was wont to sit, Distributing the meats. He bore it thence And placed it opposite Telemachus, And at his table. Then he sat him down, And thither came the herald, bringing him A portion of the feast, and gave him bread From the full canister. Soon after him Ulysses entered, seemingly an old And wretched beggar, propped upon a staff, And wrapped in sordid weeds. He sat him down On the ashen threshold, just within the doors, And leaned against a shaft of cypress-wood, Which some artificer had skilfully Wrought by a line, and smoothed. Telemachus Called to the swineherd, bade him come, and took A loaf that lay in the fair canister, And all the flesh which his two hands could grasp.
“Bear this to yonder stranger; bid him go And ask a dole from every suitor here. No beggar should be bashful in his need.”
He spake, the hind obeyed, and, drawing near Ulysses, said to him in winged words:—
“These from Telemachus, who bids thee ask A dole from every suitor, for he says No beggar should be bashful in his need.”
Ulysses, the sagacious, answered thus: “May Jove, the sovereign, make Telemachus A happy man among the sons of men, And grant him all his heart desires in life!”
He spake, and took the gift in both his hands, And laid it down upon his tattered scrip Close to his feet. Then, while the poet sang, He ate, and, just as he had supped, the bard Closed his divine recital. Then ensued Great clamor in the hall, but Pallas came And moved Ulysses to arise, and ask From every suitor there a dole of bread, That he might know the better from the worse, Though none were to be spared. From right to left He took his way, and asked of every man, With outstretched hand, as if he had been long A beggar. And they pitied him, and gave, And looked at him with wonder, and inquired One of another who he was, and whence. Then spake Melanthius, keeper of the goats:—