Bloodshed
Odysseus ripped off his rags. Now naked, he leapt upon the threshold with his bow and quiverfull of arrows, which he tipped out in a rush before his feet, and spoke.
“Playtime is over. I will shoot again, towards another mark no man has hit. Apollo, may I manage it!”
He aimed
his deadly arrow at Antinous.
The young man sat there, just about to lift
his golden goblet, swirling wine around, 10
ready to drink. He had no thought of death. How could he? Who would think a single man, among so many banqueters, would dare
to risk dark death, however strong he was? Odysseus aimed at his throat, then shot.
The point pierced all the way through his soft neck. He flopped down to the side and his cup slipped out of his hand, and then thick streams of blood
gushed from his nostrils. His foot twitched and knocked the table down; food scattered on the ground. 20
The bread and roasted meat were soiled with blood. Seeing him fall, the suitors, in an uproar,
with shouts that filled the hall, jumped up and rushed to search around by all the thick stone walls
for shields or swords to grab—but there were none. They angrily rebuked Odysseus.
“Stranger, you shot a man, and you will pay! You will join no more games—you have to die!
For certain! You have killed the best young man in all of Ithaca. Right here, the vultures 30
will eat your corpse.” Those poor fools did not know that he had killed Antinous on purpose,
nor that the snares of death were round them all.
Clever Odysseus scowled back and sneered,
“Dogs! So you thought I would not come back home from Troy? And so you fleeced my house, and raped my slave girls, and you flirted with my wife
while I am still alive! You did not fear
the gods who live in heaven, and you thought
no man would ever come to take revenge. 40
Now you are trapped inside the snares of death.”
At that, pale fear seized all of them. They groped to find a way to save their lives somehow.
Only Eurymachus found words to answer.
“If it is you, Odysseus, come back,
then we agree! Quite right, the Greeks have done outrageous things to your estate and home.
But now the one responsible is dead— Antinous! It was all his idea.
He did not even really want your wife, 50
but had another plan, which Zeus has foiled: to lie in ambush for your son, and kill him, then seize the throne and rule in Ithaca.
Now he is slain—quite rightly. Please, my lord, have mercy on your people! We will pay
in public, yes, for all the food and drink.
We each will bring the price of twenty oxen, and pay you all the gold and bronze you want. Your anger is quite understandable.”
Odysseus saw through him; with a glare 60
he told him, “Even if you give me all your whole inheritance, and even more,
I will not keep my hands away from slaughter until I pay you suitors back for all
your wickedness. You have two choices: fight, or run away: just try to save your lives!
Not one of you will get away from death.”
At that their knees grew weak, their hearts stopped still. Eurymachus again addressed the suitors.
“My friends, this man will not hold back his hands. 70
Seizing the bow and arrows, he will shoot us right from that polished threshold, till he kills each one of us. Be quick, make plans for battle. Draw out your swords, use tables as your shields against the deadly arrows. All together,
rush at him, try to drive him off the threshold, and out of doors, then run all through the town, and quickly call for help. This man will soon have shot his last!”
He drew his sharp bronze sword and with a dreadful scream he leapt at him. 80
But that same instant, Lord Odysseus
let fly and hit his chest, beside the nipple, and instantly the arrow pierced his liver.
The sword fell from his hand. He doubled up and fell across the table, spilling food
and wine across the floor. He smashed his head against the ground, and in his desperate pain
kicked up the chair, and darkness drenched his eyes.
Amphinomus attacked Odysseus.
He drew his sharp sword, hoping he could force him 90
to yield his place. Telemachus leapt in
and thrust his bronze spear through him from behind, ramming it through his back and out his chest.
Face-first he crashed and thudded to the ground. Telemachus dashed back—he left his spear stuck in the body; he was terrified
that if he bent to pull it out, some Greek
would jump on him and stab him with a sword. He ran and quickly reached his loyal father.
