And Ithacus, and Meritus, and Polyctor wrought it out:

  There the water-nourished poplars make a grove all round about,

  In a ring around it standing, and the fresh cold waters fall

  From the rocks above, and an altar of the Nymphs is built o’er all.

  And ever the folk wayfaring make their offerings thereupon.

  Thereby as now did meet them Melanthius, Dolius’ son,

  Driving his goats, and the flower of all the flock they were,

  Unto the Wooers’ banquet, and two herdsmen followed him there;

  And he saw them, and fell a-chiding, and spake in unseemly wise,

  With big words fiercely stirring Odysseus’ heart to arise:

  “Yea, yea! and thus full surely the base man leadeth the base,

  And the like to the like God bringeth: where then, to what a place

  Dost thou, O hapless swineherd, lead this hungry wallowing beast,

  This grievous gangrel beggar, this spoiler of the feast?

  Who shouldering many a door-post a-begging there will stand,

  And seek reward of the morsel, and not of the bowl nor the brand;

  But if unto me thou wouldst give him to guard my stead and stall,

  To sweep out the folds and to carry to the kids their twigs withal,

  There then the whey a-drinking he might get him a sturdy thigh.

  But since ill deeds he is learned in, the toil he will not try,

  Nor the work afield; but rather midst the folk will he cower still,

  And ever be craving somewhat his ravening maw to fill.

  But now a thing will I tell thee which shall come to pass one day,

  If to the house of Odysseus the godlike he cometh his way,

  About his head shall the footstools from the hands of men fly fast,

  And his ribs shall wear out a many as about the house they cast.”

  So saying, in his folly a kick on his haunch he gave

  As he passed him by: yet in nowise the King from the path he drave,

  Who steadfast there abided: but the thought did Odysseus weigh,

  Whether he with his club on-falling the life of him should slay,

  Or to earth should dash him headlong, having lifted him up in his place:

  But his wrath he withheld and forbore him. Then the swineherd looked

  in his face And chid him, and hove up his hands, and prayed a mighty prayer:

  “O Nymphs of the wells, Zeus’ Daughters, if on thine altars here

  Hath Odysseus folded the buttocks in fat for the altar fire,

  And hath offered of lambs or of kids, fulfil ye now my desire

  May that man at last come hither by God to usward brought!

  Then quickly thy vain-glory would he scatter unto nought

  Which thou in thy pride upholdest, as thou wanderest to and fro

  Through the town. Yea, evil shepherds, the sheep they soon undo.”

  But Melanthius the goatherd made answer to his tale:

  “Gods-help! what a word he sayeth, this dog well-learned in bale!

  Him on the black ship well-decked belike on a day shall I take

  Aloof from the Ithacan land, that much living for me he may make.

  Might but silver-bowed Apollo smite Telemachus to-day

  In his halls, or ‘neath the Wooers his life as surely lay,

  As the homefaring day of Odysseus aloof is dead and gone!’

  So saying there he left them, but slowly wending on,

  But himself he hastened, and quickly to the house of the King he gat,

  And hied him in, and withinward amidst of the Wooers sat:

  In face of Eurymachus sat he, for he was his friend above all,

  And his share of the flesh those brought him who were serving in the hall,

  And thereto the reverend housewife the bread for his eating bare.

  But Odysseus and the swineherd now drew exceeding near;

  And on the road they stayed them, for about them came along

  The voice of the hollow lyre, as Phemius sent forth the song.

  Than Odysseus caught the swineherd oy the hand and spake out theii:

  “Eumaeus, this is the house of Odysseus, the dwelling fair;

  And ‘twere easy to see and to mark, yea e’en midst many an one.

  There chamber riseth on chamber, and the garth is deftly dona

  With a wall, and all embattled, and every double door

  Is well fenced from the foeman; no man could win it by war.

  And a many men meseemeth therein are feasting well,

  For the savour of fat goeth upward, and the lyre her tale doth tell,

  E’en she whom the God ordaineth for the feast’s own sister fair.”

  Then thou, O swineherd Eumaeus, didst speak and answer there:

  “Thou art right, and herein, as ever, thou art of those that know:

  But let us now take counsel how all is like to go.

  Either be first to enter the well-built house and fair,

  And mingle with the Wooers, and I will abide thee here:

  Or if thou wilt, abide here, and forth before will I.

  But no long while be lingering, lest some one thee espy

  And drive thee off or smite thee: lay now these things to heart.”

  But the toil-stout goodly Odysseus thus answered on his part:

  “I know and I note; thou biddest a man that hath wit to know,

  Do thou go on before me, and I will abide while ye go.

  Forsooth in stripes and in peltings I am not unlearned to-day,

  For I have a heart that is hardy, and have borne many griefs by the way,

  Of the waves of the sea and of battle; and let this be numbered with those;

  Since forsooth the ravening belly may not be hidden close,

  The forger of bale, that giveth to menfolk many an ill,

  For whose sake the ships well thwarted will men array them still,

  To carry woe for the hapless o’er the sea unharvested.”

