And round the square worked the ship-wrights, as many in
number as ants, twining ropes, and hewing timber, and smoothing
long yards and oars. And the Minuai went on in silence through
clean white marble streets, till they came to the hall of Alcinous,
and they wondered then still more. For the lofty palace shone
aloft in the sun, with walls of plated brass, from the threshold to
the innermost chamber, and the doors were of silver and gold. And
on each side of the doorway sat living dogs of gold, who never grew
old or died, so well Hephaistos had made them in his forges in
smoking Lemnos, and gave them to Alcinous to guard his gates by
night. And within, against the walls, stood thrones on either
side, down the whole length of the hall, strewn with rich glossy
shawls; and on them the merchant kings of those crafty sea-roving
Phaeaces sat eating and drinking in pride, and feasting there all
the year round. And boys of molten gold stood each on a polished
altar, and held torches in their hands, to give light all night to
the guests. And round the house sat fifty maid-servants, some
grinding the meal in the mill, some turning the spindle, some
weaving at the loom, while their hands twinkled as they passed the
shuttle, like quivering aspen leaves.
And outside before the palace a great garden was walled round,
filled full of stately fruit-trees, gray olives and sweet figs, and
pomegranates, pears, and apples, which bore the whole year round.
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