and bear it; Ulysses is not the only man who never came back
from Troy, but many another went down as well as he. Go, then,
within the house and busy yourself with your daily duties, your
loom, your distaff, and the ordering of your servants; for
speech is man's matter, and mine above all others {10}--for it
is I who am master here."

She went wondering back into the house, and laid her son's
saying in her heart. Then, going upstairs with her handmaids
into her room, she mourned her dear husband till Minerva shed
sweet sleep over her eyes. But the suitors were clamorous
throughout the covered cloisters {11}, and prayed each one that
he might be her bed fellow.

Then Telemachus spoke, "Shameless," he cried, "and insolent
suitors, let us feast at our pleasure now, and let there be no
brawling, for it is a rare thing to hear a man with such a
divine voice as Phemius has; but in the morning meet me in full
assembly that I may give you formal notice to depart, and feast
at one another's houses, turn and turn about, at your own cost.
If on the other hand you choose to persist in spunging upon one
man, heaven help me, but Jove shall reckon with you in full, and
when you fall in my father's house there shall be no man to
avenge you."

The suitors bit their lips as they heard him, and marvelled at
the boldness of his speech. Then, Antinous, son of Eupeithes,
said, "The gods seem to have given you lessons in bluster and
tall talking; may Jove never grant you to be chief in Ithaca as
your father was before you."