Seba.Health
The Odyssey 17.217–232
this nuisance of a beggar to mar our feasts? He is a man to stand and rub his shoulders on many doorposts, begging for scraps, not for swords or cauldrons.2 If thou wouldest give me this fellow to keep my farmstead, to sweep out the pens and to carry young shoots to the kids, then by drinking whey he might get himself a sturdy thigh. But since he has learned only deeds of evil, he will not care to busy himself with work, but is minded rather to go skulking through the land, that by begging he may feed his insatiate belly. But I will speak out to thee, and this word shall verily be brought to pass. If he comes to the palace of divine Odysseus, many a footstool, hurled about his head by the hands of those that are men, shall be broken on his ribs1 as he is pelted through the house.”
So he spoke, and as he passed he kicked Odysseus on the hip in his folly, yet he did not drive him from the path,
νῦν μὲν δὴ μάλα πάγχυ κακὸς κακὸν ἡγηλάζει,
ὡς αἰεὶ τὸν ὁμοῖον ἄγει θεὸς ὡς τὸν ὁμοῖον.
πῇ δὴ τόνδε μολοβρὸν ἄγεις, ἀμέγαρτε συβῶτα,
πτωχὸν ἀνιηρόν δαιτῶν ἀπολυμαντῆρα;
ὃς πολλῇς φλιῇσι παραστὰς θλίψεται ὤμους,
αἰτίζων ἀκόλους, οὐκ ἄορας οὐδὲ λέβητας·
τόν κʼ εἴ μοι δοίης σταθμῶν ῥυτῆρα γενέσθαι
σηκοκόρον τʼ ἔμεναι θαλλόν τʼ ἐρίφοισι φορῆναι,
καί κεν ὀρὸν πίνων μεγάλην ἐπιγουνίδα θεῖτο.
ἀλλʼ ἐπεὶ οὖν δὴ ἔργα κάκʼ ἔμμαθεν, οὐκ ἐθελήσει
ἔργον ἐποίχεσθαι, ἀλλὰ πτώσσων κατὰ δῆμον
βούλεται αἰτίζων βόσκειν ἣν γαστέρʼ ἄναλτον.
ἀλλʼ ἔκ τοι ἐρέω, τὸ δὲ καὶ τετελεσμένον ἔσται·
αἴ κʼ ἔλθῃ πρὸς δώματʼ Ὀδυσσῆος θείοιο,
πολλά οἱ ἀμφὶ κάρη σφέλα ἀνδρῶν ἐκ παλαμάων
πλευραὶ ἀποτρίψουσι δόμον κάτα βαλλομένοιο.