He stood beside him and his words flew out. 100
“Now Father, I will fetch a shield for you and two spears and a helmet made of bronze, and I will arm myself, and bring more arms
for our two herdsmen, since we all need weapons.”
Odysseus, the master planner, answered, “Run fast while I still have a stock of arrows, before they force me from the doors—I am fighting alone up here.”
His son obeyed.
He hurried to the storeroom for the arms,
and took eight spears, four shields, and four bronze helmets 110
each fitted out with bushy horsehair plumes. He hurried back to take them to his father, and was the first to strap the armor on.
The two slaves also armed themselves, and stood flanking their brilliant, resourceful leader.
As long as he had arrows, he kept shooting, and one by one he picked the suitors off, inside his own home. Then at last the king ran out of arrows; he set down his bow
next to the sturdy doorpost, leaning up 120
against the palace walls, all shining white.
He slung the four-fold shield across his shoulders, and put the well-made helmet on his head.
The crest of horsehair gave a fearsome nod.
He grasped a bronze-tipped spear in either hand.
There was a back gate in the castle walls, providing access to the passageway,
with tightly fitted doors. Odysseus ordered the noble swineherd to stand there
to guard it—there was only one way out. 130
Agelaus called out to all the suitors.
“Friends, one of us should slip out through that gate and quickly tell the people, raise alarms.
That soon would put a stop to this man’s shooting.”
Melanthius the goatherd answered, “No! My lord, that entryway is much too narrow, and dangerously near the palace doors.
One man, if he was brave, could keep it guarded against us all. So I will bring you armor
out of the storeroom, which I think is where 140
those two, our enemies, have hidden it.”
Melanthius the goatherd climbed up past the arrow-slits inside the castle walls,
into the chamber. There he took twelve shields,
twelve spears and twelve bronze helmets, each one crested with horsehair. Then he hurried back downstairs
and handed all the weapons to the suitors.
Odysseus could see that they had arms;
their spears were brandished. His heart stopped, his legs trembled—he was so shocked at their presumption. 150
At once his words flew out to tell his son,
“One of the women, or Melanthius,
is waging war against us, in my house!”
Wisely Telemachus owned up at once. “Father, it was my fault, I am to blame. I left the heavy storeroom door ajar.
Someone on their side must have kept good watch.
Go there, Eumaeus, shut the door, and see if any of the women are against us,
or else, as I suspect, Melanthius.” 160
Meanwhile, Melanthius was going back
to get more weapons from the room. The swineherd saw him and told Odysseus,
“My Lord, that little sneak, the man we all suspected, is going to the stores! Odysseus,
you always have a plan for what to do: so should I kill him, as I think is best,
or bring him here to you, so you can punish his many crimes against you in your house?”
Odysseus already had a plan. 170
“Telemachus and I will keep the suitors trapped in the hall—however much they rage.
You two, truss up his hands and feet behind him, drag him inside the storeroom, string him up, tying a knotted rope high on the column,
and hoist him to the rafters. Torture him with hours of agony before he dies.”
His word was their command; they hurried off, and reached the weaponry. Melanthius
was unaware of them. As he was searching 180
for arms, they stopped on each side of the door and waited. When he stepped across the threshold, holding a lovely helmet in one hand,
and in the other hand, a rusty shield, once carried by Laertes in his youth,
but now in storage, with its seams all loose.
The two men jumped on him and grabbed his hair to drag him in and threw him on the floor, shaking with fear. They bound his hands and feet
and yanked them painfully behind his back, 190
just as the lord of suffering had told them. They tied him with a knotted rope and hoisted his body up the column to the rafters.
Swineherd Eumaeus, you began to mock him:
“Keep watch the whole night through, Melanthius, tucked up in this soft bed—it serves you right!
And wait there for the golden throne of Dawn leaving the sea, that hour when you would lead your goats to this house for the suitors’ dinner.”
