<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=410328" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Odyssey: Book 22</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then Ulysses tore off his rags, and sprang on to the broad<br>pavement with his bow and his quiver full of arrows. He shed the<br>arrows on to the ground at his feet and said, "The mighty contest is<br>at an end. I will now see whether Apollo will vouchsafe it to me to<br>hit another mark which no man has yet hit."<br>On this he aimed a deadly arrow at Antinous, who was about to take<br>up a two-handled gold cup to drink his wine and already had it in<br>his hands. He had no thought of death- who amongst all the revellers<br>would think that one man, however brave, would stand alone among so<br>many and kill him? The arrow struck Antinous in the throat, and the<br>point went clean through his neck, so that he fell over and the cup<br>dropped from his hand, while a thick stream of blood gushed from his<br>nostrils. He kicked the table from him and upset the things on it,<br>so that the bread and roasted meats were all soiled as they fell<br>over on to the ground. The suitors were in an uproar when they saw<br>that a man had been hit; they sprang in dismay one and all of them<br>from their seats and looked everywhere towards the walls, but there<br>was neither shield nor spear, and they rebuked Ulysses very angrily.<br>"Stranger," said they, "you shall pay for shooting people in this way:<br>om yi you shall see no other contest; you are a doomed man; he whom<br>you have slain was the foremost youth in Ithaca, and the vultures<br>shall devour you for having killed him."<br>Thus they spoke, for they thought that he had killed Antinous by<br>mistake, and did not perceive that death was hanging over the head<br>of every one of them. But Ulysses glared at them and said:<br>"Dogs, did you think that I should not come back from Troy? You have<br>wasted my substance, have forced my women servants to lie with you,<br>and have wooed my wife while I was still living. You have feared<br>neither Cod nor man, and now you shall die."<br>They turned pale with fear as he spoke, and every man looked round<br>about to see whither he might fly for safety, but Eurymachus alone<br>spoke.<br>"If you are Ulysses," said he, "then what you have said is just.<br>We have done much wrong on your lands and in your house. But<br>Antinous who was the head and front of the offending lies low already.<br>It was all his doing. It was not that he wanted to marry Penelope;<br>he did not so much care about that; what he wanted was something quite<br>different, and Jove has not vouchsafed it to him; he wanted to kill<br>your son and to be chief man in Ithaca. Now, therefore, that he has<br>met the death which was his due, spare the lives of your people. We<br>will make everything good among ourselves, and pay you in full for all<br>that we have eaten and drunk. Each one of us shall pay you a fine<br>worth twenty oxen, and we will keep on giving you gold and bronze till<br>your heart is softened. Until we have done this no one can complain of<br>your being enraged against us."<br>Ulysses again glared at him and said, "Though you should give me all<br>that you have in the world both now and all that you ever shall<br>have, I will not stay my hand till I have paid all of you in full. You<br>must fight, or fly for your lives; and fly, not a man of you shall."<br>Their hearts sank as they heard him, but Eurymachus again spoke<br>saying:<br>"My friends, this man will give us no quarter. He will stand where<br>he is and shoot us down till he has killed every man among us. Let<br>us then show fight; draw your swords, and hold up the tables to shield<br>you from his arrows. Let us have at him with a rush, to drive him from<br>the pavement and doorway: we can then get through into the town, and<br>raise such an alarm as shall soon stay his shooting."<br>As he spoke he drew his keen blade of bronze, sharpened on both<br>sides, and with a loud cry sprang towards Ulysses, but Ulysses<br>instantly shot an arrow into his breast that caught him by the<br>nipple and fixed itself in his liver. He dropped his sword and fell<br>doubled up over his table. The cup and all the meats went over on to<br>the ground as he smote the earth with his forehead in the agonies of<br>death, and he kicked the stool with his feet until his eyes were<br>closed in darkness.