Violent sport at elite banquets

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Often appears with: the city and urban life · sport, hunting, and recreation · public entertainment by suitors · protection by telemachus · oaths and rules of combat · justice as a virtue · custom and the manners of a people · beggar-fight for food prizes

Usually: narrative (1) · the test or trial (1) · humor (1) · indignation (1)

The Odyssey primary

Homer · 8th–12th century BCE (composed earlier than c. 750 BCE; traditional authorship generally placed in the 8th century BCE)
BOOK I. > BOOK XVIII (1/7)

Irus the beggar challenges Ulysses to fight for blood-filled goats’ paunches, Antinous treats it as entertainment, Ulysses warns Amphinomus and swears off foul blows, and Telemachus offers protection if anyone attacks.

THE FIGHT WITH IRUS—ULYSSES WARNS AMPHINOMUS—PENELOPE GETS PRESENTS FROM THE SUITORS—THE BRAZIERS—ULYSSES REBUKES EURYMACHUS. Now there came a certain common tramp who used to go begging all over the city of Ithaca, and was notorious as an incorrigible glutton and drunkard. This man had no strength nor stay in him, but he was a great hulking fellow to look at; his real name, the one his mother gave him, was Arnaeus,…