There he was left, bound cruelly and stretched. 200
The herdsmen armed themselves and left the room, shutting the door, and joined their cunning leader. They stood there on the threshold, tense with purpose, just four against so many men inside.
The child of Zeus, Athena, came to meet them; her voice and looks resembled those of Mentor. Odysseus was happy when he saw her,
and said, “Remember our old friendship, Mentor! I have been good to you since we were boys.
So help me now!” He guessed it was Athena, 210
who rouses armies.
From the hall, the suitors shouted their opposition. Agelaus
called, “Mentor, do not let Odysseus
sway you to help him and to fight against us. I think this is how things will go. When we have killed this father and his son, you will die also, if you do as you intend,
and pay with your own life for all your plots. Our bronze will strip your life away from you,
and we will seize whatever you may own 220
and mix it with the loot we get from here. Your sons will not survive here in these halls, nor will your wife and daughters still walk free in Ithaca.”
At that Athena’s heart became enraged, and angrily she scolded Odysseus. “Where is your courage now?
You fought nine years on end against the Trojans, for white-armed Helen, Zeus’ favorite child.
You slaughtered many men when war was raging,
and formed the plan that made the city fall. 230
Now you are home at last, how can you flinch from being brave and using proper force against these suitors? Come now, stand by me and watch how Mentor, son of Alcimus,
will treat your enemies as recompense for all your service.”
But she did not grant decisive victory; she kept on testing Odysseus’ courage, and his son’s.
She flew up like a swallow through the smoke and nestled in the rafters of the roof. 240
Now Agelaus, Demoptolemus, Eurynomus, Pisander, Amphimedon, and Polybus were urging on the suitors.
Those were the most heroic of the group who still survived and battled for their lives: the others were defeated by the bow
and raining arrows. Agelaus told them,
“That Mentor’s boasts were empty, friends! He left, and they are all alone there at the entrance.
Now force this cruel man to stay his hands. 250
Do not hurl spears at him all in a mass,
but you six must shoot first and pray Lord Zeus we strike Odysseus and win the fight.
Once he is down, the others will be nothing.”
The six men threw their spears as he had said; at once Athena made their efforts fail.
One pierced the doorpost of the palace hall, another hit the closely fitted door, another’s spear of ash and heavy bronze
fell on the wall. The group of four avoided 260
all of the suitors’ spears. Odysseus had waited long enough.
“My friends,” he said, “they want to slaughter us and strip our arms!
Avenge my former wrongs, and save your lives! Now shoot!”
They hurled their spears at once and hit.
Odysseus killed Demoptolemus; Telemachus, Euryades; the swineherd slaughtered Elatus, and the cowherd killed Pisander. They all fell and bit the earth.
The other suitors huddled in a corner; 270
the four rushed up and from the corpses pulled their spears. Again the suitors threw their weapons; again Athena made them fail. One spear
struck at the doorpost, and another pierced the door; another ash spear hit the wall.
Amphimedon’s blow grazed Telemachus
right by the wrist: the bronze tore through his skin.
Ctesippus hurled his spear; it only scratched the swineherd’s shoulder, just above his shield,
flew past and fell down on the floor behind him. 280
The competent, sharp-eyed Odysseus
and his companions hurled their piercing spears into the swarming throng. The city-sacker skewered Eurydamas; Telemachus
slashed Amphimedon, and the swineherd struck at Polybus; the cowherd sliced right through Ctesippus’ chest, and crowed,
“You fool! You loved insulting us—now you have stopped your boasting.
The gods have got the last word; they have won. This is a gift to pay you for that kick 290
you gave Odysseus when he walked through his own house, as a homeless man in need.”
Odysseus moved closer with his spear, and pierced Agelaus; Telemachus
thrust at Leocritus, and drove his bronze into his belly. He fell down headfirst, face smashed against the floor.
Then from the roof
Athena lifted high her deadly aegis.
