《奥德修记》-43

other chief, only that I believe my poor master will yet return, andsend all these suitors flying out of the house.""Stockman," answered Ulysses, "you seem to be a very well-disposedperson, and I can see that you are a man of sense. Therefore I willtell you, and will confirm my words with an oath: by Jove, the chiefof all gods, and by that hearth of Ulysses to which I am now come,Ulysses shall return before you leave this place, and if you are sominded you shall see him killing the suitors who are now mastershere.""If Jove were to bring this to pass," replied the stockman, "youshould see how I would do my very utmost to help him."And in like manner Eumaeus prayed that Ulysses might return home.Thus did they converse. Meanwhile the suitors were hatching a plotto murder Telemachus: but a bird flew near them on their left hand- aneagle with a dove in its talons. On this Amphinomus said, "My friends,this plot of ours to murder Telemachus will not succeed; let us goto dinner instead."The others assented, so they went inside and laid their cloaks onthe benches and seats. They sacrificed the sheep, goats, pigs, and theheifer, and when the inward meats were cooked they served themround. They mixed the wine in the mixing-bowls, and the swineherd gaveevery man his cup, while Philoetius handed round the bread in thebreadbaskets, and Melanthius poured them out their wine. Then theylaid their hands upon the good things that were before them.Telemachus purposely made Ulysses sit in the part of the cloisterthat was paved with stone; he gave him a shabby-looking seat at alittle table to himself, and had his portion of the inward meatsbrought to him, with his wine in a gold cup. "Sit there," said he,"and drink your wine among the great people. I will put a stop tothe gibes and blows of the suitors, for this is no public house, butbelongs to Ulysses, and has passed from him to me. Therefore, suitors,keep your hands and your tongues to yourselves, or there will bemischief."The suitors bit their lips, and marvelled at the boldness of hisspeech; then Antinous said, "We do not like such language but wewill put up with it, for Telemachus is threatening us in good earnest.If Jove had let us we should have put a stop to his brave talk erenow."Thus spoke Antinous, but Telemachus heeded him not. Meanwhile theheralds were bringing the holy hecatomb through the city, and theAchaeans gathered under the shady grove of Apollo.Then they roasted the outer meat, drew it off the spits, gaveevery man his portion, and feasted to their hearts' content; those whowaited at table gave Ulysses exactly the same portion as the othershad, for Telemachus had told them to do so.But Minerva would not let the suitors for one moment drop theirinsolence, for she wanted Ulysses to become still more bitteragainst them. Now there happened to be among them a ribald fellow,whose name was Ctesippus, and who came from Same. This man,confident in his great wealth, was paying court to the wife ofUlysses, and said to the suitors, "Hear what I have to say. Thestranger has already had as large a portion as any one else; this iswell, for it is not right nor reasonable to ill-treat any guest ofTelemachus who comes here. I will, however, make him a present on myown account, that he may have something to give to the bath-woman,or to some other of Ulysses' servants."As he spoke he picked up a heifer's foot from the meat-basket inwhich it lay, and threw it at Ulysses, but Ulysses turned his head alittle aside, and avoided it, smiling grimly Sardinian fashion as hedid so, and it hit the wall, not him. On this Telemachus spokefiercely to Ctesippus, "It is a good thing for you," said he, "thatthe stranger turned his head so that you missed him. If you had hithim I should have run you through with my spear, and your father wouldhave had to see about getting you buried rather than married in thishouse. So let me have no more unseemly behaviour from any of you,for I am grown up now to the knowledge of good and evil and understandwhat is going on, instead of being the child that I have beenheretofore. I have long seen you killing my sheep and making free withmy corn and wine: I have put up with this, for one man is no match formany, but do me no further violence. Still, if you wish to kill me,kill me; I would far rather die than see such disgraceful scenes dayafter day- guests insulted, and men dragging the women servantsabout the house in an unseemly way."They all held their peace till at last Agelaus son of Damastor said,"No one should take offence at what has just been said, nor gainsayit, for it is quite reasonable. Leave off, therefore, ill-treating thestranger, or any one else of the servants who are about the house; Iwould say, however, a friendly word to Telemachus and his mother,which I trust may commend itself to both. 'As long,' I would say,'as you had ground for hoping that Ulysses would one day come home, noone could complain of your waiting and suffering the suitors to bein your house. It would have been better that he should have returned,but it is now sufficiently clear that he will never do so; thereforetalk all this quietly over with your mother, and tell her to marry thebest man, and the one who makes her the most advantageous offer.Thus you will yourself be able to manage your own inheritance, andto eat and drink in peace, while your mother will look after someother man's house, not yours."'To this Telemachus answered, "By Jove, Agelaus, and by the sorrowsof my unhappy father, who has either perished far from Ithaca, or iswandering in some distant land, I throw no obstacles in the way ofmy mother's marriage; on the contrary I urge her to choosewhomsoever she will, and I will give her numberless gifts into thebargain, but I dare not insist point blank