Ok, I read the Odyssey like... 10 times so, I cant read the top question, but the answer the second one is,
He offers to pay him back with an alliance after he makes it home. The vow is important because Odysseus was arguably the most powerful ruler at the time. So, an alliance with him would help Alcinous a lot.
This passage allows us to see into the inner struggle and loneliness of the character. This is revealed in the phrase "interior gloom" while he faces the "open lattice" but he was not looking at anything at all. He was engrossed in his own thoughts and feelings of a closure or an ending of life implied in the phrase "the fire had smouldered to ashes." The surroundings was so silent and cold as revealed in the words "damp, mild air," "cloudy evening" and "so still."
The small, juicy creatures that make our tongues water push us to the source of protein. Bugs.
