THE KILLING OF THE SUITORS—THE MAIDS WHO HAVE MISCONDUCTED THEMSELVES

ARE MADE TO CLEANSE THE CLOISTERS AND ARE THEN HANGED.





Then Ulysses tore off his rags, and sprang on to the broad pavement

with his bow and his quiver full of arrows. He shed the arrows on to

the ground at his feet and said, “The mighty contest is at an end. I

will now see whether Apollo will vouchsafe it to me to hit another mark

which no man has yet hit.”



On this he aimed a deadly arrow at Antinous, who was about to take up a

two-handled gold cup to drink his wine and already had it in his hands.

He had no thought of death—who amongst all the revellers would think

that one man, however brave, would stand alone among so many and kill

him? The arrow struck Antinous in the throat, and the point went clean

through his neck, so that he fell over and the cup dropped from his

hand, while a thick stream of blood gushed from his nostrils. He kicked

the table from him and upset the things on it, so that the bread and

roasted meats were all soiled as they fell over on to the ground.166

The suitors were in an uproar when they saw that a man had been hit;

they sprang in dismay one and all of them from their seats and looked

everywhere towards the walls, but there was neither shield nor spear,

and they rebuked Ulysses very angrily. “Stranger,” said they, “you

shall pay for shooting people in this way: you shall see no other

contest; you are a doomed man; he whom you have slain was the foremost

youth in Ithaca, and the vultures shall devour you for having killed

him.”



Thus they spoke, for they thought that he had killed Antinous by

mistake, and did not perceive that death was hanging over the head of

every one of them. But Ulysses glared at them and said:



“Dogs, did you think that I should not come back from Troy? You have

wasted my substance,167 have forced my women servants to lie with you,

and have wooed my wife while I was still living. You have feared

neither God nor man, and now you shall die.”



They turned pale with fear as he spoke, and every man looked round

about to see whither he might fly for safety, but Eurymachus alone

spoke.



“If you are Ulysses,” said he, “then what you have said is just. We

have done much wrong on your lands and in your house. But Antinous who

was the head and front of the offending lies low already. It was all

his doing. It was not that he wanted to marry Penelope; he did not so

much care about that; what he wanted was something quite different, and

Jove has not vouchsafed it to him; he wanted to kill your son and to be

chief man in Ithaca. Now, therefore, that he has met the death which

was his due, spare the lives of your people. We will make everything

good among ourselves, and pay you in full for all that we have eaten

and drunk. Each one of us shall pay you a fine worth twenty oxen, and

we will keep on giving you gold and bronze till your heart is softened.

Until we have done this no one can complain of your being enraged

against us.”



Ulysses again glared at him and said, “Though you should give me all

that you have in the world both now and all that you ever shall have, I

will not stay my hand till I have paid all of you in full. You must

fight, or fly for your lives; and fly, not a man of you shall.”



Their hearts sank as they heard him, but Eurymachus again spoke saying:



“My friends, this man will give us no quarter. He will stand where he

is and shoot us down till he has killed every man among us. Let us then

show fight; draw your swords, and hold up the tables to shield you from

his arrows. Let us have at him with a rush, to drive him from the

pavement and doorway: we can then get through into the town, and raise

such an alarm as shall soon stay his shooting.”



As he spoke he drew his keen blade of bronze, sharpened on both sides,

and with a loud cry sprang towards Ulysses, but Ulysses instantly shot

an arrow into his breast that caught him by the nipple and fixed itself

in his liver. He dropped his sword and fell doubled up over his table.

The cup and all the meats went over on to the ground as he smote the

earth with his forehead in the agonies of death, and he kicked the

stool with his feet until his eyes were closed in darkness.



Then Amphinomus drew his sword and made straight at Ulysses to try and

get him away from the door; but Telemachus was too quick for him, and

struck him from behind; the spear caught him between the shoulders and

went right through his chest, so that he fell heavily to the ground and

struck the earth with his forehead. Then Telemachus sprang away from

him, leaving his spear still in the body, for he feared that if he

stayed to draw it out, some one of the Achaeans might come up and hack

at him with his sword, or knock him down, so he set off at a run, and

immediately was at his father’s side. Then he said:



“Father, let me bring you a shield, two spears, and a brass helmet for

your temples. I will arm myself as well, and will bring other armour

for the swineherd and the stockman, for we had better be armed.”



