Prompts thee to chatter idly.

Art thou proud

Of conquering Irus, that poor vagabond?
Beware lest some one of robuster arms

415

Than Irus seize and thrust thee out of doors
With a bruised head and face begrimed with blood."
The sage Ulysses frowned on her and said:
"Impudent one, Telemachus shall hear

From me the saucy words which thou hast said, 420
And he will come and hew thee limb from limb."
He spake; the damsels, frightened at his words,
Fled through the hall, and shook in every limb
With terror, lest his threat should be fulfilled.
He meantime stood beside the kindled hearths
And fed the flames, and, looking on the crowd
Of suitors, brooded in his secret heart
O'er plans that would not fail to be fulfilled.

But Pallas suffered not the suitors yet

425

To cease from railing speeches, all the more
To wound the spirit of Laertes' son.

430

Eurymachus, the son of Polybus,

Began to scoff at him, and thus he spake

To wake the ready laughter of the rest :

66 Hear me, ye suitors of the illustrious queen. 43< I speak the thought that comes into my mind. Led by some god, no doubt, this man has come Into the palace; for the light we have

Of torches seems to issue from the crown

Of his bald pate, a head without a hair."

So said Eurymachus, and then bespake

440

Ulysses, the destroyer of walled towns:

"Stranger, if I accept thee, wilt thou serve Upon the distant parts of my estate?

There shalt thou have fair wages, and shalt bring 445
The stones in heaps together, and shalt plant
Tall trees, and I will feed thee through the year,
And give thee clothes, and sandals for thy feet.
But thou art used, no doubt, to idle ways,
And never dost thou work with willing hands,
But dost prefer to roam the town and beg,
Purveying for thy gluttonous appetite."

450

455

Ulysses, the sagacious, answered thus: 66 Eurymachus, if we were matched in work Against each other in the time of spring When days are long, and both were mowing grass, And I had a curved scythe in hand and thou Another, that we might keep up the strife Till nightfall, fasting, 'mid the abundant grass; Or if there were a yoke of steers to drive, The sturdiest of their kind, sleek, large, well fed, Of equal age, and equal strength to bear The labor, and both strong, and if the field Were of four acres, with a soil through which The plough could cleave its way,

thou see

460

- then shouldst

How evenly my furrow would be turned.
Or should the son of Saturn send to-day
War from abroad, and I had but a shield,
Two spears, and, fitted to my brows, a helm

465

Of brass, thou wouldst behold me pressing on
Among the foremost warriors, and would see
No cause to rail at my keen appetite.
But arrogantly thou dost bear thyself,
And pitilessly; thou in thine own eyes
Art great and mighty, since thou dost consort
With few, and those are not the best of men.
Yet should Ulysses come to his own land,
These gates that seem so wide would suddenly
Become too narrow for thee in thy flight."

470

475

He spake. Eurymachus grew yet more wroth, 480 And frowned on him, and said in winged words :— "Wretch! I shall do thee mischief.

bold,

Thou art

485

And babblest unabashed among us all.
The wine, perhaps, is in thy foolish head,
Or thou art always thus, and ever prone
To prattle impudently. Art thou proud
Of conquering Irus, that poor vagabond?"
Thus having said, he brandished in the air
A footstool; but Ulysses, to escape
The anger of Eurymachus, sat down
Before the knees of the Dulichian prince,
Amphinomus. The footstool flew, and struck
On the right arm the cupbearer. Down fell
The beaker ringing; he who bore it lay
Stretched in the dust. Then in those shadowy halls
The suitors rose in tumult. One of them

Looked at another by his side, and said:

490

496

"Would that this vagabond had met his death

Ere he came hither.

This confusion, then,
Had never been. 'Tis for a beggar's sake
We wrangle, and the feast will henceforth give
No pleasure; we shall go from bad to worse."
Then rose in majesty Telemachus,
And said: "Ye are not in your senses sure,
Unhappy men, who cannot eat and drink

In peace. Some deity, no doubt, has moved
Your minds to frenzy. Now, when each of you
Has feasted well, let each withdraw to sleep,
Just when he will. I drive no man away."
He spake; the suitors heard, and bit their lips,
And wondered at Telemachus, who spake
So resolutely. Then Amphinomus,

The son of Nisus Aretiades,

500

505

Stood forth, harangued the suitor-crowd, and said:

“O friends! let no one here with carping words 515 Seek to deny what is so justly said,

Nor yet molest the stranger, nor do harm

To

any

of the servants in the halls

Of the great chief Ulysses. Now let him
Who brings the guests their wine begin and fill
The cups, that, pouring to the gods their part,
We may withdraw to sleep. The stranger here
Leave me within the palace, and in charge
Of him to whom he came, Telemachus."

520

He ended. All were pleased, and Mutlus then, 525 Hero and herald from Dulichium's coast,

And follower of the prince Amphinomus,
Mingled a jar of wine, and went to each,
Dispensing it. They to the blessed gods

Poured first a part, and then they drank themselves 530 The generous juice. And when the wine was poured, And they had drunk what each desired, they went

Homeward to slumber, each in his abode.

NOV

BOOK XIX.

WOW was the godlike chief Ulysses left In his own palace, planning, with the aid Of Pallas, to destroy the suitor-train, And thus bespake his son with winged words: "Now is the time, Telemachus, to take The weapons that are here, and store them up In the inner rooms. Then, if the suitors ask The reason, answer them with specious words : Say, 'I have put them where there comes no smoke, Since even now they do not seem the arms

Left by Ulysses when he sailed for Troy,·

So tarnished are they by the breath of fire;
And yet another reason sways my mind,

The prompting of some god, that ye, when flushed
With wine and in the heat of a dispute,

May smite and wound each other, and disgrace
The banquet and your wooing; for the sight

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