discourses smoothly with a winning modesty. He is the observed of all
observers, and when he walks through the town all eyes follow him as
if he were a god. Another again is glorious, like a very god, in the
splendour of his face and form, but no grace attends upon his speech.
Even so thou art conspicuous for thy beauty, as though the hand of a
god had fashioned thee, but in understanding thou art naught. Thou
hast stung me by thy unseemly words; I am not ignorant of manly
sports, as thou sayest, but I tell thee that I was among the foremost
as long as I trusted in my youth and in the might of my hands. But now
I am sore spent with woe and pain, for many things have I suffered in
battles by land, and buffeting with the sea. Nevertheless, broken as I
am, I will give proof of my strength, for thou hast provoked me
bitterly by thy wanton words."

Thereupon, without waiting to throw off his cloak, he sprang into the
arena, and caught up a massy disc of iron, far heavier than those with
which the Phæacians had been throwing. Poising it lightly, with one
hand he flung it, as one who flings a ball. The Phæacians sank back in
dismay as they saw the huge mass flying high over their heads, and
when it fell all rushed to the spot to mark the distance. There it
lay, far beyond the longest cast of the native athletes, and Odysseus
pointed to it, and said: "Reach that mark, my young masters, if ye
can! And if any among you have a mind to try a match with me in boxing
or in wrestling, or in the foot race, they shall have their will; only
with the sons of Alcinous I will not strive, for he is my host, and it
were not fitting or prudent to challenge them. Whatever a man can do
with his hands I can do: I can send an arrow sure and strong, and
strike down my foe, and herein can no archer surpass me, save one
only, Philoctetes, who bare the bow of Hercules; and I can fling a
javelin farther than another man can shoot an arrow. Only in speed of