“Run and fetch them,” answered Ulysses, “while my arrows hold out, or

when I am alone they may get me away from the door.”



Telemachus did as his father said, and went off to the store room where

the armour was kept. He chose four shields, eight spears, and four

brass helmets with horse-hair plumes. He brought them with all speed to

his father, and armed himself first, while the stockman and the

swineherd also put on their armour, and took their places near Ulysses.

Meanwhile Ulysses, as long as his arrows lasted, had been shooting the

suitors one by one, and they fell thick on one another: when his arrows

gave out, he set the bow to stand against the end wall of the house by

the door post, and hung a shield four hides thick about his shoulders;

on his comely head he set his helmet, well wrought with a crest of

horse-hair that nodded menacingly above it,168 and he grasped two

redoubtable bronze-shod spears.



Now there was a trap door169 on the wall, while at one end of the

pavement170 there was an exit leading to a narrow passage, and this

exit was closed by a well-made door. Ulysses told Philoetius to stand

by this door and guard it, for only one person could attack it at a

time. But Agelaus shouted out, “Cannot some one go up to the trap door

and tell the people what is going on? Help would come at once, and we

should soon make an end of this man and his shooting.”



“This may not be, Agelaus,” answered Melanthius, “the mouth of the

narrow passage is dangerously near the entrance to the outer court. One

brave man could prevent any number from getting in. But I know what I

will do, I will bring you arms from the store-room, for I am sure it is

there that Ulysses and his son have put them.”



On this the goatherd Melanthius went by back passages to the store-room

of Ulysses’ house. There he chose twelve shields, with as many helmets

and spears, and brought them back as fast as he could to give them to

the suitors. Ulysses’ heart began to fail him when he saw the

suitors171 putting on their armour and brandishing their spears. He saw

the greatness of the danger, and said to Telemachus, “Some one of the

women inside is helping the suitors against us, or it may be

Melanthius.”



Telemachus answered, “The fault, father, is mine, and mine only; I left

the store room door open, and they have kept a sharper look out than I

have. Go, Eumaeus, put the door to, and see whether it is one of the

women who is doing this, or whether, as I suspect, it is Melanthius the

son of Dolius.”



Thus did they converse. Meanwhile Melanthius was again going to the

store room to fetch more armour, but the swineherd saw him and said to

Ulysses who was beside him, “Ulysses, noble son of Laertes, it is that

scoundrel Melanthius, just as we suspected, who is going to the store

room. Say, shall I kill him, if I can get the better of him, or shall I

bring him here that you may take your own revenge for all the many

wrongs that he has done in your house?”



Ulysses answered, “Telemachus and I will hold these suitors in check,

no matter what they do; go back both of you and bind Melanthius’ hands

and feet behind him. Throw him into the store room and make the door

fast behind you; then fasten a noose about his body, and string him

close up to the rafters from a high bearing-post,172 that he may linger

on in an agony.”



Thus did he speak, and they did even as he had said; they went to the

store room, which they entered before Melanthius saw them, for he was

busy searching for arms in the innermost part of the room, so the two

took their stand on either side of the door and waited. By and by

Melanthius came out with a helmet in one hand, and an old dry-rotted

shield in the other, which had been borne by Laertes when he was young,

but which had been long since thrown aside, and the straps had become

unsewn; on this the two seized him, dragged him back by the hair, and

threw him struggling to the ground. They bent his hands and feet well

behind his back, and bound them tight with a painful bond as Ulysses

had told them; then they fastened a noose about his body and strung him

up from a high pillar till he was close up to the rafters, and over him

did you then vaunt, O swineherd Eumaeus saying, “Melanthius, you will

pass the night on a soft bed as you deserve. You will know very well

when morning comes from the streams of Oceanus, and it is time for you

to be driving in your goats for the suitors to feast on.”



