[32] Thus roundly did they rate one
another on the smooth pavement in front of the doorway, and when
Antinoos saw what was going on he laughed heartily and said to the
others, "This is the finest sport that you ever saw; heaven never yet
sent anything like it into this house. The stranger and Iros have
quarreled and are going to fight, let us set them on to do so at
once."
[40] The suitors all came up laughing,
and gathered round the two ragged tramps. "Listen to me," said
Antinoos, "there are some goats paunches down at the fire,
which we have filled with blood and fat, and set aside for supper; he
who is victorious and proves himself to be the better man shall have
his pick of the lot; he shall be free of our table and we will not
allow any other beggar about the house at all."
[50] The others all agreed, but
Odysseus, to throw them off the scent, said, "Sirs, an old man like
myself, worn out with suffering, cannot hold his own against a young
one; but my irrepressible belly urges me on, though I know it can
only end in my getting a drubbing. You must swear, however that none
of you will give me a foul blow to favor Iros and secure him the
victory."
[58] They swore as he told them, and
when they had completed their oath Telemakhos put in a word and said,
"Stranger, if you have a mind to settle with this fellow, you need
not be afraid of any one here. Whoever strikes you will have to fight
more than one. I am host, and the other chiefs, Antinoos and
Eurymakhos, both of them men of understanding, are of the same mind
as I am."
