<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=410323" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Odyssey: Book 18</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now there came a certain common tramp who used to go begging all<br>over the city of Ithaca, and was notorious as an incorrigible<br>glutton and drunkard. This man had no strength nor stay in him, but he<br>was a great hulking fellow to look at; his real name, the one his<br>mother gave him, was Arnaeus, but the young men of the place called<br>him Irus, because he used to run errands for any one who would send<br>him. As soon as he came he began to insult Ulysses, and to try and<br>drive him out of his own house.<br>"Be off, old man," he cried, "from the doorway, or you shall be<br>dragged out neck and heels. Do you not see that they are all giving me<br>the wink, and wanting me to turn you out by force, only I do not<br>like to do so? Get up then, and go of yourself, or we shall come to<br>blows."<br>Ulysses frowned on him and said, "My friend, I do you no manner of<br>harm; people give you a great deal, but I am not jealous. There is<br>room enough in this doorway for the pair of us, and you need not<br>grudge me things that are not yours to give. You seem to be just<br>such another tramp as myself, but perhaps the gods will give us better<br>luck by and by. Do not, however, talk too much about fighting or you<br>will incense me, and old though I am, I shall cover your mouth and<br>chest with blood. I shall have more peace to-morrow if I do, for you<br>will not come to the house of Ulysses any more."<br>Irus was very angry and answered, "You filthy glutton, you run on<br>trippingly like an old fish-fag. I have a good mind to lay both<br>hands about you, and knock your teeth out of your head like so many<br>boar's tusks. Get ready, therefore, and let these people here stand by<br>and look on. You will never be able to fight one who is so much<br>younger than yourself."<br>Thus roundly did they rate one another on the smooth pavement in<br>front of the doorway, and when Antinous saw what was going on he<br>laughed heartily and said to the others, "This is the finest sport<br>that you ever saw; heaven never yet sent anything like it into this<br>house. The stranger and Irus have quarreled and are going to fight,<br>let us set them on to do so at once."<br>The suitors all came up laughing, and gathered round the two<br>ragged tramps. "Listen to me," said Antinous, "there are some goats'<br>paunches down at the fire, which we have filled with blood and fat,<br>and set aside for supper; he who is victorious and proves himself to<br>be the better man shall have his pick of the lot; he shall be free<br>of our table and we will not allow any other beggar about the house at<br>all."<br>The others all agreed, but Ulysses, to throw them off the scent,<br>said, "Sirs, an old man like myself, worn out with suffering, cannot<br>hold his own against a young one; but my irrepressible belly urges<br>me on, though I know it can only end in my getting a drubbing. You<br>must swear, however that none of you will give me a foul blow to<br>favour Irus and secure him the victory."<br>They swore as he told them, and when they had completed their oath<br>Telemachus put in a word and said, "Stranger, if you have a mind to<br>settle with this fellow, you need not be afraid of any one here.<br>Whoever strikes you will have to fight more than one. I am host, and<br>the other chiefs, Antinous and Eurymachus, both of them men of<br>understanding, are of the same mind as I am."<br>Every one assented, and Ulysses girded his old rags about his loins,<br>thus baring his stalwart thighs, his broad chest and shoulders, and<br>his mighty arms; but Minerva came up to him and made his limbs even<br>stronger still. The suitors were beyond measure astonished, and one<br>would turn towards his neighbour saying, "The stranger has brought<br>such a thigh out of his old rags that there will soon be nothing<br>left of Irus."<br>Irus began to be very uneasy as he heard them, but the servants<br>girded him by force, and brought him [into the open part of the court]<br>in such a fright that his limbs were all of a tremble. Antinous<br>scolded him and said, "You swaggering bully, you ought never to have<br>been born at all if you are afraid of such an old broken-down creature<br>as this tramp is. I say, therefore- and it shall surely be- if he<br>beats you and proves himself the better man, I shall pack you off on<br>board ship to the mainland and send you to king Echetus, who kills<br>every one that comes near him. He will cut off your nose and ears, and<br>draw out your entrails for the dogs to eat."