Melantho Taunts Odysseus

40“You maidens of a sovereign absent long,
Withdraw to where your highborn mistress sits;
There turn the spindle, seeking to amuse
Her lonely hours; there comb with your own hands
The fleece, and I will see that these have light.
Even though they linger till Eos is here
In her bright car, they cannot overcome
My patience. I am practised to endure.”

41So spoke he, and the maidens, as they heard,
Cast at each other meaning looks, and laughed,
And one Melantho, of the rosy cheeks,
Railed at him impudently. She was born
To Dolius, but Penelope had reared
The damsel as a daughter of her own,
And given her, for her pleasure, many things;
Yet for the sorrows of Penelope
Melantho little cared. Eurymachus
Had made the girl his paramour. She spoke,
And chid Odysseus with unmannerly words: —

42“Outlandish wretch! you must be one whose brain
Is turned, since you will neither go to sleep
Within a smithy, nor in any place
Of public shelter, but will stay and prate
Among this company with no restraint
Or reverence. Either wine has stolen away
Your senses, or your natural mood, perchance,
Prompts you to chatter idly. Are you proud
Of conquering Irus, that poor vagabond?
Beware lest someone of robuster arms
Than Irus seize and thrust you out of doors
With a bruised head and face begrimed with blood.”

43The sage Odysseus frowned on her and said:
“Impudent one, Telemachus shall hear
From me the saucy words which you have said,
And he will come and hew you limb from limb.”

44He spoke; the damsels, frightened at his words,
Fled through the hall, and shook in every limb
With terror, lest his threat should be fulfilled.
He meantime stood beside the kindled hearths
And fed the flames, and, looking on the crowd
Of suitors, brooded in his secret heart
Over plans that would not fail to be fulfilled.