Without reply vouchsafed, Antinous ceased: 
Meanwhile the pomp of festival increased: 
By heralds rank’d; in marshall’d order move
The city tribes, to pleased Apollo’s grove: 
Beneath the verdure of which awful shade,
The lunar hecatomb they grateful laid;
Partook the sacred feast, and ritual honours paid. 
But the rich banquet, in the dome prepared
(An humble sideboard set) Ulysses shared. 
Observant of the prince’s high behest,
His menial train attend the stranger-guest;
Whom Pallas with unpardoning fury fired,
By lordly pride and keen reproach inspired. 
A Samian peer, more studious than the rest
Of vice, who teem’d with many a dead-born jest;
And urged, for title to a consort queen,
Unnumber’d acres arable and green
(Otesippus named); this lord Ulysses eyed,
And thus burst out the imposthumate with pride: 

“The sentence I propose, ye peers, attend: 
Since due regard must wait the prince’s friend,
Let each a token of esteem bestow: 
This gift acquits the dear respect I owe;
With which he nobly may discharge his seat,
And pay the menials for a master’s treat.”

He said:  and of the steer before him placed,
That sinewy fragment at Ulysses cast,
Where to the pastern-bone, by nerves combined,
The well-horn’d foot indissolubly join’d;
Which whizzing high, the wall unseemly sign’d. 
The chief indignant grins a ghastly smile;
Revenge and scorn within his bosom boil: 
When thus the prince with pious rage inflamed: 
“Had not the inglorious wound thy malice aim’d
Fall’n guiltless of the mark, my certain spear
Had made thee buy the brutal triumph dear: 
Nor should thy sire a queen his daughter boast;
The suitor, now, had vanish’d in a ghost: 
No more, ye lewd compeers, with lawless power
Invade my dome, my herds and flocks devour: 
For genuine worth, of age mature to know,
My grape shall redden, and my harvest grow
Or, if each other’s wrongs ye still support,
With rapes and riot to profane my court;
What single arm with numbers can contend? 
On me let all your lifted swords descend,
And with my life such vile dishonours end.”

A long cessation of discourse ensued,
By gentler Agelaus thus renew’d: 

“A just reproof, ye peers! your rage restrain
From the protected guest, and menial train: 
And, prince! to stop the source of future ill,
Assent yourself, and gain the royal will. 
Whilst hope prevail’d to see your sire restored,
Of right the queen refused a second lord: 
But who so vain of faith, so blind to fate,
To think he still survives to claim the state? 
Now press the sovereign dame with warm desire
To wed, as wealth or worth her choice inspire: 
The lord selected to the nuptial joys
Far hence will lead the long-contested prize: 
Whilst in paternal pomp with plenty bless’d,
You reign, of this imperial dome possess’d.”