There, then, they left him in very cruel bondage, and having put on

their armour they closed the door behind them and went back to take

their places by the side of Ulysses; whereon the four men stood in the

cloister, fierce and full of fury; nevertheless, those who were in the

body of the court were still both brave and many. Then Jove’s daughter

Minerva came up to them, having assumed the voice and form of Mentor.

Ulysses was glad when he saw her and said, “Mentor, lend me your help,

and forget not your old comrade, nor the many good turns he has done

you. Besides, you are my age-mate.”



But all the time he felt sure it was Minerva, and the suitors from the

other side raised an uproar when they saw her. Agelaus was the first to

reproach her. “Mentor,” he cried, “do not let Ulysses beguile you into

siding with him and fighting the suitors. This is what we will do: when

we have killed these people, father and son, we will kill you too. You

shall pay for it with your head, and when we have killed you, we will

take all you have, in doors or out, and bring it into hotch-pot with

Ulysses’ property; we will not let your sons live in your house, nor

your daughters, nor shall your widow continue to live in the city of

Ithaca.”



This made Minerva still more furious, so she scolded Ulysses very

angrily.173 “Ulysses,” said she, “your strength and prowess are no

longer what they were when you fought for nine long years among the

Trojans about the noble lady Helen. You killed many a man in those

days, and it was through your stratagem that Priam’s city was taken.

How comes it that you are so lamentably less valiant now that you are

on your own ground, face to face with the suitors in your own house?

Come on, my good fellow, stand by my side and see how Mentor, son of

Alcimus shall fight your foes and requite your kindnesses conferred

upon him.”



But she would not give him full victory as yet, for she wished still

further to prove his own prowess and that of his brave son, so she flew

up to one of the rafters in the roof of the cloister and sat upon it in

the form of a swallow.



Meanwhile Agelaus son of Damastor, Eurynomus, Amphimedon, Demoptolemus,

Pisander, and Polybus son of Polyctor bore the brunt of the fight upon

the suitors’ side; of all those who were still fighting for their lives

they were by far the most valiant, for the others had already fallen

under the arrows of Ulysses. Agelaus shouted to them and said, “My

friends, he will soon have to leave off, for Mentor has gone away after

having done nothing for him but brag. They are standing at the doors

unsupported. Do not aim at him all at once, but six of you throw your

spears first, and see if you cannot cover yourselves with glory by

killing him. When he has fallen we need not be uneasy about the

others.”



They threw their spears as he bade them, but Minerva made them all of

no effect. One hit the door post; another went against the door; the

pointed shaft of another struck the wall; and as soon as they had

avoided all the spears of the suitors Ulysses said to his own men, “My

friends, I should say we too had better let drive into the middle of

them, or they will crown all the harm they have done us by killing us

outright.”



They therefore aimed straight in front of them and threw their spears.

Ulysses killed Demoptolemus, Telemachus Euryades, Eumaeus Elatus, while

the stockman killed Pisander. These all bit the dust, and as the others

drew back into a corner Ulysses and his men rushed forward and regained

their spears by drawing them from the bodies of the dead.



The suitors now aimed a second time, but again Minerva made their

weapons for the most part without effect. One hit a bearing-post of the

cloister; another went against the door; while the pointed shaft of

another struck the wall. Still, Amphimedon just took a piece of the top

skin from off Telemachus’s wrist, and Ctesippus managed to graze

Eumaeus’s shoulder above his shield; but the spear went on and fell to

the ground. Then Ulysses and his men let drive into the crowd of

suitors. Ulysses hit Eurydamas, Telemachus Amphimedon, and Eumaeus

Polybus. After this the stockman hit Ctesippus in the breast, and

taunted him saying, “Foul-mouthed son of Polytherses, do not be so

foolish as to talk wickedly another time, but let heaven direct your

speech, for the gods are far stronger than men. I make you a present of

this advice to repay you for the foot which you gave Ulysses when he

was begging about in his own house.”



Thus spoke the stockman, and Ulysses struck the son of Damastor with a

spear in close fight, while Telemachus hit Leocritus son of Evenor in

the belly, and the dart went clean through him, so that he fell forward

full on his face upon the ground. Then Minerva from her seat on the

rafter held up her deadly aegis, and the hearts of the suitors quailed.

