3^ ODYSSEY - BOOK XXIV [422-

complete, Eupeithes rose to address them, overcome by grief
for his son Antinous, the first of the great Odysseus' victims.
Friends,' he began, and tears for his son were streaming down
his cheeks,' I denounce Odysseus as the inveterate enemy of our
race. Where is the gallant company he sailed away with? Lost
by him, every one; and our good ships lost as well! And now he
comes home and slaughters the very pick of the Cephallenians!
Quick, I say. Before he can fly to Pylos or to Elis where the
Epeians rule, let us make a move, or we^U never be able to hold
up our heads again. Our names will stink in the nostrils of our
descendants if we do not avenge ourselves on the murderers of
our sons and brothers. I, for one, should find no further pleasure
in living, but should prefer to finish now and join the dead. To
action then, or they may be across the seas before we move/

His tearful appeal stirred all his countrymen to pity. But at
this moment Medon and the minstrel appeared on the scene. On
"waking, they had come straight from the palace, and now took
their stand in the centre of the assembly. Everyone wondered
what this meant, but Medon, who was by no means a fool, en-
lightened them at once. 'Listen, my fellow-Ithacans/ he said,
€ and you will understand that in acting as he did Odysseus was
not without the guiding hand of heaven. With my own eyes I
saw an immortal, who looked exactly like Mentor, standing at
his side. And some divine being could be seen, at one moment
ahead of Odysseus, cheering him on, and at the next charging
down the hall and striking panic into the Suitors, who fell in
heaps before him/

Medon's disclosure drained the blood from their cheeks; and
now the aged lord Halitherses, the only man there who could
look into the future as into the past, rose up to administer a well-
meant rebuke. 'Ithacans/ he cried, (! beg for your attention.
Your own wickedness, my friends, is to blame for what has hap-
pened. You would not listen to me or to your leader Mentor,
when we urged you to check your sons in their career of folly.
They threw all restraint to the winds, and in plundering the
estate and insulting the wife of a prince whom they counted on