Page:The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer (IA iliadodysseyofho02home).pdf/105

IV. Of menials culinary, at the gate Enter'd of Menelaus, Chief renown'd; They brought him sheep, with heart-ennobling wine, While all their wives, their brows with frontlets bound, Came charg'd with bread. Thus busy they prepared A banquet in the mansion of the King. Meantime, before Ulysses' palace gate The suitors sported with the quoit and spear On the smooth area, customary scene Of all their strife and angry clamour loud. There sat Antinoüs, and the godlike youth Eurymachus, superior to the rest And Chiefs among them, to whom Phronius' son Noëmon drawing nigh, with anxious mien Question'd Antinoüs, and thus began. Know we, Antinoüs! or know we not, When to expect Telemachus at home Again from Pylus? in my ship he went, Which now I need, that I may cross the sea To Elis, on whose spacious plain I feed Twelve mares, each suckling a mule-colt as yet Unbroken, but of which I purpose one To ferry thence, and break him into use. He spake, whom they astonish'd heard; for him They deem'd not to Nelëian Pylus gone, But haply into his own fields, his flocks