  But while each unto the other such things as this they said,

  Lo a hound his head was uplifting and pricking his ears as he lay,

  E’en Argus, the hound of Odysseus, whom he bred in the earlier day;

  But no joy of him had he gotten ere to Ilios’ holy land

  He went In days aforetime would the young men take him in hand,

  The goats of the wold and the roe-deer and the hares to follow fast

  But aloof had been his master, and there he lay outcast

  Amongst the dung of oxen and of mules, whereof there lay

  A plenty about the garth-gate till folk should have it away,

  The thralls of the lord Odysseus, to dung his acres wide.

  There then did the woodhound Argus all full of ticks abide;

  But now so soon as he noted Odysseus drawing anear

  He wagged his tail, and fawning he laid down either ear,

  But had no might to drag him nigher from where he lay

  To his master, who beheld him and wiped a tear away

  That he lightly hid from Eumaeus, unto whom he spake and said:

  “Eumaeus, much I marvel at the dog on the dung-heap laid;

  Fair-shapen is his body, but nought I know indeed

  If unto this his fairness he hath had good running speed,

  Or is but like unto some; men’s table-dogs I mean,

  Which but because of their fairness lords cherish to be seen.”

  Then thou, O swineherd Eumaeus, didst speak and answer thus:

  “Yea, this is the hound of the man that hath died aloof from us;

  And if yet to do and to look on he were even such an one

  As Odysseus left behind him when to Troy he gat him gone,

  Then wouldest thou wonder beholding his speed and hardihood,

  ‘For no monster that he followed through the depths of the tangled wood

  Would he blench from, and well he wotted of their trail and where it led

  But now ill he hath, since his master in an alien land is dead,

  And no care of him have the women, that are heedless here and light;

  Since thralls whenso they are missing their masters’ rule and might

  No longer are they willing to do the thing that should be;

  For Zeus the loud-voiced taketh half a man’s valiancy

  Whenso the day of thraldom hath hold of him at last”

  So saying into the homestead of the happy place he passed,

  And straight to the hall he wended ‘mid the Wooers overbold

  But the murky doom of the death-day of Argus now took hold

  When he had looked on Odysseus in this the twentieth year.

  But Telemachus the godlike, the first of all men there, [straightway,

  Saw the swineherd come through the house, and he nodded to him

  And called him; who looked around him and took a bench that lay

  Near-hand, and thereon the carver was wont to sit withal,

  Dealing much flesh to the Wooers as they feasted in the hall.

  This then to Telemachus’ table as now Eumaeus drew,

  And thereon sat over against him, and the henchman came thereto,

  And took and dealt him his share, and bread from the basket withal.

  But hard on his heels was Odysseus, and he entered his house and his hall

  Most like to a wretched beggar, and a staff-carle bent and old,

  And woeful was the raiment that his body did enfold.

  There he sat on the ashen threshold within the feast-hall’s door,

  Leaned against a cypress pillar, which the wright in days of yore

  Had smoothed by dint of cunning and straightened by the line.

  Then Telemachus called to Eumaeus, and spake to the herder of swine

  When a whole loaf he had taken from out the basket fair,

  And of the flesh moreover as much as his hands might bear:

  “Go take and give to the stranger, and bid him now to wend

  From Wooer unto Wooer, and beg from end to end,

  For nothing good, meseemeth, to a needy man is shame.”

  So the swineherd when he had hearkened straight unto Odysseus came,

  And standing close anigh him a winged word spake he:

  “Telemachus giveth thee this,’ O guest, and biddeth thee

  To beg of all the Wooers, and from end to end to speed,

  For he saith that shame avails not the man that lives by bede.”

  Then the many-wiled Odysseus he spake and answered again:

  “King Zeus, Telemachus make me a happy man of men!

  And may all things befal him as his soul would have them to be!”

  So he spake, and in both hands took it, and set it presently

  Before his feet and laid it on the scrip, that ugly thing;

  And he ate the while the minstrel in the hall ceased not to sing.

  But when his meat was ended and the holy singing ceased,

  And uprose the din of the Wooers throughout the hall of feast,

  Then Athene stood by Odysseus, Laertes’ son of yore,

  And egged him on of the Wooers to gather cakes good store,

  That he might know the righteous from the reckless midst of these;

  Albeit no man among them from his bane would she release.

  So on from the right he started, and forth his hand did he hold

  To each man there, as he had been a beggar from of old;

  And they had compassion and gave him, and wondered at him there,

  And were asking of each other what the man, and whence he were.

  Then spake to them Melanthius, who the goatherd long had been:

  “Hearken to me, O Wooers of our most renowned Queen,

  Concerning this man, for I saw him but a little while ago;

  And forsooth it was the swineherd that hath led him hereunto,

  But himself I know not clearly nor of whom he boasts him to be.”

  So he spake; but Antinoiis thereon chid the swineherd, and quoth he:

  “O thou most ill-famed swineherd, why broughtst thou this man to the

  Have we nought enough of bedesmen that wander up and down, [town?

  And grievous irksome beggars, the spoil-feasts of the land?

  And deemest thou this so gainful that they gather here their band,

  And eat up thy master’s life-store, that him too for a guest ye must take?”

