Thus he spake, and Eurymachus waxed yet the more wroth
at heart, and looking fiercely on him spake to him
winged words:
’Ah, wretch that thou art, right soon will I
work thee mischief, so boldly thou pratest among many
lords, and hast no fear at heart. Verily wine
has got about thy wits, or perchance thou art always
of this mind, and so thou dost babble idly. Art
thou beside thyself for joy, because thou hast beaten
the beggar Irus?’
Therewith he caught up a footstool, but Odysseus sat
him down at the knees of Amphinomus of Dulichium,
in dread of Eurymachus. And Eurymachus cast and
smote the cup-bearer on the right hand, and the ladle
cup dropped to the ground with a clang, while the
young man groaned and fell backwards in the dust.
Then the wooers clamoured through the shadowy halls,
and thus one would say looking to his neighbour:
’Would that our wandering guest had perished
otherwhere, or ever he came hither; so should he never
have made all this tumult in our midst! But now
we are all at strife about beggars, and there will
be no more joy of the good feast, for worse things
have their way.’
Then the mighty prince Telemachus spake among them:
’Sirs, ye are mad; now doth your mood betray
that ye have eaten and drunken; some one of the gods
is surely moving you. Nay, now that ye have feasted
well, go home and lay you to rest, since your spirit
so bids; for as for me, I drive no man hence.’
Thus he spake, and they all bit their lips and marvelled
at Telemachus, in that he spake boldly. Then
Amphinomus made harangue, and spake among them, Amphinomus,
the famous son of Nisus the prince, the son of Aretias:
’Friends, when a righteous word has been spoken,
none surely would rebuke another with hard speech
and be angry. Misuse ye not this stranger, neither
any of the thralls that are in the house of godlike
Odysseus. But come, let the wine-bearer pour
for libation into each cup in turn, that after the
drink-offering we may get us home to bed. But
the stranger let us leave in the halls of Odysseus
for a charge to Telemachus: for to his home has
he come.’
Thus he spake, and his word was well-pleasing to them
all. Then the lord Mulius mixed for them the
bowl, the henchman out of Dulichium, who was squire
of Amphinomus. And he stood by all and served
it to them in their turn; and they poured forth before
the blessed gods, and drank the honey-sweet wine.
Now when they had poured forth and had drunken to
their hearts’ content, they departed to lie
down, each one to his own house.
Telemachus removes the arms out of the
hall. Odysseus disburseth with Penelope.
And is known by his nurse, but concealed. And
the hunting of the boar upon that occasion related.
Now the goodly Odysseus was left behind in the hall,
devising with Athene’s aid the slaying of the
wooers, and straightway he spake winged words to Telemachus:
