This text is part of:
And Eumaios answered, "Antinoos,
your birth is good but your words evil. It was no doing of mine that
he came here. Who is likely to invite a stranger from a foreign
country, unless it be one of those who can do public service as a
seer [mantis], a healer of hurts, a carpenter, or a
bard who can delight us with his singing. Such men are welcome all
the world over, but no one is likely to ask a beggar who will only
worry him. You are always harder on Odysseus’ servants than any
of the other suitors are, and above all on me, but I do not care so
long as Telemakhos and Penelope are alive and here."
But Telemakhos said, "Hush, do
not answer him; Antinoos has the bitterest tongue of all the suitors,
and he makes the others worse."
Then turning to Antinoos he said,
"Antinoos, you take as much care of my interests as though I were
your son. Why should you want to see this stranger turned out of the
house? Heaven forbid; take something and give it him yourself; I do
not grudge it; I bid you take it. Never mind my mother, nor any of
the other servants in the house; but I know you will not do what I
say, for you are more fond of eating things yourself than of giving
them to other people."
"What do you mean, Telemakhos,"
replied Antinoos, "by this swaggering talk? If all the suitors were
to give him as much as I will, he would not come here again for
another three months."
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