Page 38 - the-odyssey

to do. The Achaeans will find you in everything—a ship and
a picked crew to boot—so that you can set sail for Pylos at
once and get news of your noble father.’
‘Antinous,’ answered Telemachus, ‘I cannot eat in peace,
nor take pleasure of any kind with such men as you are. Was
it not enough that you should waste so much good proper-
ty of mine while I was yet a boy? Now that I am older and
know more about it, I am also stronger, and whether here
among this people, or by going to Pylos, I will do you all the
harm I can. I shall go, and my going will not be in vain—
though, thanks to you suitors, I have neither ship nor crew
of my own, and must be passenger not captain.’
As he spoke he snatched his hand from that of Antinous.
Meanwhile the others went on getting dinner ready about
the buildings, {21} jeering at him tauntingly as they did so.
‘Telemachus,’ said one youngster, ‘means to be the death
of us; I suppose he thinks he can bring friends to help him
from Pylos, or again from Sparta, where he seems bent on
going. Or will he go to Ephyra as well, for poison to put in
our wine and kill us?’
Another said, ‘Perhaps if Telemachus goes on board ship,
he will be like his father and perish far from his friends. In
this case we should have plenty to do, for we could then di-
vide up his property amongst us: as for the house we can let
his mother and the man who marries her have that.’
This was how they talked. But Telemachus went down
into the lofty and spacious store-room where his father’s
treasure of gold and bronze lay heaped up upon the floor,
and where the linen and spare clothes were kept in open