He had hardly done speaking when
Amphinomos turned in his place and saw the ship inside the harbor,
with the crew lowering her sails, and putting by their oars; so he
laughed, and said to the others, "We need not send them any message,
for they are here. Some god must have told them, or else they saw the
ship go by, and could not overtake her.
On this they rose and went to the
water side. The crew then drew the ship on shore; their servants took
their armor from them, and they went up in a body to the place of
assembly, but they would not let any one old or young sit along with
them, and Antinoos, son of Eupeithes, spoke first.
"Good heavens," said he, "see how
the gods have saved this man from destruction. We kept a succession
of scouts upon the headlands all day long, and when the sun was down
we never went on shore to sleep, but waited in the ship all night
till morning in the hope of capturing and killing him; but some
daimôn has conveyed him home in spite of us. Let us
consider how we can make an end of him. He must not escape us; our
affair is never likely to come off while is alive, for he is very
shrewd in noos, and public feeling is by no means all on our
side. We must make haste before he can call the Achaeans in assembly;
he will lose no time in doing so, for he will be furious with us, and
will tell all the world how we plotted to kill him, but failed to
take him. The people will not like this when they come to know of it;
we must see that they do us no hurt, nor drive us from our own
dêmos into exile. Let us try and lay hold of him either
on his farm away from the town, or on the road hither. Then we can
divide up his property amongst us, and let his mother and the man who
marries her have the house. If this does not please you, and you wish
Telemakhos to live on and hold his father's property, then we
must not gather here and eat up his goods in this way, but must make
our offers to Penelope each from his own house, and she can marry the
man who will give the most for her, and whose lot it is to win
her."
They all held their peace until
Amphinomos rose to speak. He was the son of Nisus, who was son to
king Aretias, and he was foremost among all the suitors from the
wheat-growing and well grassed island of Dulichium; his conversation,
moreover, was more agreeable to Penelope than that of any of the
other for he was a man of good natural disposition. "My friends,"
said he, speaking to them plainly and in all honestly, "I am not in
favor of killing Telemakhos. It is a heinous thing to kill one who is
of noble blood. Let us first take counsel of the gods, and if the
oracles of Zeus advise it, I will both help to kill him myself, and
will urge everyone else to do so; but if they dissuade us, I would
have you hold your hands."
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