The frightened suitors bolted through the hall
like cattle, roused and driven by a gadfly 300
in springtime, when the days are getting longer. As vultures with their crooked beaks and talons swoop from the hills and pounce on smaller birds that fly across the fields beneath the clouds;
the victims have no help and no way out, as their attackers slaughter them, and men watch and enjoy the violence. So these
four fighters sprang and struck, and drove the suitors in all directions. Screaming filled the hall,
as skulls were cracked; the whole floor ran with blood. 310
Leodes darted up to supplicate Odysseus; he touched his knees.
“Please, mercy!
I did no wrong, I swear, in word or deed to any of the women in the house.
I tried to stop the suitors, tried to urge them
to keep their hands clean, but they would not listen. Those fools deserved their fate. But I did nothing!
I am a priest—yet I must lie with them. Will good behavior go unrewarded?”
The calculating hero scowled at him. 320
“If, as you claim, you sacrificed for them, you must have often prayed here in my hall that I would not regain the joys of home, and that my wife would marry you instead, and bear you children. You will not escape. Suffer and die!”
Agelaus had dropped
his sword when he was killed. With his strong arm Odysseus swung, slashed down and sliced right through the priest’s neck, and his head, still framing words, rolled in the dust.
The poet Phemius, 330
who had been forced to sing to please the suitors, was huddling by the back door with his lyre, anxiously considering his choices:
to slip outside and crouch beneath the altar of mighty Zeus, the god of home owners,
where his old masters burned so many thigh-bones; or he could run towards Odysseus
and grasp him by the knees and beg for mercy. He made his mind up: he would supplicate.
He set his hollow lyre on the ground 340
between the mixing bowl and silver chair, and dashed to take Odysseus’ knees, beseeching him in quivering winged words.
“I beg you, Lord Odysseus! Have mercy! Think! If you kill me now, you will be sorry! I have the power to sing for gods and men.
I am self-taught—all kinds of song are planted by gods inside my heart. I am prepared
to sing for you, as if before a god.
Wait, do not cut my throat! Just ask your son! 350
He will explain it was against my will
that I came here to sing to them after dinner. They were too fierce and they outnumbered me. I had no choice.”
Then strong Telemachus turned quickly to his father, saying, “Stop, hold up your sword—this man is innocent.
And let us also save the house boy, Medon. He always cared for me when I was young— unless the herdsmen have already killed him,
or he already met you in your rage.” 360
Medon was sensible: he had been hiding under a chair, beneath a fresh cowhide, in order to escape from being killed.
Hearing these words, he jumped up from the chair, took off the cowhide and assumed the pose
of supplication near Telemachus, and said,
“Friend, here I am! Please spare my life!
Your father is too strong, and furious
against the suitors, who skimmed off his wealth
and failed to honor you. Please, talk to him!” 370
Canny Odysseus smiled down and said, “You need not worry, he has saved your life. So live and spread the word that doing good is far superior to wickedness.
Now leave the hall and go outside; sit down, joining the famous singer in the courtyard, so I can finish what I have to do
inside my house.”
The two men went outside, and crouched by Zeus’ altar, on the lookout
for death at any moment all around. 380
Odysseus scanned all around his home for any man who might be still alive,
who might be hiding to escape destruction. He saw them fallen, all of them, so many, lying in blood and dust, like fish hauled up out of the dark-gray sea in fine-mesh nets; tipped out upon the curving beach’s sand, they gasp for water from the salty sea.
So lay the suitors, heaped across each other. Odysseus, still scheming, told his son, 390
“I need to say something to Eurycleia. Hurry, Telemachus, and bring her here.”
Telemachus was glad to please his father.
He pushed the door ajar and called the nurse. “Nanny, come quick! You have been here for years. You supervise the female palace slaves.
My father has to talk to you; come on!”
She had no words to answer him, but opened the doors into the great and sturdy hall.
