Thy [1]sustenance thou must, as now, obtain,
Begging it at their hands who chuse to give. 670
Then thus Ulysses, Hero toil-inured.
Eumæus! readily I can relate
Truth, and truth only, to the prudent Queen
Icarius' daughter; for of him I know
Much, and have suff'red sorrows like his own. 675
But dread I feel of this imperious throng
Perverse, whose riot and outrageous acts
Of violence echo through the vault of heav'n.
And, even now, when for no fault of mine
Yon suitor struck me as I pass'd, and fill'd 680
My flesh with pain, neither Telemachus
Nor any interposed to stay his arm.
Now, therefore, let Penelope, although
Impatient, till the sun descend postpone
Her questions; then she may enquire secure 685
When comes her husband, and may nearer place
My seat to the hearth-side, for thinly clad
Thou know'st I am, whose aid I first implored.
He ceas'd; at whose reply Eumæus sought
Again the Queen, but ere he yet had pass'd 690
The threshold, thus she greeted his return.
Com'st thou alone, Eumæus? why delays
The invited wand'rer? dreads he other harm?
- ↑ This seems added by Eumæus to cut off from Ulysses the hope that might otherwise tempt him to use fiction.
Or
