Scroll 17
When the child of morning,
rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, Telemakhos bound on his sandals and
took a strong spear that suited his hands, for he wanted to go into
the city. "Old friend," said he to the swineherd, "I will now go to
the town and show myself to my mother, for she will never leave off
grieving till she has seen me. As for this unfortunate stranger, take
him to the town and let him beg there of any one who will give him a
drink and a piece of bread. I have trouble enough of my own, and
cannot be burdened with other people. If this makes him angry so much
the worse for him, but I like to tell the truth
[alêthês]."
Then Odysseus said, "Sir, I do not
want to stay here; a beggar can always do better in town than
country, for any one who likes can give him something. I am too old
to care about remaining here at the beck and call of a master.
Therefore let this man do as you have just told him, and take me to
the town as soon as I have had a warm by the fire, and the day has
got a little heat in it. My clothes are wretchedly thin, and this
frosty morning I shall be perished with cold, for you say the city is
some way off."
On this Telemakhos strode off
through the yards, brooding his revenge upon the When he reached home
he stood his spear against a bearing-post of the room, crossed the
stone floor of the room itself, and went inside.
Nurse Eurykleia saw him long
before any one else did. She was putting the fleeces on to the seats,
and she burst out crying as she ran up to him; all the other maids
came up too, and covered his head and shoulders with their kisses.
Penelope came out of her room looking like Artemis or Aphrodite, and
wept as she flung her arms about her son. She kissed his forehead and
both his beautiful eyes, "Light of my eyes," she cried as she spoke
fondly to him, "so you are come home again; I made sure I was never
going to see you any more. To think of your having gone off to
Pylos
without saying anything about it or obtaining my consent. But come,
tell me what you saw."
"Do not scold me, mother,’
answered Telemakhos, "nor vex me, seeing what a narrow escape I have
had, but wash your face, change your dress, go upstairs with your
maids, and promise full and sufficient hecatombs to all the gods if
Zeus will only grant us our revenge upon the suitors. I must now go
to the place of assembly to invite a stranger who has come back with
me from
Pylos. I sent him on with my crew, and told Peiraios to take
him home and look after him till I could come for him
myself."
She heeded her son's words,
washed her face, changed her dress, and vowed full and sufficient
hecatombs to all the gods if they would only grant her revenge upon
the suitors.
Telemakhos went through, and out
of, the cloisters spear in hand - not alone, for his two fleet dogs
went with him. Athena endowed him with a presence of such divine
comeliness [kharis] that all marveled at him as he
went by, and the suitors gathered round him with fair words in their
mouths and malice in their hearts; but he avoided them, and went to
sit with Mentor, Antiphos, and Halitherses, old friends of his
father's house, and they made him tell them all that had
happened to him. Then Peiraios came up with Theoklymenos, whom he had
escorted through the town to the place of assembly, whereon
Telemakhos at once joined them. Peiraios was first to speak:
"Telemakhos," said he, "I wish you would send some of your women to
my house to take away the presents Menelaos gave you."
"We do not know, Peiraios,"
answered Telemakhos, "what may happen. If the suitors kill me in my
own house and divide my property among them, I would rather you had
the presents than that any of those people should get hold of them.
If on the other hand I manage to kill them, I shall be much obliged
if you will kindly bring me my presents."
With these words he took
Theoklymenos to his own house. When they got there they laid their
cloaks on the benches and seats, went into the baths, and washed
themselves. When the maids had washed and anointed them, and had
given them cloaks and shirts, they took their seats at table. A maid
servant then brought them water in a beautiful golden ewer, and
poured it into a silver basin for them to wash their hands; and she
drew a clean table beside them. An upper servant brought them bread
and offered them many good things of what there was in the house.
Opposite them sat Penelope, reclining on a couch by one of the
bearing-posts of the room, and spinning. Then they laid their hands
on the good things that were before them, and as soon as they had had
enough to eat and drink Penelope said:
"Telemakhos, I shall go upstairs
and lie down on that sad couch, which I have not ceased to water with
my tears, from the day Odysseus set out for
Troy with the sons of
Atreus. You failed, however, to make it clear to me before the
suitors came back to the house, whether or not you had been able to
hear anything about the return [nostos] of your
father."
