Melanthius’s Insults

24“See that vile fellow lead the vile about!
Thus ever does some god join like with like.
You worthless swineherd! whither would you take
This hungry, haunting beggar-man, this pest
Of feasts, who at the posts of many a door
Against them rubs his shoulders, asking crusts,
Tripods or cauldrons never. Should you leave
The wretch to me, to watch my stalls, and sweep
The folds, and bring fresh branches to the kids,
He might by drinking whey get stouter thighs.
But he has learned no good, and will refuse
To work; he better likes to stroll about
With that insatiable stomach, asking alms
To fill it. Let me tell you what is sure
To happen to him, should he ever come
Into the palace of the glorious chief
Odysseus. Many a footstool will be flung
Around him by the hands of those who sit
As guests, and they will tear the fellow’s sides.”

25He spoke, and in his folly thrust his heel
Against the hero’s thigh. The blow moved not
Odysseus from his path, nor swerved he aught,
But meditated whether with a blow
Of his good staff to take the fellow’s life,
Or lift him in the air and dash his head
Against the ground. Yet he endured the affront
And checked his wrath. The swineherd spoke, and chid
The offender, and thus prayed with lifted hands: —

26“Nymphs of the fountain, born to Zeus!
If ever in sacrifice Odysseus burned
To you the thighs of lambs and goats, overlaid
With fat, be pleased to grant the prayer I make,
That, guided by some deity, the chief
May yet return. Then your rude boasts would cease.
Melanthius, which you utter in your way
From place to place while wandering through the town.
Unfaithful shepherds make a perishing flock.”

27Melanthius, keeper of the goats, rejoined:
“ It is wonderful how flippant is the cur,
And shrewd! But I shall carry him on board
A good black ship, far off from Ithaca,
And there will sell him for a goodly price.
Would that Apollo of the silver bow
Might in the palace slay Telemachus
This very hour, or that the suitors might,
As certainly as that the day which brings
Odysseus to his home will never dawn!”