Meanwhile the suitors were hatching a plot to murder Telemachus; but a bird flew on their left, an eagle high up, clutching a timid dove. Amphinomus said: Friends, this plan will not run to our liking. Let us think of the feast. They assented, went inside, laid their cloaks on the benches, sacrificed sheep, goats, pigs, and a heifer, roasted the outer meat, and mixed wine. The heralds led a holy hecatomb through the town for Apollo's feast day, and the long-haired Achaeans gathered under the shady grove of the far-darter. Odysseus watched them enter and kept his eyes down, anger banked like coals under ash.
Telemachus made Odysseus sit in the stone-paved part of the porch, set a poor stool and small table there, and gave him a share of the entrails and wine in a gold cup. Sit here among the men, he said, and I will ward off insults from the suitors. This is no public house; it is Odysseus's, and mine by inheritance. You suitors, keep your hands and tongues from outrage, or there may be trouble. The suitors bit their lips, marveling at his boldness. Antinous said they did not like such talk, though they would endure it if Zeus would let them.
They roasted the meat, drew it off the spits, and feasted. The servers gave Odysseus an equal portion, as Telemachus had ordered. But Athena would not let the suitors drop their insolence for a moment; she wanted Odysseus to become still angrier. There was among them a man named Ctesippus, son of a Samian; trusting in his great wealth, he wooed the wife of Odysseus, who had been so long away. Hear me, noble suitors, Ctesippus said. The stranger has had his fair share, as is right; it is not proper to slight any guest of Telemachus who comes to this house. Look — I too will give him a guest-gift, so that he may have something to offer the bath-woman or some other servant in Odysseus's house. The suitors roared with laughter at the throw, as if a guest-gift were a joke.
As he spoke he picked up a cow's foot from the basket and threw it at Odysseus. Odysseus quietly inclined his head and smiled a bitter smile in his heart; the foot struck the solid wall. Telemachus spoke sharp words to Ctesippus: It is well for you that it missed the stranger. If it had hit him, I would have run you through with my spear, and your father would have held a funeral here, not a wedding. Let there be no more unseemly behavior in my house. I notice everything now — the good and the bad. Before I was a child. The hall went quiet after his threat; even Antinous found no easy answer.