"I will tell you then truth
[alêtheia]," replied her son. "We went to
Pylos
and saw Nestor, who took me to his house and treated me as hospitably
as though I were a son of his own who had just returned after a long
absence; so also did his sons; but he said he had not heard a word
from any human being about Odysseus, whether he was alive or dead. He
sent me, therefore, with a chariot and horses to Menelaos. There I
saw Helen, for whose sake so many, both Argives and Trojans, were in
heaven's wisdom doomed to suffer. Menelaos asked me what it was
that had brought me to
Lacedaemon, and I told him the whole truth
[alêtheia], whereon he said, ‘So, then,
these cowards would usurp a brave man's bed? A hind might as
well lay her new-born young in the lair of a lion, and then go off to
feed in the forest or in some grassy dell. The lion, when he comes
back to his lair, will make short work with the pair of them, and so
will Odysseus with these suitors. By father Zeus, Athena, and Apollo,
if Odysseus is still the man that he was when he wrestled with
Philomeleides in
Lesbos, and threw him so heavily that all the Greeks
cheered him - if he is still such, and were to come near these
suitors, they would have a swift doom and a sorry wedding. As regards
your question, however, I will not prevaricate nor deceive you, but
what the old man of the sea told me, so much will I tell you in full.
He said he could see Odysseus on an island sorrowing bitterly in the
house of the nymph Calypso, who was keeping him prisoner, and he
could not reach his home, for he had no ships nor sailors to take him
over the sea.’ This was what Menelaos told me, and when I had
heard his story I came away; the gods then gave me a fair wind and
soon brought me safe home again."
With these words he moved the
heart of Penelope. Then Theoklymenos said to her:
"My lady, wife of Odysseus,
Telemakhos does not understand these things; listen therefore to me,
for I can divine them surely, and will hide nothing from you. May
Zeus the king of heaven be my witness, and the rites of hospitality,
with that hearth of Odysseus to which I now come, that Odysseus
himself is even now in
Ithaca, and, either going about the country or
staying in one place, is inquiring into all these evil deeds and
preparing a day of reckoning for the suitors. I saw an omen when I
was on the ship which meant this, and I told Telemakhos about
it."
"May it be even so," answered
Penelope; "if your words come true, you shall have such gifts and
such good will from me that all who see you shall congratulate
you."
Thus did they converse. Meanwhile
the suitors were throwing discs, or aiming with spears at a mark on
the leveled ground in front of the house, and behaving with all their
old insolence [hubris]. But when it was now time for
dinner, and the flock of sheep and goats had come into the town from
all the country round, with their shepherds as usual, then Medon, who
was their favorite servant, and who waited upon them at table, said,
"Now then, my young masters, you have had enough sport
[athlos], so come inside that we may get dinner ready.
Dinner is not a bad thing, at dinner time
[hôra]."
They left their sports as he told
them, and when they were within the house, they laid their cloaks on
the benches and seats inside, and then sacrificed some sheep, goats,
pigs, and a heifer, all of them fat and well grown. Thus they made
ready for their meal. In the meantime Odysseus and the swineherd were
about starting for the town, and the swineherd said, "Stranger, I
suppose you still want to go to town to-day, as my master said you
were to do; for my own part I should have liked you to stay here as a
station hand, but I must do as my master tells me, or he will scold
me later on, and a scolding from one's master is a very serious
thing. Let us then be off, for it is now broad day; it will be night
again directly and then you will find it colder."
"I know, and understand you,"
replied Odysseus; "you need say no more. Let us be going, but if you
have a stick ready cut, let me have it to walk with, for you say the
road is a very rough one."
As he spoke he threw his shabby
old tattered wallet over his shoulders, by the cord from which it
hung, and Eumaios gave him a stick to his liking. The two then
started, leaving the station in charge of the dogs and herdsmen who
remained behind; the swineherd led the way and his master followed
after, looking like some broken-down old tramp as he leaned upon his
staff, and his clothes were all in rags. When they had got over the
rough steep ground and were nearing the city, they reached the
fountain from which the citizens drew their water. This had been made
by Ithacus, Neritus, and Polyktor. There was a grove of water-loving
poplars planted in a circle all round it, and the clear cold water
came down to it from a rock high up, while above the fountain there
was an altar to the nymphs, at which all wayfarers used to sacrifice.
Here Melanthios son of Dolios overtook them as he was driving down
some goats, the best in his flock, for the suitors’ dinner, and
there were two shepherds with him. When he saw Eumaios and Odysseus
he reviled them with outrageous and unseemly language, which made
Odysseus very angry.
