Page 302 - the-odyssey

The suitors all came up laughing, and gathered round
the two ragged tramps. ‘Listen to me,’ said Antinous, ‘there
are some goats’ paunches down at the fire, which we have
filled with blood and fat, and set aside for supper; he who
is victorious and proves himself to be the better man shall
have his pick of the lot; he shall be free of our table and we
will not allow any other beggar about the house at all.’
The others all agreed, but Ulysses, to throw them off the
scent, said, ‘Sirs, an old man like myself, worn out with suf-
fering, cannot hold his own against a young one; but my
irrepressible belly urges me on, though I know it can only
end in my getting a drubbing. You must swear, however that
none of you will give me a foul blow to favour Irus and se-
cure him the victory.’
They swore as he told them, and when they had complet-
ed their oath Telemachus put in a word and said, ‘Stranger,
if you have a mind to settle with this fellow, you need not
be afraid of any one here. Whoever strikes you will have to
fight more than one. I am host, and the other chiefs, Anti-
nous and Eurymachus, both of them men of understanding,
are of the same mind as I am.’
Every one assented, and Ulysses girded his old rags about
his loins, thus baring his stalwart thighs, his broad chest
and shoulders, and his mighty arms; but Minerva came up
to him and made his limbs even stronger still. The suitors
were beyond measure astonished, and one would turn to-
wards his neighbour saying, ‘The stranger has brought such
a thigh out of his old rags that there will soon be nothing
left of Irus.’

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