On this he put the bow down,
letting it lean against the door [that led into the house]
with the arrow standing against the top of the bow. Then he sat down
on the seat from which he had risen, and Antinoos said:
"Come on each of you in his turn,
going towards the right from the place at which the cupbearer begins
when he is handing round the wine."
The rest agreed, and Leiodes son
of Oinops was the first to rise. He was sacrificial priest to the
suitors, and sat in the corner near the mixing-bowl. He was the only
man to whom their evil deeds were hateful [ekhthra]and
was indignant with the others. He was now the first to take the bow
and arrow, so he went on to the pavement to make his trial, but he
could not string the bow, for his hands were weak and unused to hard
work, they therefore soon grew tired, and he said to the suitors, "My
friends, I cannot string it; let another have it; this bow shall take
the life and soul [psukhê] out of many a chief
among us, for it is better to die than to live after having missed
the prize that we have so long striven for, and which has brought us
so long together. Some one of us is even now hoping and praying that
he may marry Penelope, but when he has seen this bow and tried it,
let him woo and make bridal offerings to some other woman, and let
Penelope marry whoever makes her the best offer and whose lot it is
to win her."
On this he put the bow down,
letting it lean against the door, with the arrow standing against the
tip of the bow. Then he took his seat again on the seat from which he
had risen; and Antinoos rebuked him saying:
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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