"There you go," cried he, "and a
precious pair you are. See how heaven brings birds of the same
feather to one another. Where, pray, master swineherd, are you taking
this poor miserable object? It would make any one sick to see such a
creature at table. A fellow like this never won a prize for anything
in his life, but will go about rubbing his shoulders against every
man's door post, and begging, not for swords and cauldrons like
a man, but only for a few scraps not worth begging for. If you would
give him to me for a hand on my station, he might do to clean out the
folds, or bring a bit of sweet feed to the kids, and he could fatten
his thighs as much as he pleased on whey; but he has taken to bad
ways and will not go about any kind of work; he will do nothing but
beg victuals all the dêmos over, to feed his insatiable
belly. I say, therefore and it shall surely be - if he goes near
Odysseus’ house he will get his head broken by the stools they
will fling at him, till they turn him out."
On this, as he passed, he gave
Odysseus a kick on the hip out of pure wantonness, but Odysseus stood
firm, and did not budge from the path. For a moment he doubted
whether or not to fly at Melanthios and kill him with his staff, or
fling him to the ground and beat his brains out; he resolved,
however, to endure it and keep himself in check, but the swineherd
looked straight at Melanthios and rebuked him, lifting up his hands
and praying to heaven as he did so.
"Fountain nymphs," he cried,
"children of Zeus, if ever Odysseus burned you thigh bones covered
with fat whether of lambs or kids, grant my prayer that a
daimôn may send him home. He would soon put an end to
the swaggering threats with which such men as you go about insulting
people- gadding all over the town while your flocks are going to ruin
through bad shepherding."
Then Melanthios the goatherd
answered, "You ill-conditioned cur, what are you talking about? Some
day or other I will put you on board ship and take you to a foreign
country, where I can sell you and keep the wealth you will fetch. I
wish I were as sure that Apollo would strike Telemakhos dead this
very day, or that the suitors would kill him, as I am that Odysseus
will never come home again."
With this he left them to come on
at their leisure, while he went quickly forward and soon reached the
house of his master. When he got there he went in and took his seat
among the suitors opposite Eurymakhos, who liked him better than any
of the others. The servants brought him a portion of meat, and an
upper woman servant set bread before him that he might eat. Presently
Odysseus and the swineherd came up to the house and stood by it, amid
a sound of music, for Phemios was just beginning to sing to the
suitors. Then Odysseus took hold of the swineherd's hand, and
said:
"Eumaios, this house of Odysseus
is a very fine place. No matter how far you go you will find few like
it. One building keeps following on after another. The outer court
has a wall with battlements all round it; the doors are double
folding, and of good workmanship; it would be a hard matter to take
it by force of arms. I perceive, too, that there are many people
banqueting within it, for there is a smell of roast meat, and I hear
a sound of music, which the gods have made to go along with
feasting."
Then Eumaios said, "You have
perceived aright, as indeed you generally do; but let us think what
will be our best course. Will you go inside first and join the
suitors, leaving me here behind you, or will you wait here and let me
go in first? But do not wait long, or some one may you loitering
about outside, and throw something at you. Consider this matter I
pray you."
And Odysseus answered, "I
understand and heed. Go in first and leave me here where I am. I am
quite used to being beaten and having things thrown at me. I have
been so much buffeted about in war and by sea that I am
case-hardened, and this too may go with the rest. But a man cannot
hide away the cravings of a hungry belly; this is an enemy which
gives much trouble to all men; it is because of this that ships are
fitted out to sail the seas, and to make war upon other
people."
As they were thus talking, a dog
that had been lying asleep raised his head and pricked up his ears.
This was Argos, whom Odysseus had bred before setting out for
Troy,
but he had never had any work out of him. In the old days he used to
be taken out by the young men when they went hunting wild goats, or
deer, or hares, but now that his master was gone he was lying
neglected on the heaps of mule and cow dung that lay in front of the
stable doors till the men should come and draw it away to manure the
great field; and he was full of fleas. As soon as he saw Odysseus
standing there, he dropped his ears and wagged his tail, but he could
not get close up to his master. When Odysseus saw the dog on the
other side of the yard, dashed a tear from his eyes without Eumaios
seeing it, and said:
"Eumaios, what a noble hound that
is over yonder on the manure heap: his build is splendid; is he as
fine a fellow as he looks, or is he only one of those dogs that come
begging about a table, and are kept merely for show?"
