eeming beggar
seated on the threshold, he flew into a rage and shouted at him:

'Get away from here, old fellow, lest you be dragged away by the hand or
foot. Look you! The lords within the house are giving me the wink to
turn you out. But I can't demean myself by touching the like of you. Get
up now and go while I'm easy with you.'

Odysseus looked at the fellow and said, 'I have not harmed you in deed
or word, and I do not grudge you anything of what you may get in this
house. The threshold I sit on is wide enough for two of us.'

'What words this fellow has!' said Irus the beggar. 'He talks like an
old sit-by-the-fire. I'll not waste more words on him. Get up now, heavy
paunch, and strip for the fight, for I'm going to show all the lords
that I can keep the door for them.'

'Do not provoke me,' said Odysseus. 'Old as I seem, I may be able to
draw your blood.'

But Irus kept on shouting, 'I'll knock the teeth out of your jaws.'
'I'll trounce you.' Antinous, the most insolent of the wooers, saw the
squabble, and he laughed to see the pair defying each other. 'Friends,'
said he, 'the gods are good to us, and don't fail to send us amusement.
The strange beggar and our own Irus are threatening each other. Let us
see that they don't draw back from the fight. Let us match one against
the other.'

All the wooers trooped to the threshold and stood round the ragged men.
Antinous thought of something to make the game more merry. 'There are
two great puddings in the larder,' he said. 'Let us offer them for a
prize to these pugilists. Come, Irus. Come, stranger. A choice of
puddings for whichever of you wins the match. Aye, and more than that.
Whoever wins shall have leave to eat every day in this hall, and no
other beggar shall be let come near the house. Go to it now, ye mighty
men.' All the wooers crowded round and clapped the men on to the fight.

Odysseus said, 'Friends, an old man like me cannot fight one who is
younger and abler.'

But they cried to him, 'Go on, go on. Get into the fight or else take
stripes upon your body,'

Then said Odysseus, 'Swear to me, all of you, that none of you will show
favour to Irus nor deal me a foul blow,'

All the wooers cried out that none would favour Irus or deal his
opponent a foul blow. And Telemachus, who was there, said, 'The man who
strikes thee, stranger, will have to take reckoning from me.'

Straightway Odysseus girt up his rags. When his great arms and shoulders
an