Then the queen went back to her room upstairs, and her maids brought the presents after her.  Meanwhile the suitors took to singing and dancing, and stayed till evening came.  They danced and sang till it grew dark; they then brought in three braziers {151} to give light, and piled them up with chopped firewood very old and dry, and they lit torches from them, which the maids held up turn and turn about.  Then Ulysses said: 

“Maids, servants of Ulysses who has so long been absent, go to the queen inside the house; sit with her and amuse her, or spin, and pick wool.  I will hold the light for all these people.  They may stay till morning, but shall not beat me, for I can stand a great deal.”

The maids looked at one another and laughed, while pretty Melantho began to gibe at him contemptuously.  She was daughter to Dolius, but had been brought up by Penelope, who used to give her toys to play with, and looked after her when she was a child; but in spite of all this she showed no consideration for the sorrows of her mistress, and used to misconduct herself with Eurymachus, with whom she was in love.

“Poor wretch,” said she, “are you gone clean out of your mind?  Go and sleep in some smithy, or place of public gossips, instead of chattering here.  Are you not ashamed of opening your mouth before your betters—­so many of them too?  Has the wine been getting into your head, or do you always babble in this way?  You seem to have lost your wits because you beat the tramp Irus; take care that a better man than he does not come and cudgel you about the head till he pack you bleeding out of the house.”

“Vixen,” replied Ulysses, scowling at her, “I will go and tell Telemachus what you have been saying, and he will have you torn limb from limb.”

With these words he scared the women, and they went off into the body of the house.  They trembled all over, for they thought he would do as he said.  But Ulysses took his stand near the burning braziers, holding up torches and looking at the people—­brooding the while on things that should surely come to pass.

But Minerva would not let the suitors for one moment cease their insolence, for she wanted Ulysses to become even more bitter against them; she therefore set Eurymachus son of Polybus on to gibe at him, which made the others laugh.  “Listen to me,” said he, “you suitors of Queen Penelope, that I may speak even as I am minded.  It is not for nothing that this man has come to the house of Ulysses; I believe the light has not been coming from the torches, but from his own head—­for his hair is all gone, every bit of it.”

Then turning to Ulysses he said, “Stranger, will you work as a servant, if I send you to the wolds and see that you are well paid?  Can you build a stone fence, or plant trees?  I will have you fed all the year round, and will find you in shoes and clothing.  Will you go, then?  Not you; for you have got into bad ways, and do not want to work; you had rather fill your belly by going round the country begging.”