"This hound," answered Eumaios,
"belonged to him who has died in a far country. If he were what he
was when Odysseus left for
Troy, he would soon show you what he could
do. There was not a wild beast in the forest that could get away from
him when he was once on its tracks. But now he has fallen on evil
times, for his master is dead and gone, and the women take no care of
him. Servants never do their work when their master's hand is no
longer over them, for Zeus takes half the goodness
[aretê] out of a man when he makes a slave of
him."
As he spoke he went inside the
buildings to the room where the suitors were, but
Argos died as soon
as he had recognized his master.
Telemakhos saw Eumaios long
before any one else did, and beckoned him to come and sit beside him;
so he looked about and saw a seat lying near where the carver sat
serving out their portions to the suitors; he picked it up, brought
it to Telemakhos’ table, and sat down opposite him. Then the
servant brought him his portion, and gave him bread from the
bread-basket.
Immediately afterwards Odysseus
came inside, looking like a poor miserable old beggar, leaning on his
staff and with his clothes all in rags. He sat down upon the
threshold of ash-wood just inside the doors leading from the outer to
the inner court, and against a bearing-post of cypress-wood which the
carpenter had skillfully planed, and had made to join truly with rule
and line. Telemakhos took a whole loaf from the bread-basket, with as
much meat as he could hold in his two hands, and said to Eumaios,
"Take this to the stranger, and tell him to go the round of the
suitors, and beg from them; a beggar must not be shamefaced
[aidôs]."
So Eumaios went up to him and
said, "Stranger, Telemakhos sends you this, and says you are to go
the round of the suitors begging, for beggars must not be shamefaced
[aidôs]."
Odysseus answered, "May lord Zeus
grant all happiness [olbos] to Telemakhos, and fulfill
the desire of his heart."
Then with both hands he took what
Telemakhos had sent him, and laid it on the dirty old wallet at his
feet. He went on eating it while the bard was singing, and had just
finished his dinner as he left off. The suitors applauded the bard,
whereon Athena went up to Odysseus and prompted him to beg pieces of
bread from each one of the suitors, that he might see what kind of
people they were, and tell the good from the bad; but come what might
she was not going to save a single one of them. Odysseus, therefore,
went on his round, going from left to right, and stretched out his
hands to beg as though he were a real beggar. Some of them pitied
him, and were curious about him, asking one another who he was and
where he came from; whereon the goatherd Melanthios said, "Suitors of
my noble mistress, I can tell you something about him, for I have
seen him before. The swineherd brought him here, but I know nothing
about the man himself, nor where he comes from."
On this Antinoos began to abuse
the swineherd. "You precious idiot," he cried, "what have you brought
this man to town for? Have we not tramps and beggars enough already
to pester us as we sit at meat? Do you think it a small thing that
such people gather here to waste your master's property and must
you needs bring this man as well?"
And Eumaios answered, "Antinoos,
your birth is good but your words evil. It was no doing of mine that
he came here. Who is likely to invite a stranger from a foreign
country, unless it be one of those who can do public service as a
seer [mantis], a healer of hurts, a carpenter, or a
bard who can delight us with his singing. Such men are welcome all
the world over, but no one is likely to ask a beggar who will only
worry him. You are always harder on Odysseus’ servants than any
of the other suitors are, and above all on me, but I do not care so
long as Telemakhos and Penelope are alive and here."
But Telemakhos said, "Hush, do
not answer him; Antinoos has the bitterest tongue of all the suitors,
and he makes the others worse."
Then turning to Antinoos he said,
"Antinoos, you take as much care of my interests as though I were
your son. Why should you want to see this stranger turned out of the
house? Heaven forbid; take something and give it him yourself; I do
not grudge it; I bid you take it. Never mind my mother, nor any of
the other servants in the house; but I know you will not do what I
say, for you are more fond of eating things yourself than of giving
them to other people."
"What do you mean, Telemakhos,"
replied Antinoos, "by this swaggering talk? If all the suitors were
to give him as much as I will, he would not come here again for
another three months."
