Euryalus’s Taunt

16Odysseus, the sagacious, answered thus: —
“Why press me, O Laodamas! to try
These feats, when all my thoughts are of my woes,
And not of games? I, who have borne so much
Of pain and toil, sit pining for my home
In your assembly, supplicating here
Your king and all the people of your land.”

17Then spoke Euryalus with chiding words: —
“Stranger, I well perceive you can not boast,
As many others can, of skill in games;
But you are one of those who dwell in ships
With many benches, rulers over a crew
Of sailors —a mere trader looking out
For freight, and watching over the wares that form
The cargo. You have doubtless gathered wealth
By rapine, and are surely no athlete.”

18Odysseus, the sagacious, frowned and said: —
“Stranger, you speak not becomingly,
But like a man who recks not what he says.
The gods bestow not equally on all
The gifts that men desire —the grace of form,
The mind, the eloquence. One man to sight
Is undistinguished, but on him the gods
Bestow the power of words. All look on him
Gladly; he knows whereof he speaks; his speech
Is mild and modest; he is eminent
In all assemblies, and, whenever he walks
The city, men regard him as a god.
Another in the form he wears is like
The immortals, yet has he no power to speak
Becoming words. So you have comely looks —
A god would not have shaped you otherwise
Than we behold you —yet your wit is small,
And your unmannerly words have angered me
Even to the heart. Not quite unskilled am I
In games, as you do idly talk, and once,
When I could trust my youth and my strong arms,
I think that in these contests I was deemed
Among the first. But I am now pressed down
With toil and sorrow; much have I endured
In wars with heroes and on stormy seas.
Yet even thus, a sufferer as I am,
Will I essay these feats; for sharp have been
Your words, and they provoke me to the proof.”