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"Mother," answered Telemakhos,
"let the bard sing what he has a mind [noos] to; bards
are not responsible [aitios] for the ills they sing
of; it is Zeus, not they, who is responsible [aitios],
and who sends weal or woe upon humankind according to his own good
pleasure. There should be no feeling of nemesis against this
one for singing the ill-fated return of the Danaans, for people
always favor most warmly the kleos of the latest songs. Make
up your mind to it and bear it; Odysseus is not the only man who
never came back from Troy, but many another went down as well as he.
Go, then, within the house and busy yourself with your daily duties,
your loom, your distaff, and the ordering of your servants; for
speech is man's matter, and mine above all others - for it is I
who am master here."
She went wondering back into the
house, and laid her son's saying in her heart. Then, going
upstairs with her handmaids into her room, she mourned her dear
husband till Athena shed sweet sleep over her eyes. But the suitors
were clamorous throughout the covered cloisters, and prayed each one
that he might be her bed fellow.
Then Telemakhos spoke, "You
suitors of my mother," he cried, "you with your overweening
hubris, let us feast at our pleasure now, and let there be no
brawling, for it is a rare thing to hear a man with such a divine
voice as Phemios has; but in the morning meet me in full assembly
that I may give you formal notice to depart, and feast at one
another's houses, turn and turn about, at your own cost. If on
the other hand you choose to persist in sponging upon one man, heaven
help me, but Zeus shall reckon with you in full, and when you fall in
my father's house there shall be no man to avenge
you."
The suitors bit their lips as
they heard him, and marveled at the boldness of his speech. Then,
Antinoos, son of Eupeithes, said, "The gods seem to have given you
lessons in bluster and tall talking; may Zeus never grant you to be
chief in Ithaca as your father was before you."
Homer. The Odyssey. Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original. Samuel Butler. Based on public domain edition, revised by Timothy Power and Gregory Nagy. A. C. Fifield, London. 1900 (?).
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