On this he put the bow down, letting it lean against the door [that led into the house] with the arrow standing against the top of the bow.  Then he sat down on the seat from which he had risen, and Antinous said: 

“Come on each of you in his turn, going towards the right from the place at which the cupbearer begins when he is handing round the wine.”

The rest agreed, and Leiodes son of Oenops was the first to rise.  He was sacrificial priest to the suitors, and sat in the corner near the mixing-bowl. {163} He was the only man who hated their evil deeds and was indignant with the others.  He was now the first to take the bow and arrow, so he went on to the pavement to make his trial, but he could not string the bow, for his hands were weak and unused to hard work, they therefore soon grew tired, and he said to the suitors, “My friends, I cannot string it; let another have it, this bow shall take the life and soul out of many a chief among us, for it is better to die than to live after having missed the prize that we have so long striven for, and which has brought us so long together.  Some one of us is even now hoping and praying that he may marry Penelope, but when he has seen this bow and tried it, let him woo and make bridal offerings to some other woman, and let Penelope marry whoever makes her the best offer and whose lot it is to win her.”

On this he put the bow down, letting it lean against the door, {164} with the arrow standing against the tip of the bow.  Then he took his seat again on the seat from which he had risen; and Antinous rebuked him saying: 

“Leiodes, what are you talking about?  Your words are monstrous and intolerable; it makes me angry to listen to you.  Shall, then, this bow take the life of many a chief among us, merely because you cannot bend it yourself?  True, you were not born to be an archer, but there are others who will soon string it.”

Then he said to Melanthius the goatherd, “Look sharp, light a fire in the court, and set a seat hard by with a sheep skin on it; bring us also a large ball of lard, from what they have in the house.  Let us warm the bow and grease it—­we will then make trial of it again, and bring the contest to an end.”

Melanthius lit the fire, and set a seat covered with sheep skins beside it.  He also brought a great ball of lard from what they had in the house, and the suitors warmed the bow and again made trial of it, but they were none of them nearly strong enough to string it.  Nevertheless there still remained Antinous and Eurymachus, who were the ringleaders among the suitors and much the foremost among them all.

Then the swineherd and the stockman left the cloisters together, and Ulysses followed them.  When they had got outside the gates and the outer yard, Ulysses said to them quietly: 

“Stockman, and you swineherd, I have something in my mind which I am in doubt whether to say or no; but I think I will say it.  What manner of men would you be to stand by Ulysses, if some god should bring him back here all of a sudden?  Say which you are disposed to do—­to side with the suitors, or with Ulysses?”