Telemachus went first and led the way. 400
Among the corpses of the slaughtered men she saw Odysseus all smeared with blood. After a lion eats a grazing ox,
its chest and jowls are thick with blood all over; a dreadful sight. Just so, Odysseus
had blood all over him—from hands to feet. Seeing the corpses, seeing all that blood,
so great a deed of violence, she began to crow. Odysseus told her to stop and spoke with fluent words.
“Old woman, no! 410
Be glad inside your heart, but do not shout.
It is not pious, gloating over men
who have been killed. Divine fate took them down, and their own wicked deeds. They disrespected
all people that they met, both bad and good. Through their own crimes they came to this bad end. But tell me now about the household women.
Which ones dishonor me? And which are pure?”
The slave who loved her master answered, “Child, I will tell you exactly how things stand. 420
In this house we have fifty female slaves
whom we have trained to work, to card the wool, and taught to tolerate their life as slaves.
Twelve stepped away from honor: those twelve girls ignore me, and Penelope our mistress.
She would not let Telemachus instruct them, since he is young and only just grown-up.
Let me go upstairs to the women’s rooms,
to tell your wife—some god has sent her sleep.”
The master strategist Odysseus 430
said,
“Not yet; do not wake her. Call the women who made those treasonous plots while I was gone.”
The old nurse did so. Walking through the hall, she called the girls. Meanwhile, Odysseus summoned the herdsmen and Telemachus
and spoke winged words to them.
“Now we must start to clear the corpses out. The girls must help.
Then clean my stately chairs and handsome tables with sponges fine as honeycomb, and water.
When the whole house is set in proper order, 440
restore my halls to health: take out the girls between the courtyard wall and the rotunda.
Hack at them with long swords, eradicate
all life from them. They will forget the things the suitors made them do with them in secret, through Aphrodite.”
Sobbing desperately the girls came, weeping, clutching at each other.
They carried out the bodies of the dead and piled them up on top of one another,
under the roof outside. Odysseus 450
instructed them and forced them to continue.
And then they cleaned his lovely chairs and tables with wet absorbent sponges, while the prince
and herdsmen with their shovels scraped away the mess to make the sturdy floor all clean.
The girls picked up the trash and took it out.
The men created order in the house and set it all to rights, then led the girls
outside and trapped them—they could not escape— between the courtyard wall and the rotunda. 460
Showing initiative, Telemachus insisted,
“I refuse to grant these girls
a clean death, since they poured down shame on me and Mother, when they lay beside the suitors.”
At that, he wound a piece of sailor’s rope round the rotunda and round the mighty pillar,
stretched up so high no foot could touch the ground.
As doves or thrushes spread their wings to fly home to their nests, but someone sets a trap— they crash into a net, a bitter bedtime; 470
just so the girls, their heads all in a row,
were strung up with the noose around their necks to make their death an agony. They gasped,
feet twitching for a while, but not for long.
Then the men took Melanthius outside
and with curved bronze cut off his nose and ears and ripped away his genitals, to feed
raw to the dogs. Still full of rage, they chopped
his hands and feet off. Then they washed their own, and they went back inside.
Odysseus 480
told his beloved nurse, “Now bring me fire and sulfur, as a cure for evil things,
and I will fumigate the house. And call Penelope, her slaves, and all the slave girls inside the house.”
She answered with affection, “Yes, dear, all this is good. But let me bring
a cloak and shirt for you. You should not stand here your strong back covered only with those rags.
That would be wrong!”
Odysseus, the master
of every cunning scheme, replied, “No, first 490
I need a fire here, to smoke the hall.”
His loving slave complied and brought the fire and sulfur, and Odysseus made smoke,
and fumigated every room inside
the house and yard. Meanwhile, the old nurse ran all through the palace summoning the women.
By torchlight they came out from their apartments, to greet Odysseus with open arms.
They kissed his face and took him by the hands
in welcome. He was seized by sweet desire 500
to weep, and in his heart he knew them all.