As he spoke he drew the stool on
which he rested his dainty feet from under the table, and made as
though he would throw it at Odysseus, but the other suitors all gave
him something, and filled his wallet with bread and meat; he was
about, therefore, to go back to the threshold and eat what the
suitors had given him, but he first went up to Antinoos and
said:
"Sir, give me something; you are
not, surely, the poorest man here; you seem to be a chief, foremost
among them all; therefore you should be the better giver, and I will
tell far and wide of your bounty. I too was a rich
[olbios] man once, and had a fine house of my own; in
those days I gave to many a tramp such as I now am, no matter who he
might be nor what he wanted. I had any number of servants, and all
the other things which people have who live well and are accounted
wealthy, but it pleased Zeus to take all away from me. He sent me
with a band of roving robbers to
Egypt; it was a long voyage and I
was undone by it. I stationed my ships in the river Aigyptos, and
bade my men stay by them and keep guard over them, while I sent out
scouts to reconnoiter from every point of vantage.
"But the men insolently disobeyed
[hubris] my orders, took to their own devices, and
ravaged the land of the Egyptians, killing the men, and taking their
wives and children captives. The alarm was soon carried to the city,
and when they heard the war-cry, the people came out at daybreak till
the plain was filled with soldiers horse and foot, and with the gleam
of armor. Then Zeus spread panic among my men, and they would no
longer face the enemy, for they found themselves surrounded. The
Egyptians killed many of us, and took the rest alive to do forced
labor for them; as for myself, they gave me to a friend who met them,
to take to
Cyprus, Dmetor by name, son of Iasos, who was a great man
in
Cyprus. Thence I am come hither in a state of great
misery."
Then Antinoos said, "What
daimôn can have sent such a pestilence to plague us
during our dinner? Get out, into the open part of the court, or I
will give you
Egypt and
Cyprus over again for your insolence and
importunity; you have begged of all the others, and they have given
you lavishly, for they have abundance round them, and it is easy to
be free with other people's property when there is plenty of
it."
On this Odysseus began to move
off, and said, "Your looks, my fine sir, are better than your
breeding; if you were in your own house you would not spare a poor
man so much as a pinch of salt, for though you are in another
man's, and surrounded with abundance, you cannot find it in you
to give him even a piece of bread."
This made Antinoos very angry,
and he scowled at him saying, "You shall pay for this before you get
clear of the court." With these words he threw a footstool at him,
and hit him on the right shoulder-blade near the top of his back.
Odysseus stood firm as a rock and the blow did not even stagger him,
but he shook his head in silence as he brooded on his revenge. Then
he went back to the threshold and sat down there, laying his
well-filled wallet at his feet.
"Listen to me," he cried, "you
suitors of Queen Penelope, that I may speak even as I am minded. A
man knows neither ache [akhos] nor pain
[penthos] if he gets hit while fighting for his
wealth, or for his sheep or his cattle; and even so Antinoos has hit
me while in the service of my miserable belly, which is always
getting people into trouble. Still, if the poor have gods and
avenging deities at all, I pray them that Antinoos may come to a bad
end before his marriage."
"Sit where you are, and eat your
victuals in silence, or be off elsewhere," shouted Antinoos. "If you
say more I will have you dragged hand and foot through the courts,
and the servants shall flay you alive."
The other suitors were much
displeased at this, and one of the young men said, "Antinoos, you did
ill in striking that poor wretch of a tramp: it will be worse for you
if he should turn out to be some god - and we know the gods go about
disguised in all sorts of ways as people from foreign countries, and
travel about the world to see who do amiss [hubris]
and who righteously."
Thus said the suitors, but
Antinoos paid them no heed. Meanwhile Telemakhos was greatly
distressed [penthos] about the blow that had been
given to his father, and though no tear fell from him, he shook his
head in silence and brooded on his revenge.
Now when Penelope heard that the
beggar had been struck in the banqueting-room, she said before her
maids, "Would that Apollo would so strike you, Antinoos," and her
waiting woman Eurynome answered, "If our prayers were answered not
one of the suitors would ever again see the sun rise." Then Penelope
said, "Nurse, every single one of them is hateful
[ekhthroi] to me, for they mean nothing but mischief,
but I hate Antinoos like the darkness of death itself. A poor
unfortunate tramp has come begging about the house for sheer want.
Every one else has given him something to put in his wallet, but
Antinoos has hit him on the right shoulder-blade with a
footstool."
Thus did she talk with her maids
as she sat in her own room, and in the meantime Odysseus was getting
his dinner. Then she called for the swineherd and said, "Eumaios, go
and tell the stranger to come here, I want to see him and ask him
some questions. He seems to have traveled much, and he may have seen
or heard something of my unhappy husband."
