Not so content, with bolder frenzy fired,

E’en to our bed presumptuous you aspired:

Laws or divine or human fail’d to move,

Or shame of men, or dread of gods above;

Heedless alike of infamy or praise,

Or Fame’s eternal voice in future days;

The hour of vengeance, wretches, now is come;

Impending fate is yours, and instant doom.”


Thus dreadful he. Confused the suitors stood,

From their pale cheeks recedes the flying blood:

Trembling they sought their guilty heads to hide.

Alone the bold Eurymachus replied:


“If, as thy words import (he thus began),

Ulysses lives, and thou the mighty man,

Great are thy wrongs, and much hast thou sustain’d

In thy spoil’d palace, and exhausted land;

The cause and author of those guilty deeds,

Lo! at thy feet unjust Antinous bleeds

Not love, but wild ambition was his guide;

To slay thy son, thy kingdom to divide,

These were his aims; but juster Jove denied.

Since cold in death the offender lies, oh spare

Thy suppliant people, and receive their prayer!

Brass, gold, and treasures, shall the spoil defray,

Two hundred oxen every prince shall pay:

The waste of years refunded in a day.

Till then thy wrath is just.” Ulysses burn’d

With high disdain, and sternly thus return’d:


“All, all the treasure that enrich’d our throne

Before your rapines, join’d with all your own,

If offer’d, vainly should for mercy call;

’Tis you that offer, and I scorn them all;

Your blood is my demand, your lives the prize,

Till pale as yonder wretch each suitor lies.

Hence with those coward terms; or fight or fly;

This choice is left you, to resist or die:

And die I trust ye shall.” He sternly spoke:

With guilty fears the pale assembly shook.

Alone Eurymachus exhorts the train:

“Yon archer, comrades, will not shoot in vain;

But from the threshold shall his darts be sped,

(Whoe’er he be), till every prince lie dead?

Be mindful of yourselves, draw forth your swords,