<br>This frightened Irus still more, but they brought him into the<br>middle of the court, and the two men raised their hands to fight. Then<br>Ulysses considered whether he should let drive so hard at him as to<br>make an end of him then and there, or whether he should give him a<br>lighter blow that should only knock him down; in the end he deemed<br>it best to give the lighter blow for fear the Achaeans should begin to<br>suspect who he was. Then they began to fight, and Irus hit Ulysses<br>on the right shoulder; but Ulysses gave Irus a blow on the neck<br>under the ear that broke in the bones of his skull, and the blood came<br>gushing out of his mouth; he fell groaning in the dust, gnashing his<br>teeth and kicking on the ground, but the suitors threw up their<br>hands and nearly died of laughter, as Ulysses caught hold of him by<br>the foot and dragged him into the outer court as far as the<br>gate-house. There he propped him up against the wall and put his staff<br>in his hands. "Sit here," said he, "and keep the dogs and pigs off;<br>you are a pitiful creature, and if you try to make yourself king of<br>the beggars any more you shall fare still worse."<br>Then he threw his dirty old wallet, all tattered and torn, over<br>his shoulder with the cord by which it hung, and went back to sit down<br>upon the threshold; but the suitors went within the cloisters,<br>laughing and saluting him, "May Jove, and all the other gods," said<br>they, 'grant you whatever you want for having put an end to the<br>importunity of this insatiable tramp. We will take him over to the<br>mainland presently, to king Echetus, who kills every one that comes<br>near him."<br>Ulysses hailed this as of good omen, and Antinous set a great goat's<br>paunch before him filled with blood and fat. Amphinomus took two<br>loaves out of the bread-basket and brought them to him, pledging him<br>as he did so in a golden goblet of wine. "Good luck to you," he<br>said, "father stranger, you are very badly off at present, but I<br>hope you will have better times by and by."<br>To this Ulysses answered, "Amphinomus, you seem to be a man of<br>good understanding, as indeed you may well be, seeing whose son you<br>are. I have heard your father well spoken of; he is Nisus of<br>Dulichium, a man both brave and wealthy. They tell me you are his son,<br>and you appear to be a considerable person; listen, therefore, and<br>take heed to what I am saying. Man is the vainest of all creatures<br>that have their being upon earth. As long as heaven vouchsafes him<br>health and strength, he thinks that he shall come to no harm<br>hereafter, and even when the blessed gods bring sorrow upon him, he<br>bears it as he needs must, and makes the best of it; for God<br>Almighty gives men their daily minds day by day. I know all about<br>it, for I was a rich man once, and did much wrong in the<br>stubbornness of my pride, and in the confidence that my father and<br>my brothers would support me; therefore let a man fear God in all<br>things always, and take the good that heaven may see fit to send him<br>without vainglory. Consider the infamy of what these suitors are<br>doing; see how they are wasting the estate, and doing dishonour to the<br>wife, of one who is certain to return some day, and that, too, not<br>long hence. Nay, he will be here soon; may heaven send you home<br>quietly first that you may not meet with him in the day of his coming,<br>for once he is here the suitors and he will not part bloodlessly."<br>With these words he made a drink-offering, and when he had drunk<br>he put the gold cup again into the hands of Amphinomus, who walked<br>away serious and bowing his head, for he foreboded evil. But even so<br>he did not escape destruction, for Minerva had doomed him fall by<br>the hand of Telemachus. So he took his seat again at the place from<br>which he had come.<br>Then Minerva put it into the mind of Penelope to show herself to the<br>suitors, that she might make them still more enamoured of her, and win<br>still further honour from her son and husband. So she feigned a<br>mocking laugh and said, "Eurynome, I have changed my and have a<br>fancy to show myself to the suitors although I detest them. I should<br>like also to give my son a hint that he had better not have anything<br>more to do with them. They speak fairly enough but they mean<br>mischief."<br>"My dear child," answered Eurynome, "all that you have said is true,<br>go and tell your son about it, but first wash yourself and anoint your<br>face. Do not go about with your cheeks all covered with tears; it is<br>not right that you should grieve so incessantly; for Telemachus,<br>whom you always prayed that you might live to see with a beard, is<br>already grown up."