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BOOK XVIII.
ARGUMENT.
THE FIGHT OF ULYSSES AND IRUS.
The beggar Irus insults Ulysses; the suitors promote the quarrel,
in which Irus is worsted, and miserably handled. Penelope
descends, and receives the presents of the suitors. The dialogue
of Ulysses with Eurymachus.
While fix'd in thought the pensive hero sate,
A mendicant approach'd the royal gate;
A surly vagrant of the giant kind,
The stain of manhood, of a coward mind:
From feast to feast, insatiate to devour,
He flew, attendant on the genial hour.
Him on his mother's knees, when babe he lay,
She named Arnaeus on his natal day:
But Irus his associates call'd the boy,
Practised the common messenger to fly;
Irus, a name expressive of the employ.
From his own roof, with meditated blows,
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