<br>Then Amphinomus drew his sword and made straight at Ulysses to try<br>and get him away from the door; but Telemachus was too quick for<br>him, and struck him from behind; the spear caught him between the<br>shoulders and went right through his chest, so that he fell heavily to<br>the ground and struck the earth with his forehead. Then Telemachus<br>sprang away from him, leaving his spear still in the body, for he<br>feared that if he stayed to draw it out, some one of the Achaeans<br>might come up and hack at him with his sword, or knock him down, so he<br>set off at a run, and immediately was at his father's side. Then he<br>said:<br>"Father, let me bring you a shield, two spears, and a brass helmet<br>for your temples. I will arm myself as well, and will bring other<br>armour for the swineherd and the stockman, for we had better be<br>armed."<br>"Run and fetch them," answered Ulysses, "while my arrows hold out,<br>or when I am alone they may get me away from the door."<br>Telemachus did as his father said, and went off to the store room<br>where the armour was kept. He chose four shields, eight spears, and<br>four brass helmets with horse-hair plumes. He brought them with all<br>speed to his father, and armed himself first, while the stockman and<br>the swineherd also put on their armour, and took their places near<br>Ulysses. Meanwhile Ulysses, as long as his arrows lasted, had been<br>shooting the suitors one by one, and they fell thick on one another:<br>when his arrows gave out, he set the bow to stand against the end wall<br>of the house by the door post, and hung a shield four hides thick<br>about his shoulders; on his comely head he set his helmet, well<br>wrought with a crest of horse-hair that nodded menacingly above it,<br>and he grasped two redoubtable bronze-shod spears.<br>Now there was a trap door on the wall, while at one end of the<br>pavement there was an exit leading to a narrow passage, and this<br>exit was closed by a well-made door. Ulysses told Philoetius to<br>stand by this door and guard it, for only one person could attack it<br>at a time. But Agelaus shouted out, "Cannot some one go up to the trap<br>door and tell the people what is going on? Help would come at once,<br>and we should soon make an end of this man and his shooting."<br>"This may not be, Agelaus," answered Melanthius, "the mouth of the<br>narrow passage is dangerously near the entrance to the outer court.<br>One brave man could prevent any number from getting in. But I know<br>what I will do, I will bring you arms from the store room, for I am<br>sure it is there that Ulysses and his son have put them."<br>On this the goatherd Melanthius went by back passages to the store<br>room of Ulysses, house. There he chose twelve shields, with as many<br>helmets and spears, and brought them back as fast as he could to<br>give them to the suitors. Ulysses' heart began to fail him when he saw<br>the suitors putting on their armour and brandishing their spears. He<br>saw the greatness of the danger, and said to Telemachus, "Some one<br>of the women inside is helping the suitors against us, or it may be<br>Melanthius."<br>Telemachus answered, "The fault, father, is mine, and mine only; I<br>left the store room door open, and they have kept a sharper look out<br>than I have. Go, Eumaeus, put the door to, and see whether it is one<br>of the women who is doing this, or whether, as I suspect, it is<br>Melanthius the son of Dolius."<br>Thus did they converse. Meanwhile Melanthius was again going to<br>the store room to fetch more armour, but the swineherd saw him and<br>said to Ulysses who was beside him, "Ulysses, noble son of Laertes, it<br>is that scoundrel Melanthius, just as we suspected, who is going to<br>the store room. Say, shall I kill him, if I can get the better of him,<br>or shall I bring him here that you may take your own revenge for all<br>the many wrongs that he has done in your house?"<br>Ulysses answered, "Telemachus and I will hold these suitors in<br>check, no matter what they do; go back both of you and bind<br>Melanthius' hands and feet behind him. Throw him into the store room<br>and make the door fast behind you; then fasten a noose about his body,<br>and string him close up to the rafters from a high bearing-post,<br>that he may linger on in an agony."