<br>"I know, Eurynome," replied Penelope, "that you mean well, but do<br>not try and persuade me to wash and to anoint myself, for heaven<br>robbed me of all my beauty on the day my husband sailed; nevertheless,<br>tell Autonoe and Hippodamia that I want them. They must be with me<br>when I am in the cloister; I am not going among the men alone; it<br>would not be proper for me to do so."<br>On this the old woman went out of the room to bid the maids go to<br>their mistress. In the meantime Minerva bethought her of another<br>matter, and sent Penelope off into a sweet slumber; so she lay down on<br>her couch and her limbs became heavy with sleep. Then the goddess shed<br>grace and beauty over her that all the Achaeans might admire her.<br>She washed her face with the ambrosial loveliness that Venus wears<br>when she goes dancing with the Graces; she made her taller and of a<br>more commanding figure, while as for her complexion it was whiter than<br>sawn ivory. When Minerva had done all this she went away, whereon<br>the maids came in from the women's room and woke Penelope with the<br>sound of their talking.<br>"What an exquisitely delicious sleep I have been having," said<br>she, as she passed her hands over her face, "in spite of all my<br>misery. I wish Diana would let me die so sweetly now at this very<br>moment, that I might no longer waste in despair for the loss of my<br>dear husband, who possessed every kind of good quality and was the<br>most distinguished man among the Achaeans."<br>With these words she came down from her upper room, not alone but<br>attended by two of her maidens, and when she reached the suitors she<br>stood by one of the bearing-posts supporting the roof of the cloister,<br>holding a veil before her face, and with a staid maid servant on<br>either side of her. As they beheld her the suitors were so overpowered<br>and became so desperately enamoured of her, that each one prayed he<br>might win her for his own bed fellow.<br>"Telemachus," said she, addressing her son, "I fear you are no<br>longer so discreet and well conducted as you used to be. When you were<br>younger you had a greater sense of propriety; now, however, that you<br>are grown up, though a stranger to look at you would take you for<br>the son of a well-to-do father as far as size and good looks go,<br>your conduct is by no means what it should be. What is all this<br>disturbance that has been going on, and how came you to allow a<br>stranger to be so disgracefully ill-treated? What would have<br>happened if he had suffered serious injury while a suppliant in our<br>house? Surely this would have been very discreditable to you."<br>"I am not surprised, my dear mother, at your displeasure," replied<br>Telemachus, "I understand all about it and know when things are not as<br>they should be, which I could not do when I was younger; I cannot,<br>however, behave with perfect propriety at all times. First one and<br>then another of these wicked people here keeps driving me out of my<br>mind, and I have no one to stand by me. After all, however, this fight<br>between Irus and the stranger did not turn out as the suitors meant it<br>to do, for the stranger got the best of it. I wish Father Jove,<br>Minerva, and Apollo would break the neck of every one of these<br>wooers of yours, some inside the house and some out; and I wish they<br>might all be as limp as Irus is over yonder in the gate of the outer<br>court. See how he nods his head like a drunken man; he has had such<br>a thrashing that he cannot stand on his feet nor get back to his home,<br>wherever that may be, for has no strength left in him."<br>Thus did they converse. Eurymachus then came up and said, "Queen<br>Penelope, daughter of Icarius, if all the Achaeans in Iasian Argos<br>could see you at this moment, you would have still more suitors in<br>your house by tomorrow morning, for you are the most admirable woman<br>in the whole world both as regards personal beauty and strength of<br>understanding."<br>To this Penelope replied, "Eurymachus, heaven robbed me of all my<br>beauty whether of face or figure when the Argives set sail for Troy<br>and my dear husband with them. If he were to return and look after<br>my affairs, I should both be more respected and show a better presence<br>to the world. As it is, I am oppressed with care, and with the<br>afflictions which heaven has seen fit to heap upon me. My husband<br>foresaw it all, and when he was leaving home he took my right wrist in<br>his hand- 'Wife, 'he said, 'we shall not all of us come safe home<br>from Troy, for the Trojans fight well both with bow and spear. They<br>are excellent also at fighting from chariots, and nothing decides<br>the issue of a fight sooner than this. I know not, therefore,<br>whether heaven will send me back to you, or whether I may not fall<br>over there at Troy. In the meantime do you look after things here.