The <I>Odyssey</I>
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and all the meat that both his hands could encompass:
“Take this food to give to the stranger and tell him
to walk around and beg from all of the suitors.
It’s no good thing for a man in need to be bashful.”
A Beggar Making His Rounds
He spoke that way, the swineherd listened and walked up
close to the man, his words with a feathery swiftness,
“Stranger, Telemakhos offers you food and he tells you
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to walk around and beg from all of the suitors.
It’s no good thing for a man in need to be bashful.”
Odysseus, full of designs, answered by praying:
“Lord Zeus, make Telemakhos happy among men!
Whatever his heart hopes for, let all of it happen.”
He took the food in both his hands and he set it
down in front of his feet on the moldering knapsack.
He ate as long as the poet sang in the great hall.
After he dined and the godlike singer was resting,
suitors made loud noise in the hall. However Athene,
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moving close to Odysseus, son of Laertes,
stirred him to gather bits of bread from the suitors.
He’d find out who’d act right and who’d be lawless.
Even so the Goddess would save no suitor from death here.
He walked along from left to right, begging from each man,
stretching his hand around as though he’d begged for a long time.
They pitied and gave him food, surprised at the stranger,
asking each other his name and where he had come from.
Bothersome Paupers
Then Melantheus told them, that herder of goat-flocks,
“Listen, you men who court a queen who is famous!
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About this stranger, I certainly saw him before this.
The swineherd led him in fact right to the palace.
But I’m not sure what the man claims for a birthplace.”
Soon as he’d spoken Antinoos chided the hog-man.
“Far-famed pig-herd! Why do you bring such a person
into our city? Aren’t there enough roamers and other
annoying paupers, the kind that lick up the meal-plates?
Don’t you dislike their gathering here and devouring
your master’s goods? Now you’ve called in a new one.”
Who Would Ask for a Pauper?
Then Eumaios the swineherd, you answered by saying,
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“You don’t speak fairly, Antinoos, though you’re a noble.
Who’d go abroad himself and ask that a stranger
be brought here unless the man could work for our people?
♦ A prophet, a healer of ills, a master of woodwork,
yes and a singer whose godlike song is our pleasure:
we call such men from everywhere over the boundless
earth but no one calls for a ravenous beggar.
“Of all the suitors, though, you’re always the hardest
on slaves of Odysseus—mainly on me. But I never
care so long as our thought-full Penelopeia
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lives in the hall with godlike Telemakhos close by.”
The Threat of a Footstool
But now Telemakhos gave him a sensible order:
“Stop your talking. Few words when you’re answering that man.
It’s always Antinoos’s way, using the harshest
terms to arouse anger—and urge the rest of them likewise.”
He spoke to Antinoos too, the words with a feathery swiftness,
“Father for son, Antinoos, how you care for me truly!
You’d order a guest to be scared from my hall with your pushy
talk. May God never allow it to happen. But reach out,
offer him something. I don’t mind, I ask you myself to.
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Don’t be afraid of my Mother now or the other
maids who work in the house of godlike Odysseus!
Well but no such thoughts are there in your own chest.
You’d rather devour a lot yourself than give to another.”
Soon as he’d spoken Antinoos answered by saying,
“High talk, Telemakhos, brave and strong with your big words!
But now if all the suitors gave him what I’d give,
your house would keep this beggar away—and for three months.”
While speaking he gripped and flashed from under the table
a stool he’d rested his oil-sleek feet on while dining.
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The Beggar Was Rich Once
But all the rest of them gave, filling the knapsack
♦ with bread and meat. Having tested Akhaians
freely Odysseus could move back to his threshold.
First he stopped by Antinoos, asking him simply,
“A gift, my friend. You’re not the worst of Akhaians:
you look like the best, I’d say, with the air of a ruler.
So you should offer me more bread than the others.
Then over the endless earth I surely would praise you.
“I formerly lived myself in a wealthy and happy
home among men. I often gave to a pauper,
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whoever he was, whatever need he arrived with.
I owned slaves by the thousand and plenty of other
goods that men live well by—those we know as the rich men.
On to Egypt
“Then Zeus, the son of Kronos—somehow he willed it—
wrecked me by packing me off with pirates who wandered
away to Egypt. A long journey—he meant to destroy me.
I stood my up-curved ships by the river of Egypt.
I spoke to them all myself, the crewmen I trusted:
‘Stay here close to the ships and safeguard the squadron.’
I urged scouts to find good spots to be lookouts.
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They yielded to brashness instead. Pushing their own strength,
they promptly ravaged handsome fields of Egyptian
farmers and hauled off women and helpless children.
They murdered the men. But shouts went fast to the city,
the call was heard and with Dawn an army had shown up,
filling the whole plain with foot-soldiers, horsemen
and glaring bronze. Then Zeus, whose joy is in thunder,
threw a revolting scare in my men. No one was daring
to stand and face that menace, closing on all sides.
