They all held their peace till at
last Agelaos son of Damastor said, "No one should take offense at
what has just been said, nor gainsay it, for it is quite reasonable
[dikaios]. Leave off, therefore, ill-treating the
stranger, or any one else of the servants who are about the house; I
would say, however, a friendly word to Telemakhos and his mother,
which I trust may commend itself to both. ‘As long,’ I
would say, ‘as you had ground for hoping that Odysseus would one
day come home, there will be no nemesis as a result of your
waiting and suffering the suitors to be in your house. It would have
been better that he should have returned, but it is now sufficiently
clear that he will never do so; therefore talk all this quietly over
with your mother, and tell her to marry the best man, and the one who
makes her the most advantageous offer. Thus you will yourself be able
to manage your own inheritance, and to eat and drink in peace, while
your mother will look after some other man's house, not
yours."’
To this Telemakhos answered, "By
Zeus, Agelaos, and by the sorrows of my unhappy father, who has
either perished far from Ithaca, or is wandering in some distant
land, I throw no obstacles in the way of my mother's marriage;
on the contrary I urge her to choose whomsoever she will, and I will
give her numberless gifts into the bargain, but I dare not insist
point blank that she shall leave the house against her own wishes.
Heaven forbid that I should do this."
Athena now made the suitors fall
to laughing immoderately, and set their wits wandering; but they were
laughing with a forced laughter. Their meat became smeared with
blood; their eyes filled with tears, and their hearts were heavy with
forebodings. Theoklymenos saw this and said, "Unhappy men, what is it
that ails you? There is a shroud of darkness drawn over you from head
to foot, your cheeks are wet with tears; the air is alive with
wailing voices; the walls and roof-beams drip blood; the gate of the
cloisters and the court beyond them are full of ghosts trooping down
into the night of Hades; the sun is blotted out of heaven, and a
blighting gloom is over all the land."
Thus did he speak, and they all
of them laughed heartily. Eurymakhos then said, "This stranger who
has lately come here has lost his senses. Servants, turn him out into
the streets, since he finds it so dark here."
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