  Thereon Eumaeus the swineherd in this wise answered and spake:

  “Antinoiis, though thou be noble, yet ye say things nothing fair,

  For who would a guest be bidding, when himself from otherwhere

  He cometh: save he should happen on a craftsman of the folk

  As a seer, or a healer of sickness, or a woodwright deft of stroke?

  Yea, or a holy singer, whose song shall please us well?

  For welcome are these to all men on the limitless earth that dwell.

  But none would bid a beggar himself to waste and wear.

  Yet hard art thou for ever amidst these Wooers here

  To the homemen of Odysseus, and to me the most of all.

  Though I heed not, while yet with the living within this house and hall

  Dwell Telemachus the godlike and the sage Penelope.”

  Him then Telemachus answered, and in this wise spake he:

  “Nay, peace! nor answer this man with many words I pray.

  ’Tis the wont of Antinoiis ever the strife on us to lay

  With bitter words; and the others to like things oft hath he stirred.”

  So he spake and to Antinoiis put forth a winged word:

  “Thou carest for me, Antinoiis, as a father cares for a son!

  Since thou biddest.bid the guest here with a hard word to begone

  From out of the house and the hall; and may God forbid it to be!

  Take somewhat and give him! I grudge not, nay rather I pray it thee.

  And herein heed not my mother, nor any within the house

  Of the thralls or any other of Odysseus the glorious!

  Yet within thy breast meseemeth no such a thought there came;

  Yea, rather than give to another thyself wouldst thou eat the same.”

  So therewithal Antinoiis he saith and answereth now:

  “Telemachus, wordy, unbridled in anger! and what sayest thou?

  If all the Wooers should give him a gift as bounteous

  As I, for three months henceforward should we stave him off from the house.”

  And he took up and showed a footstool which lay ‘neath the table there,

  Whereon he was wont to be resting his feet the sleek and fair;

  But gifts gave all the others, and with flesh and bread good store

  They filled his scrip; and Odysseus would get him back once more

  To the threshold, there to be tasting of the gifts of the Achaean lords:

  But he stayed him by Antinoiis and spake in such-like words:

  “Give, friend! since thou nowise seemest of Achaeans in this hall

  To be the worst: nay, rather the best and the king of all.

  So thou forsooth shouldest give me a greater deal of bread,

  That I the fame of thy bounty o’er the boundless earth may spread.

  For I indeed aforetime midst men a house did have;

  And rich was I and happy, and oft to the wanderer gave,

  Whatso he were, and what errand to my homestead drew him anigh.

  And thralls had I out of number, and all other things whereby

  Men hold a plenteous living and rich are held to be;

  But Zeus the son of Cronos he willed the waste of me:

  For with wide-wandering sea-thieves he sent me forth to go

  A long road unto Egypt, that my life he might undo.

  So in the River of Egypt my shapen ships I stayed,

  And there my trusty fellows e’en one and all I bade

  That they by the ships should be biding and draw them up a-land:

  And the watchers I bade to betake them to the heights and there to stand.

  But they yielded to fierce folly, and went after the lusts of their might;

  The fair fields of the men of Egypt they fell to wasting forthright,

  And they drave away their women and their children, and thereby

  The men they slew: but quickly to the city came the cry,

  And men heard the shout and gathered when the day dawn shone again,

  And the footmen and the horsemen were over all the plain,

  And the light of brass a-flashing; and Zeus the thunder-glad

  Cast ill fear amidst of my fellows, and no heart any had

  To outface the host in battle, for the bale all round us drew.

  There many a man of my fellows with the whetted brass they slew,

  And some alive they led them to toil as thralls in need;

  But me to a guest that happed there they gave to Cyprus to lead,

  E’en Dmetor, son of Iasus, in Cyprus rich and great

  And thence now come I hither bearing my sorrows’ weight”

  Him then Antinoiis answered, and spake unto him thus:

  “What God this plague, this mar-feast, hath hither sent to us?

  Stand clear! stand out amidmost, aloof from my board and me

  Lest thou come to a bitter Egypt and a Cyprus ill for thee,

  Thou shameless among beggars! thou sturdy one to stand

  And in turn to beg from all men, and they give thee out of hand,

  Reckless and nought close-fisted, nor knowing any ruth

  In bestowing the wealth of another: when much lies by each forsooth.”

  But to him the wily Odysseus thus spake as he drew aback:

  “Woe worth! that thou with thy fairness the mind of wit shouldest lack,

  Not a grain of salt hadst thou given in thine house to the wanderer,

  Who now in another’s sitting hast no heart to take from the cheer

  A crust of bread to give me; and abundance by thee lies.”

  But the wrath the more for his speaking in Antinous’ heart did arise,

  And therewith scowling upon him a winged word he spake: [make

  “Now deem I that nought happy thy way through the house shalt thou As thou goest aback, since forsooth thou babblest blame in the hall.”

  Then he caught up the stool and cast it, and struck his right shoulder withal

  At the nethermost part of the back: yet stark he stood, rockfast,

  And nothing there he tottered for all Antinoiis’ cast;

  But in silence his head he nodded, in his deep heart deeming of ill.

 

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