Odyssey

It was not long ere Penelope came to know what the suitors were plotting; for a man servant, Medon, overheard them from outside the outer court as they were laying their schemes within, and went to tell his mistress. As he crossed the threshold of her room Penelope said: "Medon, what have the suitors sent you here for? Is it to tell the maids to leave their master's business and cook dinner for them? I wish they may neither woo nor dine henceforward, neither here nor anywhere else, but let this be the very last time, for the waste you all make of my son's estate. Did not your fathers tell you when you were children how good Odysseus had been to them - never doing anything high-handed, nor speaking harshly to anybody in the dêmos ? Such is the justice [ dikê ] of divine kings: they may take a fancy to one man and dislike another, but Odysseus never did an unjust thing by anybody - which shows what bad hearts you have, and that there is no such thing as gratitude [ kharis ] left in this world."

OdysseyBook 4, Line 675Samuel ButlerEnglishVerse permalinkRead in Book 4

HomerProseID odyssey-odyssey-butler-en-prose-4-675