prowess, and would try my own with theirs Before you all. At any of the games Practised among mankind I am not ill, Whatever they may be. The polished bow I well know how to handle. I should be The first to strike a foe by arrows sent Among a hostile squadron, though there stood A crowd of fellow-warriors by my side And also aimed their shafts. The only one Whose skill in archery excelled my own, When we Achaians drew the bow at Troy, Was Philoctetes; to all other men On earth that live by bread I hold myself Superior. Yet I claim no rivalry With men of ancient times—with Hercules And Eurytus the Oechalian, who defied The immortals to a contest with the bow. Therefore was mighty Eurytus cut off. Apollo, angry to be challenged, slew The hero. I can hurl a spear beyond Where others send an arrow. All my fear Is for my feet, so weakened have I been Among the stormy waves with want of food At sea, and thus my limbs have lost their strength.”
He ended here, and all the assembly sat In silence; King Alcinoüs only spake:—
“Stranger, since thou dost speak without offence, And but to assert the prowess of thine arm, Indignant that amid the public games This man should rail at thee, and since thy wish Is only that all others who can speak Becomingly may not in time to come Dispraise that prowess, now, then, heed my words, And speak of them within thy palace halls To other heroes when thou banquetest Beside thy wife and children, and dost think Of things that we excel in—arts which Jove Gives us, transmitted from our ancestors. In boxing and in wrestling small renown Have we, but we are swift of foot; we guide Our galleys bravely o’er the deep; we take Delight in feasts; we love the harp, the dance, And change of raiment, the warm bath and bed. Rise, then, Phaeacian masters of the dance, And tread your measures, that our guest may tell His friends at home how greatly we surpass All other men in seamanship, the race, The dance, the art of song. Go, one of you, And bring Demodocus his clear-toned harp, That somewhere in our palace has been left.”