Telemachus warns the suitors

23“You suitors of my mother, insolent
And overbearing; cheerful be our feast,
Not riotous. It would become us well
To listen to the lay of such a bard,
So like the gods in voice. I bid you all
Meet in full council with the morrow morn,
That I may give you warning to depart
From out my palace, and to seek your feasts
Elsewhere at your own charge —haply to hold
Your daily banquets at each other’s homes.
But if it seem to you the better way
To plunder one man’s goods, go on to waste
My substance; I will call the immortal gods
To aid me, and if Zeus allow
Fit retribution for your deeds, you die,
Within this very palace, unavenged.”

24He spoke; the suitors bit their close-pressed lips,
Astonished at the youth’s courageous words.
And thus Antinous, Eupeithes’ son,
Made answer: “Most assuredly the gods,
Telemachus, have taught you how to frame
Grand sentences and gallantly harangue.
Never may the son of Cronus make you king
Over the seagirt Ithaca, whose isle
Is your inheritance by claim of birth.”

25Telemachus, the prudent, thus rejoined: —
“Will you be angry at the word I speak,
Antinous? I would willingly accept
The kingly station if conferred by Zeus.
Do you indeed regard it as the worst
Of all conditions of mankind? Not so
For him who reigns; his house grows opulent,
And he the more is honored. Many kings
Within the bounds of seagirt Ithaca
There are, both young and old, let anyone
Bear rule, since great Odysseus is no more;
But I will be the lord of mine own house,
And over my servants whom the godlike chief,
Odysseus, brought from war, his share of spoil.”