To this you answered, O swineherd
Eumaios, "If these Achaeans, my lady, would only keep quiet, you
would be charmed with the history of his adventures. I had him three
days and three nights with me in my hut, which was the first place he
reached after running away from his ship, and he has not yet
completed the story of his misfortunes. If he had been the most
heaven-taught minstrel in the whole world, on whose lips all hearers
hang entranced, I could not have been more charmed as I sat in my hut
and listened to him. He says there is an old friendship between his
house and that of Odysseus, and that he comes from
Crete where the
descendants of Minos live, after having been driven here and there by
every kind of misfortune; he also declares that he has heard of
Odysseus as being alive and near at hand among the Thesprotians
[dêmos], and that he is bringing great wealth
home with him."
"Call him here, then," said
Penelope, "that I too may hear his story. As for the suitors, let
them take their pleasure indoors or out as they will, for they have
nothing to fret about. Their grain and wine remain unwasted in their
houses with none but servants to consume them, while they keep
hanging about our house day after day sacrificing our oxen, sheep,
and fat goats for their banquets, and never giving so much as a
thought to the quantity of wine they drink. No estate can stand such
recklessness, for we have now no Odysseus to protect us. If he were
to come again, he and his son would soon have their violent revenge
[biê]."
As she spoke Telemakhos sneezed
so loudly that the whole house resounded with it. Penelope laughed
when she heard this, and said to Eumaios, "Go and call the stranger;
did you not hear how my son sneezed just as I was speaking? This can
only mean that all the suitors are going to be killed, and that not
one of them shall escape. Furthermore I say, and lay my saying to
your heart: if I am satisfied that the stranger is speaking the truth
I shall give him a shirt and cloak of good wear."
When Eumaios heard this he went
straight to Odysseus and said, "Father stranger, my mistress
Penelope, mother of Telemakhos, has sent for you; she is in great
grief, but she wishes to hear anything you can tell her about her
husband, and if she is satisfied that you are speaking the truth, she
will give you a shirt and cloak, which are the very things that you
are most in want of. As for bread, you can get enough of that to fill
your belly, by begging about the dêmos, and letting
those give that will."
"I will tell Penelope," answered
Odysseus, "nothing but what is strictly true. I know all about her
husband, and have been partner with him in affliction, but I am
afraid of passing through this crowd of cruel suitors, for their
overweening pride [hubris] and violent insolence
[biê] reach heaven. Just now, moreover, as I was
going about the house without doing any harm, a man gave me a blow
that hurt me very much, but neither Telemakhos nor any one else
defended me. Tell Penelope, therefore, to be patient and wait till
sundown. Let her give me a seat close up to the fire, for my clothes
are worn very thin - you know they are, for you have seen them ever
since I first asked you to help me - she can then ask me about the
return of her husband."
The swineherd went back when he
heard this, and Penelope said as she saw him cross the threshold,
"Why do you not bring him here, Eumaios? Is he afraid that some one
will ill-treat him, or is he shy of coming inside the house at all?
Beggars should not be shamefaced."
To this you answered, O swineherd
Eumaios, "The stranger is quite reasonable. He is avoiding the
outrageous [hubris] suitors, and is only doing what
any one else would do. He asks you to wait till sundown, and it will
be much better, my lady, that you should have him all to yourself,
when you can hear him and talk to him as you will."
"The man is no fool," answered
Penelope, "it would very likely be as he says, for there are no such
abominable people in the whole world as these men are."
When she had done speaking
Eumaios went back to the suitors, for he had explained everything.
Then he went up to Telemakhos and said in his ear so that none could
overhear him, "My dear sir, I will now go back to the pigs, to see
after your property and my own business. You will look to what is
going on here, but above all be careful to keep out of danger, for
there are many who bear you ill will. May Zeus bring them to a bad
end before they do us a mischief."
"Very well," replied Telemakhos,
"go home when you have had your dinner, and in the morning come here
with the victims we are to sacrifice for the day. Leave the rest to
heaven and me."
On this Eumaios took his seat
again, and when he had finished his dinner he left the courts and the
room with the men at table, and went back to his pigs. As for the
suitors, they presently began to amuse themselves with singing and
dancing, for it was now getting on towards evening.