Now when they had roasted the outer flesh and drawn it off the spits, they divided the messes and shared the glorious feast.  And beside Odysseus they that waited set an equal share, the same as that which fell to themselves, for so Telemachus commanded, the dear son of divine Odysseus.

Now Athene would in nowise suffer the lordly wooers to abstain from biting scorn, that the pain might sink yet the deeper into the heart of Odysseus, son of Laertes.  There was among the wooers a man of a lawless heart, Ctesippus was his name, and in Same was his home, who trusting, forsooth, to his vast possessions, was wooing the wife of Odysseus the lord long afar.  And now he spake among the proud wooers: 

’Hear me, ye lordly wooers, and I will say somewhat.  The stranger verily has long had his due portion, as is meet, an equal share; for it is not fair nor just to rob the guests of Telemachus of their right, whosoever they may be that come to this house.  Go to then, I also will bestow on him a stranger’s gift, that he in turn may give a present either to the bath-woman, or to any other of the thralls within the house of godlike Odysseus.’

Therewith he caught up an ox’s foot from the dish, where it lay, and hurled it with strong hand.  But Odysseus lightly avoided it with a turn of his head, and smiled right grimly in his heart, and the ox’s foot smote the well-builded wall.  Then Telemachus rebuked Ctesippus, saying: 

’Verily, Ctesippus, it has turned out happier for thy heart’s pleasure as it is!  Thou didst not smite the stranger, for he himself avoided that which was cast at him, else surely would I have struck thee through the midst with the sharp spear, and in place of wedding banquet thy father would have had to busy him about a funeral feast in this place.  Wherefore let no man make show of unseemly deeds in this my house, for now I have understanding to discern both good and evil, but in time past I was yet a child.  But as needs we must, we still endure to see these deeds, while sheep are slaughtered and wine drunken and bread devoured, for hard it is for one man to restrain many.  But come, no longer work me harm out of an evil heart; but if ye be set on slaying me, even me, with the sword, even that would I rather endure, and far better would it be to die than to witness for ever these unseemly deeds—­strangers shamefully entreated, and men haling the handmaidens in foul wise through the fair house.’

So he spake, and they were all hushed in silence.  And late and at last spake among them Agelaus, son of Damastor: 

’Friends, when a righteous word has been spoken, none surely would rebuke another with hard speech and be angry.  Misuse ye not this stranger, nor any of the thralls that are in the house of godlike Odysseus.  But to Telemachus himself I would speak a soft word and to his mother, if perchance it may find favour with the mind of those twain.  So long as your hearts within you had hope of the wise