Let there be an end of these mad doings, which it is a shame
to see. And if Telemachus will be advised by me he will urge his
mother to make choice of a husband, that he may henceforth dwell
unmolested in his father's house. Why will she delay us further?
Surely by this time she must have given up all hope of ever seeing
Odysseus again."
"Now by the woes of my father!" answered Telemachus, "I hinder her not
from wedding whom she pleases; nay, I bid her do so, and offer bridal
gifts besides. But I cannot drive her by force from my doors."
His words had a strange effect on the wooers: with one accord they
broke out into a yelling peal of laughter, like women in a hysteric
fit, while their eyes were filled with tears. And, more awful still!
their meat dropped blood as they conveyed it to their lips, and an
unearthly wailing was heard, like the cry of a spirit in torment.
Among those present was Theoclymenus, the man of second sight, and in
that very hour the vision came upon him, and he cried aloud from the
place where he sat: "Woe unto you, ye doomed and miserable men! Thick
darkness is wrapped about you, the darkness of the grave! All the air
is loud with wailing, and your cheeks are wet with tears. See, see!
the walls and the rafters are sprinkled with blood, and the porch and
the courtyard are thronged with ghosts, hurrying downward to the
nether pit; and the sun has died out of heaven, and all the house lies
in darkness and the shadow of death.
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