“Ye suitors of my mother, insolent And overbearing; cheerful be our feast, Not riotous. It would become us well To listen to the lay of such a bard, So like the gods in voice. I bid you all Meet in full council with the morrow morn, That I may give you warning to depart From out my palace, and to seek your feasts Elsewhere at your own charge—haply to hold Your daily banquets at each other’s homes.
But if it seem to you the better way To plunder one man’s goods, go on to waste My substance; I will call the immortal gods To aid me, and if Jupiter allow Fit retribution for your deeds, ye die, Within this very palace, unavenged.”
He spake; the suitors bit their close-pressed lips, Astonished at the youth’s courageous words.
And thus Antinoüs, Eupeithes’ son, Made answer: “Most assuredly the gods, Telemachus, have taught thee how to frame Grand sentences and gallantly harangue. Ne’er may the son of Saturn make thee king Over the seagirt Ithaca, whose isle Is thy inheritance by claim of birth.”
Telemachus, the prudent, thus rejoined:—
“Wilt thou be angry at the word I speak, Antinoüs? I would willingly accept The kingly station if conferred by Jove. Dost thou indeed regard it as the worst Of all conditions of mankind? Not so For him who reigns; his house grows opulent, And he the more is honored. Many kings Within the bounds of seagirt Ithaca There are, both young and old, let anyone Bear rule, since great Ulysses is no more; But I will be the lord of mine own house, And o’er my servants whom the godlike chief, Ulysses, brought from war, his share of spoil.”
Eurymachus, the son of Polybus, Addressed the youth in turn: “Assuredly, What man hereafter, of the Achaian race, Shall bear the rule