nd forsake this
home, this bridal home, so very beautiful and full of wealth, a place I
think I ever shall remember, even in my dreams."

So saying, she bade Eumaeus, the noble swineherd, deliver to the suitors
the bow and the gray steel. With tears Eumaeus took the arms and laid them
down before them. Near by, the neatherd also wept to see his master's bow.
But Antinous rebuked them, and spoke to them and said,--

"You stupid boors, who only mind the passing minute, wretched pair, what
do you mean by shedding tears, troubling this lady's heart, when already
her heart is prostrated with grief at losing her dear husband? Sit down
and eat in silence, or else go forth and weep, but leave the bow behind, a
dread ordeal for the suitors; for I am sure this polished bow will not be
bent with ease. There is not a man of all now here so powerful as Ulysses.
I saw him once myself, and well recall him, though I was then a child."

He spoke, but in his breast his heart was hoping to draw the string and
send an arrow through the steel; yet he was to be the first to taste the
shaft of good Ulysses, whom he now wronged though seated in his hall,
while to like outrage he encouraged all his comrades. To these now spoke
revered Telemachus:--

"Ha! Zeus the son of Cronos has made me play the fool! My mother--and wise
she is--says she will follow some strange man and quit this house; and I
but laugh and in my silly soul am glad. Come then, you suitors, since
before you stands your prize, a lady whose like cannot be found throughout
Achaian land, in sacred Pylos, Argos, or Mycenae, in Ithaca itself, or the
dark mainland, as you yourselves well know,--what needs my mother
praise?--come then, delay not with excuse nor longer hesitate to bend the
bow, but let us learn what is to be. I too might try the bow. And if I
stretch it and send an arrow through the steel, then with no shame to me
my honored mother may forsake this house and follow some one else, leaving
me here behind; for I shall then be able to wield my father's arms."

He spoke, and flung his red cloak from his shoulders, rising full height,
and put away the sharp sword also from his shoulder. First then he set the
axes, marking one long furrow for them all, aligned by cord. The earth on
the two sides he stamped down flat. Surprise filled all beholders to see
how properly he set them, though he had never seen the game before. Then
he went and stood upon the threshold and began to