The Beggar's Contest — Odysseus fights Irus

Book 18 of The Odyssey by Homer

Now there came to the palace a common beggar of the town, one Irus by nickname, known to everyone for his bottomless belly and his endless appetite for food and drink. He was a big man to look at but had no real strength or fighting spirit. This fellow planted himself in the doorway where Odysseus sat and demanded that the old man move on before he was dragged out by the feet. Odysseus looked at him steadily and said the threshold was wide enough for both of them, and that the man would be wise not to provoke a fight with a stranger, for he might find himself too bloodied to come begging on the morrow.

Irus flew into a rage and the suitors, delighting in the prospect of sport, eagerly set the terms of a match. Antinous laughed and proposed that whichever beggar won should have his choice of the goat-paunch sausages sizzling over the fire, and that from that day on he alone would have begging rights in the hall. He made both men swear that none of the suitors would strike an unfair blow on either side. Telemachus, as master of the house, stood and guaranteed the stranger's safety, adding with quiet authority that any man who interfered would answer to him. The suitors formed a ring and called for the contest to begin.

Odysseus tucked his rags about his waist and cinched them tight, and as he did so, his thighs were revealed — broad and powerful — and his shoulders wide, and his arms corded with sinew. Athena herself drew near invisibly and filled out his limbs with strength. The suitors stared and nudged one another, whispering that there was real muscle beneath the old man's rags and that Irus had brought this trouble on himself. Irus turned pale as ash and his knees began to tremble. He tried to back away, but the servants seized him and forced him forward into the ring, and his flesh shook with terror on every side.