Page 345 - the-odyssey

came from Same. This man, confident in his great wealth,
was paying court to the wife of Ulysses, and said to the suit-
ors, ‘Hear what I have to say. The stranger has already had
as large a portion as any one else; this is well, for it is not
right nor reasonable to ill-treat any guest of Telemachus
who comes here. I will, however, make him a present on
my own account, that he may have something to give to the
bath-woman, or to some other of Ulysses’ servants.’
As he spoke he picked up a heifer’s foot from the meat-
basket in which it lay, and threw it at Ulysses, but Ulysses
turned his head a little aside, and avoided it, smiling grimly
Sardinian fashion {159} as he did so, and it hit the wall, not
him. On this Telemachus spoke fiercely to Ctesippus, ‘It is
a good thing for you,’ said he, ‘that the stranger turned his
head so that you missed him. If you had hit him I should
have run you through with my spear, and your father
would have had to see about getting you buried rather than
married in this house. So let me have no more unseemly
behaviour from any of you, for I am grown up now to the
knowledge of good and evil and understand what is going
on, instead of being the child that I have been heretofore. I
have long seen you killing my sheep and making free with
my corn and wine: I have put up with this, for one man is
no match for many, but do me no further violence. Still, if
you wish to kill me, kill me; I would far rather die than see
such disgraceful scenes day after day—guests insulted, and
men dragging the women servants about the house in an
unseemly way.’
They all held their peace till at last Agelaus son of Dam-

The Odyssey