Page 343 - the-odyssey

I believe my poor master will yet return, and send all these
suitors flying out of the house.’
‘Stockman,’ answered Ulysses, ‘you seem to be a very
well-disposed person, and I can see that you are a man of
sense. Therefore I will tell you, and will confirm my words
with an oath. By Jove, the chief of all gods, and by that
hearth of Ulysses to which I am now come, Ulysses shall
return before you leave this place, and if you are so minded
you shall see him killing the suitors who are now masters
here.’
‘If Jove were to bring this to pass,’ replied the stockman,
‘you should see how I would do my very utmost to help
him.’
And in like manner Eumaeus prayed that Ulysses might
return home.
Thus did they converse. Meanwhile the suitors were
hatching a plot to murder Telemachus: but a bird flew near
them on their left hand—an eagle with a dove in its talons.
On this Amphinomus said, ‘My friends, this plot of ours
to murder Telemachus will not succeed; let us go to dinner
instead.’
The others assented, so they went inside and laid their
cloaks on the benches and seats. They sacrificed the sheep,
goats, pigs, and the heifer, and when the inward meats were
cooked they served them round. They mixed the wine in
the mixing-bowls, and the swineherd gave every man his
cup, while Philoetius handed round the bread in the bread
baskets, and Melanthius poured them out their wine. Then
they laid their hands upon the good things that were before

The Odyssey