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Nausicaa, a MythSource painting
Greek

Nausicaa

The White-Armed · The Divine · Princess of the Phaeacians

01Identity

Nausicaa in Greek tradition

At the riverbank, Nausicaa leads her attendants in song and ball play while the laundry dries. She is the daughter of King Alcinous, a princess of Scheria and a Phaeacian, whom Athena urges to organise a washing day. Her beauty is compared with Artemis, but Nausicaa is not the huntress goddess. She is a royal maiden whose household duties bring her to the shore.

Top questions

The quick answers

02Family

Nausicaa’s family, at a glance

Parents above, children below, and the figure’s consorts named in between, the same family data as the fact box, laid out as a chart instead of a field list.

AlcinousArete
NausicaaClytoneus, Halius and Laodamas

with Telemachus

PersepolisPoliporthesPtoliporthus
03The names

The names Nausicaa answers to

Nausikaa

Alternate transliteration of her Greek name

SourceDictionary of Mythology

Daughter of Alcinous

Patronymic identifying her as Alcinous's daughter

SourceBullfinch Mythology - The Age of Fable

Princess of Scheria

Royal title identifying her homeland

SourceThe Oxford Companion to World Mythology

04The myths

The myths of Nausicaa

2 myths, each traced to its primary text and corpus sources.

Nausicaa and Odysseus on Scheria

Athena sent Nausicaa a prophetic dream while she slept in the brightly decorated chamber of her father, Alcinous, king of the Phaeacians. The dream led her to go to the river and wash clothes. She asked her father for a wagon, and took garments with her, accompanied by her attendants.

At the river, the women washed the clothes and spread them along the shore, where the sea washed against the land. After bathing and anointing themselves with olive oil, they ate beside the river while the garments dried in the sun. Then they removed their veils and played ball, with Nausicaa leading them in song.

Their shouting woke Odysseus, who had been overcome by sleep and weariness after being cast ashore. He came from his hiding place covered in sea brine and holding a leafy branch in front of him. The attendants ran away, but Nausicaa remained. Odysseus addressed her as a suppliant and asked for clothing and help. Nausicaa told her attendants to stop, since he was not an enemy. She said that Zeus gave fortune to the good and the bad, and that Odysseus must endure his present lot. Since he had reached their land and city, he would receive clothing and what was proper for a sufferer seeking aid.

The attendants brought him a shirt, a cloak, and oil. Odysseus asked them to stand apart while he washed, because he was ashamed to strip before young women. He cleansed the brine from his back, shoulders, head, and hair, anointed himself, and put on the clothes Nausicaa had given him. Athena then made him appear taller and stronger, with curling hair. Nausicaa told him that she was Alcinous's daughter and showed him how to reach the city. At her father's palace, Odysseus received aid from the Phaeacians. They helped him return home.

Nausicaa and Odysseus on Scheria, a MythSource painting of the scene

In the modern world

No modern rework confirmed yet.

2 sources· checked 2026-08-18

  1. 1THE ODYSSEYT1
  2. 2Homer, OdysseyT1

    Quote

    “Nausicaa finds the shipwrecked Odysseus by the river, gives him clothing and oil, directs him towards her father’s city, and helps him secure the Phaeacians’ aid for his return home.”

    Homer, Odyssey

The Marriage of Nausicaa and Telemachus

Nausicaa married Telemachus in a later post-Homeric tradition. Nausicaa lived in Scheria, the island of the Phaeacians, a people placed at the edge of the world. Telemachus was the son of Odysseus and Penelope. The tradition joined the Phaeacian woman to the son of the Ithacan king after the events associated with the Odyssey.

Nausicaa and Telemachus had a son named Perseptolis. The account gives no further details about the marriage, its ceremony, or the place where the couple lived. It does not describe how Nausicaa and Telemachus met, nor does it connect their marriage with a particular voyage, contest, or act of the gods.

This tradition differs from the marriage story preserved in summaries of the Telegonia. In that account, the poem concluded with a double marriage. Telegonos, after discovering that he was the son of Odysseus, brought Telemachus and Penelope to Circe’s island. Telemachus married Circe, while Telegonos married Penelope. That version does not give Nausicaa to Telemachus or name Perseptolis as their son. The marriage of Nausicaa and Telemachus therefore belongs to a separate later tradition, whose surviving notice records the union and the birth of their son without preserving a fuller narrative.

The Marriage of Nausicaa and Telemachus, a MythSource painting of the scene

In the modern world

No modern rework confirmed yet.

3 sources· checked 2026-08-18

  1. 1The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)T1
  2. 2Apollodorus, The LibraryT1

    Quote

    “Nausicaa married Telemachus and bore him a son named Perseptolis.”

    Apollodorus, The Library

  3. 3The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)T1

Also appears in

The myths across MythSource where Nausicaa features, each on that figure’s page.

The film

The Underdrawing video on Nausicaa embeds here once it publishes.