Odyssey 2.242 · Book 2, lines 242–245
Leocritus answers: a brawl over dinner
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τὸν δʼ Εὐηνορίδης Λειώκριτος ἀντίον ηὔδα·
Leocritus — Μέντορ ἀταρτηρέ, φρένας ἠλεέ, ποῖον ἔειπες ἡμέας ὀτρύνων καταπαυέμεν. ἀργαλέον δὲ ἀνδράσι καὶ πλεόνεσσι μαχήσασθαι περὶ δαιτί.
And Leocritus, son of Euenor, answered him: “Mentor, you baneful fool, crazed in your wits, what a thing you have said, urging them to restrain us! It is a grievous thing for men, even the more numerous, to fight over a feast.
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The setting
Leocritus, son of Euenor, is one of the suitors and the last of them to speak in the assembly. He answers Mentor for their whole party.
A note on this passage
Leocritus answers insult for insult — 'baneful,' 'wits-crazed' — then makes the suitors' case in the cold terms of force: even if the whole town rose, fighting over a feast is a losing bargain for everyone. He reframes a moral scandal as a mere brawl about dinner.
The undercurrent is the suitors' trust in numbers, the very lever Mentor just named, turned back on him. Where Mentor counted heads to shame the town, Leocritus counts them to threaten it: try us, and even a crowd will bleed. The feast — δαίς — that should bind guest to host has become the thing men would kill over.
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