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Key Details
Type
IslandMythology
Greek Pantheon
Coordinates
39.6°N, 19.9°E
About This Location
Scheria, last hosts
The Phaeacians of Scheria in Odyssey 6–13 receive the wrecked Odysseus: Nausicaa at the washing pools, Alcinous's palace, Demodocus's songs, athletic games, and a magic ship that delivers him sleeping to Ithaca. Poseidon then stones the vessel. Scheria is mapped toward Corcyra by later readers. There is no historical Phaeacian cult. The episode is institutionalized hospitality, the poem's best house, and the platform for Odysseus to tell books 9–12.
Primary Sources
“We are the Phaeacians, who live apart, in the wash of the sea, the furthest of men. No other mortals have dealings with us.”
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