goods:
[Odyssey 6.9] From thence Nausithous, the godlike, had removed them,
and led and settled them in Scheria far from men that live by toil. About
the city he had drawn a wall, he had built houses and made temples for
the gods, and divided the ploughlands. [Translated by A.T. Murray]
[6.266] There, too, is their place of assembly about the fair temple
of Poseidon, fitted with huge stones set deep in the earth. Here the
men are busied with the tackle of their black ships, with cables and
sails, and here they shape the thin oar-blades. For the Phaeacians care
not for bow or quiver, but for masts and oars of ships, and for the shapely
ships, rejoicing in which they cross over the grey sea.
[Translated by A.T. Murray.]
When Ulysses reached the city he stands in awe in front of the palace:
[Odyssey 7.77] (…) but Odysseus went to the glorious palace of Alcinous.
There he stood, and his heart pondered much before he reached the threshold
of bronze; for there was a gleam as of sun or moon over the high-roofed
house of great-hearted Alcinous. Of bronze were the walls that stretched
this way and that from the threshold to the innermost chamber, and around
was a cornice of cyanus. Golden were the doors that shut in the well-built
house, and doorposts of silver were set in a threshold of bronze. Of
silver was the lintel above, and of gold the handle. On either side of
the door there stood gold and silver dogs, which Hephaestus had fashioned
with cunning skill to guard the palace of great-hearted Alcinous; immortal
were they and ageless all their days. Within, seats were fixed along
the wall on either hand, from the threshold to the innermost chamber,
and on them were thrown robes of soft fabric, cunningly woven, the handiwork
of women. On these the leaders of the Phaeacians were wont to sit drinking
and eating, for they had unfailing store. And golden youths stood on
well-built pedestals, holding lighted torches in their hands to give
light by night to the banqueters in the hall. And fifty slave-women he
had in the house, of whom some grind the yellow grain on the millstone,
and others weave webs, or, as they sit, twirl the yarn, like unto the
leaves of a tall poplar tree; and from the closely-woven linen the soft
olive oil drips down. For as the Phaeacian men are skilled above all
others in speeding a swift ship upon the sea, so are the women cunning
workers at the loom, for Athena has given to them above all others skill
in fair handiwork, and an understanding heart. But without the courtyard,
hard by the door, is a great orchard of four acres, and a hedge runs
about it on either side. [Translated by A.T. Murray.]
The Phaeacians in order to honour Ulysses overwhelmed him with offerings;
they also give him a ship to get to Ithaki. Poseidon, however, the “earth-shaker”
asked for the punishment of the Phaeacians, and thus on their return
to Corfu their ship was turned to stone just a few miles away from the
shores of the island; according to legend this stone ship is actually
the islet that the people today call Pontikonisi:
Then Zeus, the cloud-gatherer, answered him and said: “Lazy one, hear
what seems best in my sight. When all the people are looking forth from
the city upon her as she speeds on her way, then do thou turn her to
stone hard by the land--a stone in the shape of a swift ship, that all
men may marvel; and do thou fling a great mountain about their city.”
Now when Poseidon, the earth-shaker, heard this he went his way to Scheria,
where the Phaeacians dwell, and there he waited. And she drew close to
shore, the seafaring ship, speeding swiftly on her way. Then near her
came the Earth-shaker and turned her to stone, and rooted her fast beneath
by a blow of the flat of his hand, and then he was gone. [Translated
by A.T. Murray.]
