Eurymachus Mocks and Offers Work

45But Athena suffered not the suitors yet
To cease from railing speeches, all the more
To wound the spirit of Laertes’ son.
Eurymachus, the son of Polybus,
Began to scoff at him, and thus he spoke
To wake the ready laughter of the rest: —

46“Hear me, you suitors of the illustrious queen.
I speak the thought that comes into my mind.
Led by some god, no doubt, this man has come
Into the palace; for the light we have
Of torches seems to issue from the crown
Of his bald pate, a head without a hair.”

47So said Eurymachus, and then bespoke
Odysseus, the destroyer of walled towns: —

48“Stranger, if I accept you, will you serve
Upon the distant parts of my estate?
There shall you have fair wages, and shall bring
The stones in heaps together, and shall plant
Tall trees, and I will feed you through the year,
And give you clothes, and sandals for your feet.
But you are used, no doubt, to idle ways,
And never do you work with willing hands,
But do prefer to roam the town and beg,
Purveying for your gluttonous appetite.”

49Odysseus, the sagacious, answered thus: —
“Eurymachus, if we were matched in work
Against each other in the time of spring
When days are long, and both were mowing grass,
And I had a curved scythe in hand and you
Another, that we might keep up the strife
Till nightfall, fasting, mid the abundant grass;
Or if there were a yoke of steers to drive,
The sturdiest of their kind, sleek, large, well fed,
Of equal age, and equal strength to bear
The labor, and both strong, and if the field
Were of four acres, with a soil through which
The plough could cleave its way —then should you see
How evenly my furrow would be turned.
Or should the son of Cronus send today
War from abroad, and I had but a shield,
Two spears, and, fitted to my brows, a helm
Of brass, you would behold me pressing on
Among the foremost warriors, and would see
No cause to rail at my keen appetite.
But arrogantly you do bear yourself,
And pitilessly; you in your own eyes
Are great and mighty, since you do consort
With few, and those are not the best of men.
Yet should Odysseus come to his own land,
These gates that seem so wide would suddenly
Become too narrow for you in your flight.”