Even so he spake, and they were all exceeding wroth at his word.  And on this wise would one of the lordly young men speak: 

’Antinous, thou didst ill to strike the hapless wanderer, doomed man that thou art,—­if indeed there be a god in heaven.  Yea and the gods, in the likeness of strangers from far countries, put on all manner of shapes, and wander through the cities, beholding the violence and the righteousness of men.’

So the wooers spake, but he heeded not their words.  Now Telemachus nursed in his heart a mighty grief at the smiting of Odysseus, yet he let no tear fall from his eyelids to the ground, but shook his head in silence, brooding evil in the deep of his heart.

Now when wise Penelope heard of the stranger being smitten in the halls, she spake among her maidens, saying: 

’Oh that Apollo, the famed archer, may so smite thee thyself, Antinous!’

And the house-dame, Eurynome, answered her, saying:  ’Oh that we might win fulfilment of our prayers!  So should not one of these men come to the fair-throned Dawn.’

And wise Penelope answered her:  ’Nurse, they are all enemies, for they all devise evil continually, but of them all Antinous is the most like to black fate.  Some hapless stranger is roaming about the house, begging alms of the men, as his need bids him; and all the others filled his wallet and gave him somewhat, but Antinous smote him at the base of the right shoulder with a stool.’

So she spake among her maidens, sitting in her chamber, while goodly Odysseus was at meat.  Then she called to her the goodly swineherd and spake, saying: 

’Go thy way, goodly Eumaeus, and bid the stranger come hither, that I may speak him a word of greeting, and ask him if haply he has heard tidings of Odysseus of the hardy heart, or seen him with his eyes; for he seems like one that has wandered far.’

Then didst thou make answer, swineherd Eumaeus:  ’Queen, oh that the Achaeans would hold their peace! so would he charm thy very heart, such things doth he say.  For I kept him three nights and three days I held him in the steading, for to me he came first when he fled from the ship, yet he had not made an end of the tale of his affliction.  Even as when a man gazes on a singer, whom the gods have taught to sing words of yearning joy to mortals, and they have a ceaseless desire to hear him, so long as he will sing; even so he charmed me, sitting by me in the halls.  He says that he is a friend of Odysseus and of his house, one that dwells in Crete, where is the race of Minos.  Thence he has come hither even now, with sorrow by the way, onward and yet onward wandering; and he stands to it that he has heard tidings of Odysseus nigh at hand and yet alive in the fat land of the men of Thesprotia; and he is bringing many treasures to his home.’