Then sage Ulysses said as he withdrew: “ ’Tis strange; thy mind agrees not with thy form. Thou wouldst not give a suppliant even salt In thine own house—thou who, while sitting here Fed at another’s table, canst not bear To give me bread from thy well-loaded board.”
He spake. Antinoüs grew more angry still, And frowned and answered him with winged words:—
“Dealer in saucy words! I hardly think That thou wilt leave this palace unchastised.”
He spake, and raised the footstool in his hand, And smote Ulysses on the lower part Of the right shoulder. Like a rock he stood, Unmoved beneath the blow Antinoüs gave, But shook his head in silence as he thought Of vengeance. Then, returning, he sat down Upon the threshold, where he laid his scrip Well filled, and thus bespake the suitor-train:—
“Hear me, ye suitors of the illustrious queen. Grief or resentment no man feels for blows Received by him while fighting for his own— His beeves or white-woolled sheep. But this man here, Antinoüs, dealt that blow on me because I have an empty stomach; hunger brings Great mischiefs upon men. If there be gods Or furies who avenge the poor, may death O’ertake Antinoüs ere his marriage-day!”
He ended. Then again Eupeithes’ son, Antinoüs, spake: “Eat, stranger, quietly; Sit still, or get thee hence; our young men else Who hear thy words will seize thee by the feet Or hands, and drag thee forth and flay thee there.”