Suitors Called to Supper

18So talked they with each other. In the space
Before the palace of Odysseus stood
The suitors, pleased with hurling quoits and spears
On the smooth pavement, where their insolence
So oft was seen. But when the supper-hour
Was near, and from the fields the cattle came,
Driven by the herdsmen, Medon —he whom most
They liked of all the heralds, and who sat
Among them at the feast —bespoke them thus: —

19“Youths! since you now have had your pastime here,
Come in, and help prepare the evening meal;
At the due hour a banquet is not ill.”

20He spoke; the suitors hearkened and obeyed,
And rose, and came into the halls, and laid
Their cloaks upon the benches and the thrones,
And slaughtered well-fed sheep and fading goats,
And made a victim of a pampered brawn,
And a stalled ox, preparing for the feast.
Meantime Odysseus and that noble hind
The swineherd hastened to begin their walk
To town, and thus the master swineherd spoke: —