<br>Take care of my father and mother as at present, and even more so<br>during my absence, but when you see our son growing a beard, then<br>marry whom you will, and leave this your present home. This is what he<br>said and now it is all coming true. A night will come when I shall<br>have to yield myself to a marriage which I detest, for Jove has<br>taken from me all hope of happiness. This further grief, moreover,<br>cuts me to the very heart. You suitors are not wooing me after the<br>custom of my country. When men are courting a woman who they think<br>will be a good wife to them and who is of noble birth, and when they<br>are each trying to win her for himself, they usually bring oxen and<br>sheep to feast the friends of the lady, and they make her<br>magnificent presents, instead of eating up other people's property<br>without paying for it."<br>This was what she said, and Ulysses was glad when he heard her<br>trying to get presents out of the suitors, and flattering them with<br>fair words which he knew she did not mean.<br>Then Antinous said, "Queen Penelope, daughter of Icarius, take as<br>many presents as you please from any one who will give them to you; it<br>is not well to refuse a present; but we will not go about our business<br>nor stir from where we are, till you have married the best man among<br>us whoever he may be."<br>The others applauded what Antinous had said, and each one sent his<br>servant to bring his present. Antinous's man returned with a large and<br>lovely dress most exquisitely embroidered. It had twelve beautifully<br>made brooch pins of pure gold with which to fasten it. Eurymachus<br>immediately brought her a magnificent chain of gold and amber beads<br>that gleamed like sunlight. Eurydamas's two men returned with some<br>earrings fashioned into three brilliant pendants which glistened<br>most beautifully; while king Pisander son of Polyctor gave her a<br>necklace of the rarest workmanship, and every one else brought her a<br>beautiful present of some kind.<br>Then the queen went back to her room upstairs, and her maids brought<br>the presents after her. Meanwhile the suitors took to singing and<br>dancing, and stayed till evening came. They danced and sang till it<br>grew dark; they then brought in three braziers to give light, and<br>piled them up with chopped firewood very and dry, and they lit torches<br>from them, which the maids held up turn and turn about. Then Ulysses<br>said:<br>"Maids, servants of Ulysses who has so long been absent, go to the<br>queen inside the house; sit with her and amuse her, or spin, and<br>pick wool. I will hold the light for all these people. They may stay<br>till morning, but shall not beat me, for I can stand a great deal."<br>The maids looked at one another and laughed, while pretty Melantho<br>began to gibe at him contemptuously. She was daughter to Dolius, but<br>had been brought up by Penelope, who used to give her toys to play<br>with, and looked after her when she was a child; but in spite of all<br>this she showed no consideration for the sorrows of her mistress,<br>and used to misconduct herself with Eurymachus, with whom she was in<br>love.<br>"Poor wretch," said she, "are you gone clean out of your mind? Go<br>and sleep in some smithy, or place of public gossips, instead of<br>chattering here. Are you not ashamed of opening your mouth before your<br>betters- so many of them too? Has the wine been getting into your<br>head, or do you always babble in this way? You seem to have lost<br>your wits because you beat the tramp Irus; take care that a better man<br>than he does not come and cudgel you about the head till he pack you<br>bleeding out of the house."<br>"Vixen," replied Ulysses, scowling at her, "I will go and tell<br>Telemachus what you have been saying, and he will have you torn limb<br>from limb."<br>With these words he scared the women, and they went off into the<br>body of the house. They trembled all aver, for they thought he would<br>do as he said. But Ulysses took his stand near the burning braziers,<br>holding up torches and looking at the people- brooding the while on<br>things that should surely come to pass.