Then said Antinous, Eupeithes’ son, “Not so, Eurymachus, and you yourself know better.  To-day throughout the land is the archer-god’s high feast.  Who then could bend a bow?  Nay, quietly lay it by; and for the axes, what if we leave them standing?  Nobody.  I am sure, will carry one away and trespass on the house of Laertes’ son, Ulysses.  Come then, and let the wine-pourer give pious portions to our cups, that after a libation we may lay aside curved bows.  To-morrow morning tell Melanthius, the goatherd, to drive us here the choicest goats of all his flock; and we will set the thighs before the archer-god, Apollo, then try the bow and end the contest.”

So said Antinous, and his saying pleased them.  Pages poured water on their hands; young men brimmed bowls with drink and served to all, with a first pious portion for the cups.  And after they had poured and drunk as their hearts would, then in his subtlety said wise Ulysses,—­

“Hearken, you suitors of the illustrious queen, and let me tell you what the heart within me bids.  I beg a special favor of Eurymachus, and great Antinous too; for his advice was wise, that you now drop the bow and leave the matter with the Gods, and in the morning God shall grant the power to whom he may.  But give me now the polished bow, and let me in your presence prove my skill and power and see if I have yet such vigor left as once there was within my supple limbs, or whether wanderings and neglect have ruined all.”

At these his words all were exceeding wroth, fearing that he might bend the polished bow.  But Antinous rebuked him, and spoke to him and said, “You scurvy stranger, with not a whit of sense, are you not satisfied to eat in peace with us, your betters, unstinted in your food and hearing all we say?  Nobody else, stranger or beggar, hears our talk.  ’Tis wine that goads you, honeyed wine, a thing that has brought others trouble, when taken greedily and drunk without due measure.  Wine crazed the Centaur, famed Eurytion, at the house of bold Peirithous, on his visit to the Lapithae.  And when his wits were crazed with wine, he madly wrought foul outrage on the household of Peirithous.  So indignation seized the heroes.  Through the porch and out of doors they rushed, dragging Eurytion forth, shorn by the pitiless sword of ears and nose.  Crazed in his wits, he went his way, bearing in his bewildered heart the burden of his guilt.  And hence arose a feud between the Centaurs and mankind; but the beginning of the woe he himself caused by wine.  Even so I prophesy great harm to you, if you shall bend the bow.  No kindness will you meet from any in our land, but we will send you by black ship straight to King Echetus, the bane of all mankind, out of whose hands you never shall come clear.  Be quiet, then, and take your drink!  Do not presume to vie with younger men!”

Then said to him heedful Penelope, “Antinous, it is neither honorable nor fitting to worry strangers who may reach this palace of Telemachus.  Do you suppose the stranger, if he bends the great bow of Ulysses, confident in his skill and strength of arm, will lead me home and take me for his wife?  He in his inmost soul imagines no such thing.  Let none of you sit at the table disturbed by such a thought; for that could never, never, be!”