To whom Telemachus, discrete, replied.
So be it, father! and (thy evening-mess 720
Eaten) depart; to-morrow come again,
Bringing fair victims hither; I will keep,
I and the Gods, meantime, all here secure.
He ended; then resumed once more the swain
His polish'd seat, and, both with wine and food
Now satiate, to his charge return'd, the court
Leaving and all the palace throng'd with guests;
They (for it now was evening) all alike
Turn'd jovial to the song and to the dance.

FOOTNOTES:

[73] Proteus.

[74] The hearth was the altar on which the lares or household-gods were
worshipped.

[75] That he might begin auspiciously. Wine was served in the same
direction. F.

[76] Here again +Theos+ occurs in the abstract.

[77]
+Ei de pou tis epouranios theos esi+

Eustathius, and Clarke after him, understand an aposiopesis here, as if
the speaker meant to say--what if there should be? or--suppose there
should be? But the sentence seems to fall in better with what follows
interpreted as above, and it is a sense of the passage not unwarranted by
the opinion of other commentators. See Schaufelbergerus.

[78] This seems added by Eumaeus to cut off from Ulysses the hope that
might otherwise tempt him to use fiction.

BOOK XVIII

ARGUMENT

The beggar Irus arrives at the palace; a combat takes place between him
and Ulysses, in which Irus is by one blow vanquished. Penelope appears to
the suitors, and having reminded them of the presents which she had a
right to expect from them, receives a gift from each. Eurymachus,
provoked by a speech of Ulysses, flings a foot-stool at him, which knocks
down the cup-bearer; a general tumult is the consequence, which
continues, till by the advice of Telemachus, seconded by Amphinomus, the
suitors retire to their respective homes.

Now came a public mendicant, a man
Accustom'd, seeking alms, to roam the streets
Of Ithaca; one never sated yet
With food or drink; yet muscle had he none,
Or strength of limb, though giant-built in show.
Arnaeus was the name which at his birth
His mother gave him, but the youthful band
Of suitors, whom as messenger he served,
All named him Irus. He, arriving, sought
To drive Ulysses forth from his own home, 10
And in rough accents rude him thus rebuked.
Forth from the porch, old man! lest by the