<br>But Minerva would not let the suitors for one moment cease their<br>insolence, for she wanted Ulysses to become even more bitter against<br>them; she therefore set Eurymachus son of Polybus on to gibe at him,<br>which made the others laugh. "Listen to me," said he, "you suitors<br>of Queen Penelope, that I may speak even as I am minded. It is not for<br>nothing that this man has come to the house of Ulysses; I believe<br>the light has not been coming from the torches, but from his own head-<br>for his hair is all gone, every bit of it."<br>Then turning to Ulysses he said, "Stranger, will you work as a<br>servant, if I send you to the wolds and see that you are well paid?<br>Can you build a stone fence, or plant trees? I will have you fed all<br>the year round, and will find you in shoes and clothing. Will you<br>go, then? Not you; for you have got into bad ways, and do not want<br>to work; you had rather fill your belly by going round the country<br>begging."<br>"Eurymachus," answered Ulysses, "if you and I were to work one<br>against the other in early summer when the days are at their<br>longest- give me a good scythe, and take another yourself, and let<br>us see which will fast the longer or mow the stronger, from dawn<br>till dark when the mowing grass is about. Or if you will plough<br>against me, let us each take a yoke of tawny oxen, well-mated and of<br>great strength and endurance: turn me into a four acre field, and<br>see whether you or I can drive the straighter furrow. If, again, war<br>were to break out this day, give me a shield, a couple of spears and a<br>helmet fitting well upon my temples- you would find me foremost in the<br>fray, and would cease your gibes about my belly. You are insolent<br>and cruel, and think yourself a great man because you live in a little<br>world, ind that a bad one. If Ulysses comes to his own again, the<br>doors of his house are wide, but you will find them narrow when you<br>try to fly through them."<br>Eurymachus was furious at all this. He scowled at him and cried,<br>"You wretch, I will soon pay you out for daring to say such things<br>to me, and in public too. Has the wine been getting into your head<br>or do you always babble in this way? You seem to have lost your wits<br>because you beat the tramp Irus. With this he caught hold of a<br>footstool, but Ulysses sought protection at the knees of Amphinomus of<br>Dulichium, for he was afraid. The stool hit the cupbearer on his right<br>hand and knocked him down: the man fell with a cry flat on his back,<br>and his wine-jug fell ringing to the ground. The suitors in the<br>covered cloister were now in an uproar, and one would turn towards his<br>neighbour, saying, "I wish the stranger had gone somewhere else, bad<br>luck to hide, for all the trouble he gives us. We cannot permit such<br>disturbance about a beggar; if such ill counsels are to prevail we<br>shall have no more pleasure at our banquet."<br>On this Telemachus came forward and said, "Sirs, are you mad? Can<br>you not carry your meat and your liquor decently? Some evil spirit has<br>possessed you. I do not wish to drive any of you away, but you have<br>had your suppers, and the sooner you all go home to bed the better."<br>The suitors bit their lips and marvelled at the boldness of his<br>speech; but Amphinomus the son of Nisus, who was son to Aretias, said,<br>"Do not let us take offence; it is reasonable, so let us make no<br>answer. Neither let us do violence to the stranger nor to any of<br>Ulysses' servants. Let the cupbearer go round with the<br>drink-offerings, that we may make them and go home to our rest. As for<br>the stranger, let us leave Telemachus to deal with him, for it is to<br>his house that he has come."<br>Thus did he speak, and his saying pleased them well, so Mulius of<br>Dulichium, servant to Amphinomus, mixed them a bowl of wine and<br>water and handed it round to each of them man by man, whereon they<br>made their drink-offerings to the blessed gods: Then, when they had<br>made their drink-offerings and had drunk each one as he was minded,<br>they took their several ways each of them to his own abode.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Homer">Homer</a>, translated by Samuel Butler<div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=410323" data-title="The Odyssey: Book 18 de Homer" data-description="Now there came a certain common tramp who used to go begging all/over the city of Ithaca, and was notorious as an incorrigible/glutton and drunkard. This man had no strength nor stay in him, but he/was a great hulking fellow to look at; his real n..."></div> </div> </div>

solid border dashed border dotted border double border groove border ridge border inset border outset border no border blue green red purple cyan gold silver black