Stranger and beggar, is allowed to hear! This good wine makes thee foolish, as wine oft Makes those who swallow it too greedily, And drink not with due stint. It maddened once Eurytion, the famed Centaur, in the halls Of the large-souled Pirithoüs. He had come Among the Lapithae, and when inflamed With wine to madness, in those very halls Did lawless deeds. The heroes were incensed. They rushed upon him, dragged him through the porch And out of doors, and there cut off his nose And ears, and he departed, frenzied still, And bearing in bewilderment of mind His punishment, whence war arose between Centaurs and men; yet surely he had brought The evil on himself, when overcome With wine. Such fearful mischief I foretell Will light on thee, if thou shouldst bend this bow, Nor canst thou hope for favor here among The people. We will send thee speedily, In a black galley, to King Echetus, The enemy of human kind, from whom Thou shalt find no escape. Drink, then, in peace Thy wine, and seek no strife with younger men.”
Then spake the sage Penelope again: “Truly, Antinoüs, it becomes thee not, Nor is it just, to vex the stranger guests Who seek the palace of Telemachus. Dost thou, then, think that, should this stranger bend, Proud as he is of his great strength of arm, The mighty bow that once Ulysses bore, He leads me hence a bride? No hope of that Is in his heart, and let no one of you Who banquet here allow a thought like that To vex him; ’tis a thing that cannot be.”
Then to the queen, Eurymachus, the son Of Polybus, replied: “We do not fear, Sage daughter of Icarius, that this man Will lead thee hence a bride; it cannot be. We fear the speech of men and women both. The very meanest of the Achaian race Will say: ‘Degenerate men are these, who seek To wed the consort of a glorious chief, Not one of whom can draw the bow he bore; And now there comes a wandering beggar-man, Who draws the bow with ease, and sends a shaft Through all the rings of steel.’ Thus will they speak, And this will be to us a cause of shame!”