《奥德赛·卷20》第8节
So he spake, and they were all hushed in silence. And late and at last spake among them Agelaus, son of Damastor: “Friends, when a righteous word has been spoken, none surely would rebuke another with hard speech and be angry. Misuse ye not this stranger, nor any of the thralls that are in the house of godlike Odysseus. But to Telemachus himself I would speak a soft word and to his mother, if perchance it may find favour with the mind of those twain. So long as your hearts within you had hope of the wise Odysseus returning to his own house, so long none could be wroth that ye waited and held back the wooers in the halls, for so had it been better, if Odysseus had returned and come back to his own home. But now the event is plain, that he will return no more. Go then, sit by thy mother and tell her all, namely, that she must wed the best man that wooes her, and whose gives most gifts; so shalt thou with gladness live on the heritage of thy father, eating and drinking, while she cares for another’s house.” Then wise Telemachus answered, and said: “Nay by Zeus, Agelaus, and by the griefs of my father, who far away methinks from Ithaca has perished or goes wandering, in nowise do I delay my mother’s marriage; nay, I bid her be married to what man she will, and withal I offer gifts without number. But I do indeed feel shame to drive her forth from the hall, despite her will, by a word of compulsion; God forbid that ever this should be.” So spake Telemachus, but among the wooers Pallas Athene roused laughter unquenchable, and drave their wits wandering. And now they were laughing with alien lips, and blood-bedabbled was the flesh they ate, and their eyes were filled with tears and their soul was fain of lamentation. Then the godlike Theoclymenus spake among them: “Ah, wretched men, what woe is this ye suffer? Shrouded in night are your heads and your faces and your knees, and kindled is the voice of wailing, and all cheeks are wet with tears, and the walls and the fair main-beams of the roof are sprinkled with blood. And the porch is full, and full is the court, of ghosts that hasten hellwards beneath the gloom, and the sun has perished out of heaven, and an evil mist has overspread the world.” So spake he, and they all laughed sweetly at him. Then Eurymachus, son of Polybus, began to speak to them, saying: “The guest that is newly come from a strange land is beside himself. Quick, ye young men, and convey him forth out of doors, that he may go to the place of the gathering, since here he finds it dark as night.”
注释摘要
这一段从全场沉默开始。特勒马科斯刚刚厉声喝止了克忒西波斯的粗暴举动，又当众宣告自己已不再是懵懂幼童，已能分辨善恶，宁愿战死也不愿日日目睹家中的无耻行径。这番话掷地有声，在座的求婚者一时无人接话。率先打破沉默的是阿革拉俄斯，达马斯托耳之子。他以一个温和派的姿态开口，一半像是在替众人圆场，一半却是想把话头引向更实际的方向。阿革拉俄斯的发言值得逐层看。他先承认特…