Page:The Odyssey of Homer, with the Hymns, Epigrams, and Battle of the Frogs and Mice (Buckley 1853).djvu/277

403—442. thought in thy breast; for thou desirest thyself to eat, much rather than to give to another."

But him Antinous addressed in answer: "Telemachus, thou lofty speaker, intolerable in might, what hast thou said? if all the suitors were to bestow so much on him, the house would keep him at a distance even for three months."

Thus he spoke; and taking a footstool lying under the table, he showed it, upon which he placed his soft feet, when banqueting. But all the others gave [to him], and filled his satchel with bread and meat: and Ulysses, again going to the threshold, was now about to taste the bounty of the Greeks; but he stood near Antinous, and addressed discourse to him:

"Give, O friend; thou dost not appear to me to be the worst of the Grecians, but the best, since thou art like unto a king: therefore it behoves thee to give something better than the others, [something better] than bread: and I would celebrate thee over the boundless earth. For I also once happy inhabited an opulent house amongst men, and oftentimes gave to such a wanderer, whatever kind of man he might be, and whatever he came in need of. And I had great numbers of servants, and other things, by which men live well, and are called opulent: but Jove, the son of Saturn, was my ruin, (for he somehow willed it,) who sent me with much-wandering robbers to go to Egypt, a long journey, that I might perish: but I stationed in the river Egyptus the ships rowed on both sides. Then indeed I bade my beloved companions remain there near the ships, and draw up the ships; and I urged watches to go to places of looking out. But they, yielding to insolence, and drawn on by their own spirit, very quickly laid waste the most beautiful fields of the Egyptians, and took away their wives, and infant children, and slew them: but an alarm soon reached the city; and they, hearing the clamour, came together with the shining morn; and the whole plain was filled with foot and horse, and the glittering of brass: but thunder-rejoicing Jove infused evil panic into my companions; nor did any one dare to remain opposed to them; for evils stood around them on every side. There they slew many of us with the sharp brass, and led some away alive, to