prospered, as he here hath prospered mine. Thus would my master, had he here grown old, Have recompensed my toils; but he is dead. O that the house of Helen, for whose sake So many fell, had perished utterly! For he went forth at Agamemnon’s call, Honoring the summons, and on Ilium’s coast, Famed for its coursers, fought the sons of Troy.”
He spake, and girt his tunic round his loins, And hastened to the sties in which the herds Of swine were lying. Thence he took out two And slaughtered them, and singed them, sliced the flesh, And fixed it upon spits, and, when the whole Was roasted, brought and placed it reeking hot, Still on the spits and sprinkled with white meal, Before Ulysses. Then he mingled wine Of delicate flavors in a wooden bowl, And opposite Ulysses sat him down, And thus with kindly words bespake his guest:—
“Feast, stranger, on these porkers. We who serve May feed on them; it is the suitor train That banquet on the fatted swine—the men Who neither fear heaven’s anger nor are moved By pity. The great gods are never pleased With violent deeds; they honor equity And justice. Even those who land as foes And spoilers upon foreign shores, and bear Away much plunder by the will of Jove, Returning homeward with their laden barques, Feel, brooding heavily upon their minds, The fear of vengeance. But these suitors know— For haply they have heard some god declare— That he, the king, is dead; they neither make Their suit with decency, nor will withdraw To their own homes, but at their ease devour His substance with large waste, and never spare. Of all the days and nights which Jupiter Gives to mankind is none when they require A single victim only, or but two, For sacrifice, and lavishly they drain His wine-jars. Once large revenues were his. No hero on the dark-soiled continent Nor in the isle of Ithaca possessed Such wealth as he, nor even twenty men Together. Hear me while I give the amount. Twelve herds of kine that on the mainland graze Are his, as many flocks of sheep, of swine As