Many of us died right there, cut down by the sharp bronze.
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Others were led off alive and forced into slavery.
“They gave me in time to a friend who’d joined them while sailing
♦ to Kupros, powerfully ruled by Dmetor, son of Iasos.
From there I came here now. I’ve suffered a great deal.”
A Much More Painful Egypt
Now an answer came from Antinoos sharply.
“What Power brought this woe, spoiling a good meal?
Stay off there in the center, away from my table,
or soon you’ll go to an Egypt and Kupros that sting you
for being a brash old man, a beggar without shame.
You stood by us all in turn, everyone gave things
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rashly and why? No one’s restrained or regretting:
we lavish the goods of others! There’s plenty for each man.”
Reproaches and Pain
Odysseus, full of his own plans, spoke as he moved back.
“Look at this! You don’t seem both handsome and thoughtful.
You’d barely hand out salt in your own house to a beggar
if you can’t bear to pull off and hand out bread when you sit in
a stranger’s house. And yes, there’s plenty at ha
nd here.”
He spoke that way and Antinoos, ever more angry,
eyed him darkly, his words with a feathery swiftness,
“Now I am thinking you won’t be gracefully leaving
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the room any longer after mouthing reproaches.”
He stopped and hoisted the stool, hurled it and battered
his right shoulder behind on the back. Odysseus stood there
lodged like stone. Antinoos’s throw did not faze him.
Quietly shaking his head, brooding on evil,
he moved back to his threshold, sat there and laid out
the well-filled knapsack. Then he called to the suitors:
“Listen, you men who court that queen who is well known!
Let me say what the heart in my chest has enjoined me.
We don’t mourn so much, nor is there great pain
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when farmers are battered fighting to guard their belongings,
whether their herds are of white sheep or of cattle.
But now Antinoos struck me because of my sorry
belly, a curse that hands out plenty of evil to mankind.
Yet if Gods and Avengers are somehow for poor men,
may death overtake Antinoos long before marriage.”
Again the son of Eupeithes, Antinoos, answered,
“No more talk, stranger. Sit and eat or be elsewhere.
Younger men might drag you now through the household,
hand and foot, for your talk, then flay you entirely.”
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A God Playing the Stranger
He spoke that way but others were highly offended.
Overbearing younger suitors were saying,
“Antinoos, striking a wandering wretch was not pretty.
You’re doomed if the man is a God somehow from heaven.”
“That’s right. The Gods may look like strangers from far off.
They take on every shape and move through our cities.”
“They watch men closely, both the proud and the lawful.”
Antinoos shrugged off all such claims of the suitors.
Telemakhos felt great pain in his heart when the footstool
struck but he dropped no tears to the floor from his eyelids.
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Quietly shaking his head, he brooded on evil.
A Woman’s Dismay and Anger
When thought-full Penelopeia heard that a beggar
had just been struck in the hall, she said to her handmaids,
♦ “So may Apollo, known for his bow, strike at that striker.”
Then Eurunome answered, the housekeeper, saying,
“If only all of our prayers would come to a good end!
Not one of these men would last till Dawn on her gold throne.”
Mind-full Penelopeia answered by saying,
“Good mother, they’re all hateful, plotting such outrage.
Antinoos plainly is worst: the man’s like a black doom.
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A wretched stranger wanders around in my household
begging for men’s scraps, enjoined by his own need.
All the others offer him food, filling his knapsack.
One man hurls a stool and strikes him low on the shoulder.”
A Wife Upstairs, Her Husband Below
So she talked with her maids and sat in her own room
upstairs while godlike Odysseus ate in the same house.
She called for the godlike swineherd now and she told him,
“My shining Eumaios: go and order the stranger
to come here. I want to welcome this beggar and ask him
whether he’s heard by chance or seen with his own eyes
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my steadfast Odysseus. He seems to have traveled a long way.”
Odysseus the Poet
Then Eumaios the swineherd, you answered by saying,
“My queen, if only the Akhaians below would be quiet!
This man could tell you a story to spellbind your own heart.
I kept him for three nights—I held the man at my farmhouse
three full days when he came to me, fleeing his black ship
by stealth—and he’d still not ended his story of hardship.
♦ The way a man will stare at a poet taught by the deathless
Gods to sing his tale of longing for people
anxious to hear his music whenever he sings it:
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I was enthralled when he sat in my house in the same way.
He claims to be friends through his father’s line with Odysseus.
His home is on Krete, the land of Minos’s bloodline.
From there he came this way, suffering deep pain
and wandering often. He claims to have heard of Odysseus
nearby with people in rich Thesprotian country.
Alive he’ll haul back plenty of wealth to his own house.”
If Only the Man Were Home
Mind-full Penelopeia answered by saying,
“Go and call him. He’ll face me and say it himself here.
Suitors will play their games outside by the doorway
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or maybe inside the house. Their spirits are giddy