If you serve too many masters, you'll soon suffer. Look sharp, or I'll pelt you back to your farm with flying rocks.

"Carry on with the bow, old boy!
If you serve too many masters, you’ll soon suffer.
Look sharp, or I’ll pelt you back to your farm
with flying rocks."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 21, lines 412-415. With the suitors shouting insults at Eumaeus as he carries the bow to Odysseus, Telemachus joins them in bullying the old swineherd. The suitors are convulsed with laughter. Why does Telemachus mistreat Eumaeus like this? Is he trying to disarm and dupe the suitors into believing he is no threat to them? That may be, since we are told that the suitors’ laughter "dissolved their pique against the prince."

Homer Quotes