Character

Arete

Queen of the Phaeacians · the one whose word settles things

Arete at the hearth turning a spindle of sea-purple wool, her head lifted sharply toward a guest whose cloak she recognises as her own weaving.
Arete at the hearth turning a spindle of sea-purple wool, her head lifted sharply toward a guest whose cloak she recognises as her own weaving.

Queen of the Phaeacians and, Odysseus is warned, the person he must actually win over: in this household the queen settles disputes and her word carries. She is the one who notices that the strange guest is wearing clothes from her own linen chest, and asks the question that opens his whole story. Her name is usually derived from the verb 'to pray for', though it sits close enough to arete, 'excellence', that readers have long heard the second word in the first — a fitting accident for a woman running a peaceful court.

Her name is usually derived from the verb 'to pray for' — she is the prayed-for one. It sits one letter away from arete, 'excellence', and readers have been hearing the second word in the first for a very long time.

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