They fled to the other end of the court like a herd of cattle maddened

by the gadfly in early summer when the days are at their longest. As

eagle-beaked, crook-taloned vultures from the mountains swoop down on

the smaller birds that cower in flocks upon the ground, and kill them,

for they cannot either fight or fly, and lookers on enjoy the

sport—even so did Ulysses and his men fall upon the suitors and smite

them on every side. They made a horrible groaning as their brains were

being battered in, and the ground seethed with their blood.



Leiodes then caught the knees of Ulysses and said, “Ulysses I beseech

you have mercy upon me and spare me. I never wronged any of the women

in your house either in word or deed, and I tried to stop the others. I

saw them, but they would not listen, and now they are paying for their

folly. I was their sacrificing priest; if you kill me, I shall die

without having done anything to deserve it, and shall have got no

thanks for all the good that I did.”



Ulysses looked sternly at him and answered, “If you were their

sacrificing priest, you must have prayed many a time that it might be

long before I got home again, and that you might marry my wife and have

children by her. Therefore you shall die.”



With these words he picked up the sword that Agelaus had dropped when

he was being killed, and which was lying upon the ground. Then he

struck Leiodes on the back of his neck, so that his head fell rolling

in the dust while he was yet speaking.



The minstrel Phemius son of Terpes—he who had been forced by the

suitors to sing to them—now tried to save his life. He was standing

near towards the trap door,174 and held his lyre in his hand. He did

not know whether to fly out of the cloister and sit down by the altar

of Jove that was in the outer court, and on which both Laertes and

Ulysses had offered up the thigh bones of many an ox, or whether to go

straight up to Ulysses and embrace his knees, but in the end he deemed

it best to embrace Ulysses’ knees. So he laid his lyre on the ground

between the mixing bowl 175 and the silver-studded seat; then going up

to Ulysses he caught hold of his knees and said, “Ulysses, I beseech

you have mercy on me and spare me. You will be sorry for it afterwards

if you kill a bard who can sing both for gods and men as I can. I make

all my lays myself, and heaven visits me with every kind of

inspiration. I would sing to you as though you were a god, do not

therefore be in such a hurry to cut my head off. Your own son

Telemachus will tell you that I did not want to frequent your house and

sing to the suitors after their meals, but they were too many and too

strong for me, so they made me.”



Telemachus heard him, and at once went up to his father. “Hold!” he

cried, “the man is guiltless, do him no hurt; and we will spare Medon

too, who was always good to me when I was a boy, unless Philoetius or

Eumaeus has already killed him, or he has fallen in your way when you

were raging about the court.”



Medon caught these words of Telemachus, for he was crouching under a

seat beneath which he had hidden by covering himself up with a freshly

flayed heifer’s hide, so he threw off the hide, went up to Telemachus,

and laid hold of his knees.



“Here I am, my dear sir,” said he, “stay your hand therefore, and tell

your father, or he will kill me in his rage against the suitors for

having wasted his substance and been so foolishly disrespectful to

yourself.”



Ulysses smiled at him and answered, “Fear not; Telemachus has saved

your life, that you may know in future, and tell other people, how

greatly better good deeds prosper than evil ones. Go, therefore,

outside the cloisters into the outer court, and be out of the way of

the slaughter—you and the bard—while I finish my work here inside.”



The pair went into the outer court as fast as they could, and sat down

by Jove’s great altar, looking fearfully round, and still expecting

that they would be killed. Then Ulysses searched the whole court

carefully over, to see if anyone had managed to hide himself and was

still living, but he found them all lying in the dust and weltering in

their blood. They were like fishes which fishermen have netted out of

the sea, and thrown upon the beach to lie gasping for water till the

heat of the sun makes an end of them. Even so were the suitors lying

all huddled up one against the other.



Then Ulysses said to Telemachus, “Call nurse Euryclea; I have something

to say to her.”



Telemachus went and knocked at the door of the women’s room. “Make

haste,” said he, “you old woman who have been set over all the other

women in the house. Come outside; my father wishes to speak to you.”



