But he has learned no good, and will refuse To work; he better likes to stroll about With that insatiable stomach, asking alms To fill it. Let me tell thee what is sure To happen to him, should he ever come Into the palace of the glorious chief Ulysses. Many a footstool will be flung Around him by the hands of those who sit As guests, and they will tear the fellow’s sides.”
He spake, and in his folly thrust his heel Against the hero’s thigh. The blow moved not Ulysses from his path, nor swerved he aught, But meditated whether with a blow Of his good staff to take the fellow’s life, Or lift him in the air and dash his head Against the ground. Yet he endured the affront And checked his wrath. The swineherd spake, and chid The offender, and thus prayed with lifted hands:—
“Nymphs of the fountain, born to Jupiter!
If e’er in sacrifice Ulysses burned To you the thighs of lambs and goats, o’erlaid With fat, be pleased to grant the prayer I make, That, guided by some deity, the chief May yet return.
Then thy rude boasts would cease. Melanthius, which thou utterest in thy way From place to place while wandering through the town.
Unfaithful shepherds make a perishing flock.”
Melanthius, keeper of the goats, rejoined: “ ’Tis wonderful how flippant is the cur, And shrewd! But I shall carry him on board A good black ship, far off from Ithaca, And there will sell him for a goodly price. Would that Apollo of the silver bow Might in the palace slay Telemachus This very hour, or that the suitors might, As certainly as that the day which brings Ulysses to his home will never dawn!”
He spake, and left them there. They followed on Slowly. Melanthius hastened, and was soon At the king’s palace gate, and, entering, took A seat right opposite Eurymachus, Whose favorite he was.