that she shall leave thehouse against her own wishes. Heaven forbid that I should do this."Minerva now made the suitors fall to laughing immoderately, andset their wits wandering; but they were laughing with a forcedlaughter. Their meat became smeared with blood; their eyes filled withtears, and their hearts were heavy with forebodings. Theoclymenussaw this and said, "Unhappy men, what is it that ails you? There isa shroud of darkness drawn over you from head to foot, your cheeks arewet with tears; the air is alive with wailing voices; the walls androof-beams drip blood; the gate of the cloisters and the courtbeyond them are full of ghosts trooping down into the night of hell;the sun is blotted out of heaven, and a blighting gloom is over allthe land."Thus did he speak, and they all of them laughed heartily. Eurymachusthen said, "This stranger who has lately come here has lost hissenses. Servants, turn him out into the streets, since he finds itso dark here."But Theoclymenus said, "Eurymachus, you need not send any one withme. I have eyes, ears, and a pair of feet of my own, to say nothing ofan understanding mind. I will take these out of the house with me, forI see mischief overhanging you, from which not one of you men whoare insulting people and plotting ill deeds in the house of Ulysseswill be able to escape."He left the house as he spoke, and went back to Piraeus who gave himwelcome, but the suitors kept looking at one another and provokingTelemachus fly laughing at the strangers. One insolent fellow saidto him, "Telemachus, you are not happy in your guests; first youhave this importunate tramp, who comes begging bread and wine andhas no skill for work or for hard fighting, but is perfectlyuseless, and now here is another fellow who is setting himself up as aprophet. Let me persuade you, for it will be much better, to putthem on board ship and send them off to the Sicels to sell for whatthey will bring."Telemachus gave him no heed, but sat silently watching his father,expecting every moment that he would begin his attack upon thesuitors.Meanwhile the daughter of Icarius, wise Penelope, had had had a richseat placed for her facing the court and cloisters, so that shecould hear what every one was saying. The dinner indeed had beenprepared amid merriment; it had been both good and abundant, forthey had sacrificed many victims; but the supper was yet to come,and nothing can be conceived more gruesome than the meal which agoddess and a brave man were soon to lay before them- for they hadbrought their doom upon themselves.BOOK XXI.MINERVA now put it in Penelope's mind to make the suitors trytheir skill with the bow and with the iron axes, in contest amongthemselves, as a means of bringing about their destruction. She wentupstairs and got the store room key, which was made of bronze andhad a handle of ivory; she then went with her maidens into the storeroom at the end of the house, where her husband's treasures of gold,bronze, and wrought iron were kept, and where was also his bow, andthe quiver full of deadly arrows that had been given him by a friendwhom he had met in Lacedaemon- Iphitus the son of Eurytus. The twofell in with one another in Messene at the house of Ortilochus,where Ulysses was staying in order to recover a debt that was owingfrom the whole people; for the Messenians had carried off threehundred sheep from Ithaca, and had sailed away with them and withtheir shepherds. In quest of these Ulysses took a long journey whilestill quite young, for his father and the other chieftains sent him ona mission to recover them. Iphitus had gone there also to try andget back twelve brood mares that he had lost, and the mule foalsthat were running with them. These mares were the death of him inthe end, for when he went to the house of Jove's son, mighty Hercules,who performed such prodigies of valour, Hercules to his shame killedhim, though he was his guest, for he feared not heaven's vengeance,nor yet respected his own table which he had set before Iphitus, butkilled him in spite of everything, and kept the mares himself. Itwas when claiming these that Iphitus met Ulysses, and gave him the bowwhich mighty Eurytus had been used to carry, and which on his deathhad been left by him to his son. Ulysses gave him in return a swordand a spear, and this was the beginning of a fast friendship, althoughthey never visited at one another's houses, for Jove's son Herculeskilled Iphitus ere they could do so. This bow, then, given him byIphitus, had not been taken with him by Ulysses when he sailed forTroy; he had used it so long as he had been at home, but had left itbehind as having been a keepsake from a valued friend.Penelope presently reached the oak threshold of the store room;the carpenter had planed this duly, and had drawn a line on it so asto get it quite straight; he had then set the door posts into it andhung the doors. She loosed the strap from the handle of the door,put in the key, and drove it straight home to shoot back the boltsthat held the doors; these flew open with a noise like a bullbellowing in a meadow, and Penelope stepped upon the raisedplatform, where the chests stood in which the fair linen and clotheswere laid by along with fragrant herbs: reaching thence, she took downthe bow with its bow case from the peg on which it hung. She satdown with it on her knees, weeping bitterly as she took the bow out ofits case, and when her tears had relieved her, she went to thecloister where the suitors were, carrying the bow and the quiver, withthe many deadly arrows that were inside it. Along with her came hermaidens, bearing a chest that contained much iron and bronze which herhusband had won as prizes. When she reached the suitors, she stoodby one of the bearing-posts supporting the roof of the cloister,