When Euryclea heard this she unfastened the door of the women’s room

and came out, following Telemachus. She found Ulysses among the corpses

bespattered with blood and filth like a lion that has just been

devouring an ox, and his breast and both his cheeks are all bloody, so

that he is a fearful sight; even so was Ulysses besmirched from head to

foot with gore. When she saw all the corpses and such a quantity of

blood, she was beginning to cry out for joy, for she saw that a great

deed had been done; but Ulysses checked her, “Old woman,” said he,

“rejoice in silence; restrain yourself, and do not make any noise about

it; it is an unholy thing to vaunt over dead men. Heaven’s doom and

their own evil deeds have brought these men to destruction, for they

respected no man in the whole world, neither rich nor poor, who came

near them, and they have come to a bad end as a punishment for their

wickedness and folly. Now, however, tell me which of the women in the

house have misconducted themselves, and who are innocent.”176



“I will tell you the truth, my son,” answered Euryclea. “There are

fifty women in the house whom we teach to do things, such as carding

wool, and all kinds of household work. Of these, twelve in all177 have

misbehaved, and have been wanting in respect to me, and also to

Penelope. They showed no disrespect to Telemachus, for he has only

lately grown and his mother never permitted him to give orders to the

female servants; but let me go upstairs and tell your wife all that has

happened, for some god has been sending her to sleep.”



“Do not wake her yet,” answered Ulysses, “but tell the women who have

misconducted themselves to come to me.”



Euryclea left the cloister to tell the women, and make them come to

Ulysses; in the meantime he called Telemachus, the stockman, and the

swineherd. “Begin,” said he, “to remove the dead, and make the women

help you. Then, get sponges and clean water to swill down the tables

and seats. When you have thoroughly cleansed the whole cloisters, take

the women into the space between the domed room and the wall of the

outer court, and run them through with your swords till they are quite

dead, and have forgotten all about love and the way in which they used

to lie in secret with the suitors.”



On this the women came down in a body, weeping and wailing bitterly.

First they carried the dead bodies out, and propped them up against one

another in the gatehouse. Ulysses ordered them about and made them do

their work quickly, so they had to carry the bodies out. When they had

done this, they cleaned all the tables and seats with sponges and

water, while Telemachus and the two others shovelled up the blood and

dirt from the ground, and the women carried it all away and put it out

of doors. Then when they had made the whole place quite clean and

orderly, they took the women out and hemmed them in the narrow space

between the wall of the domed room and that of the yard, so that they

could not get away: and Telemachus said to the other two, “I shall not

let these women die a clean death, for they were insolent to me and my

mother, and used to sleep with the suitors.”



So saying he made a ship’s cable fast to one of the bearing-posts that

supported the roof of the domed room, and secured it all around the

building, at a good height, lest any of the women’s feet should touch

the ground; and as thrushes or doves beat against a net that has been

set for them in a thicket just as they were getting to their nest, and

a terrible fate awaits them, even so did the women have to put their

heads in nooses one after the other and die most miserably.178 Their

feet moved convulsively for a while, but not for very long.



As for Melanthius, they took him through the cloister into the inner

court. There they cut off his nose and his ears; they drew out his

vitals and gave them to the dogs raw, and then in their fury they cut

off his hands and his feet.



When they had done this they washed their hands and feet and went back

into the house, for all was now over; and Ulysses said to the dear old

nurse Euryclea, “Bring me sulphur, which cleanses all pollution, and

fetch fire also that I may burn it, and purify the cloisters. Go,

moreover, and tell Penelope to come here with her attendants, and also

all the maidservants that are in the house.”



“All that you have said is true,” answered Euryclea, “but let me bring

you some clean clothes—a shirt and cloak. Do not keep these rags on

your back any longer. It is not right.”



“First light me a fire,” replied Ulysses.



She brought the fire and sulphur, as he had bidden her, and Ulysses

thoroughly purified the cloisters and both the inner and outer courts.

Then she went inside to call the women and tell them what had happened;

whereon they came from their apartment with torches in their hands, and

pressed round Ulysses to embrace him, kissing his head and shoulders

and taking hold of his hands. It made him feel as if he should like to

weep, for he remembered every one of them.179