<br>Thus did he speak, and they did even as he had said; they went to<br>the store room, which they entered before Melanthius saw them, for<br>he was busy searching for arms in the innermost part of the room, so<br>the two took their stand on either side of the door and waited. By and<br>by Melanthius came out with a helmet in one hand, and an old<br>dry-rotted shield in the other, which had been borne by Laertes when<br>he was young, but which had been long since thrown aside, and the<br>straps had become unsewn; on this the two seized him, dragged him back<br>by the hair, and threw him struggling to the ground. They bent his<br>hands and feet well behind his back, and bound them tight with a<br>painful bond as Ulysses had told them; then they fastened a noose<br>about his body and strung him up from a high pillar till he was<br>close up to the rafters, and over him did you then vaunt, O<br>swineherd Eumaeus, saying, "Melanthius, you will pass the night on a<br>soft bed as you deserve. You will know very well when morning comes<br>from the streams of Oceanus, and it is time for you to be driving in<br>your goats for the suitors to feast on."<br>There, then, they left him in very cruel bondage, and having put<br>on their armour they closed the door behind them and went back to take<br>their places by the side of Ulysses; whereon the four men stood in the<br>cloister, fierce and full of fury; nevertheless, those who were in the<br>body of the court were still both brave and many. Then Jove's daughter<br>Minerva came up to them, having assumed the voice and form of<br>Mentor. Ulysses was glad when he saw her and said, "Mentor, lend me<br>your help, and forget not your old comrade, nor the many good turns he<br>has done you. Besides, you are my age-mate."<br>But all the time he felt sure it was Minerva, and the suitors from<br>the other side raised an uproar when they saw her. Agelaus was the<br>first to reproach her. "Mentor," he cried, "do not let Ulysses beguile<br>you into siding with him and fighting the suitors. This is what we<br>will do: when we have killed these people, father and son, we will<br>kill you too. You shall pay for it with your head, and when we have<br>killed you, we will take all you have, in doors or out, and bring it<br>into hotch-pot with Ulysses' property; we will not let your sons<br>live in your house, nor your daughters, nor shall your widow<br>continue to live in the city of Ithaca."<br>This made Minerva still more furious, so she scolded Ulysses very<br>angrily. "Ulysses," said she, "your strength and prowess are no longer<br>what they were when you fought for nine long years among the Trojans<br>about the noble lady Helen. You killed many a man in those days, and<br>it was through your stratagem that Priam's city was taken. How comes<br>it that you are so lamentably less valiant now that you are on your<br>own ground, face to face with the suitors in your own house? Come<br>on, my good fellow, stand by my side and see how Mentor, son of<br>Alcinous shall fight your foes and requite your kindnesses conferred<br>upon him."<br>But she would not give him full victory as yet, for she wished still<br>further to prove his own prowess and that of his brave son, so she<br>flew up to one of the rafters in the roof of the cloister and sat upon<br>it in the form of a swallow.<br>Meanwhile Agelaus son of Damastor, Eurynomus, Amphimedon,<br>Demoptolemus, Pisander, and Polybus son of Polyctor bore the brunt<br>of the fight upon the suitors' side; of all those who were still<br>fighting for their lives they were by far the most valiant, for the<br>others had already fallen under the arrows of Ulysses. Agelaus shouted<br>to them and said, "My friends, he will soon have to leave off, for<br>Mentor has gone away after having done nothing for him but brag.<br>They are standing at the doors unsupported. Do not aim at him all at<br>once, but six of you throw your spears first, and see if you cannot<br>cover yourselves with glory by killing him. When he has fallen we need<br>not be uneasy about the others."<br>They threw their spears as he bade them, but Minerva made them all<br>of no effect. One hit the door post; another went against the door;<br>the pointed shaft of another struck the wall; and as soon as they<br>had avoided all the spears of the suitors Ulysses said to his own men,<br>"My friends, I should say we too had better let drive into the<br>middle of them, or they will crown all the harm they have done us by<br>us outright."<br>They therefore aimed straight in front of them and threw their<br>spears. Ulysses killed Demoptolemus, Telemachus Euryades, Eumaeus<br>Elatus, while the stockman killed Pisander. These all bit the dust,<br>and as the others drew back into a corner Ulysses and his men rushed<br>forward and regained their spears by drawing them from the bodies of<br>the dead.<br>The suitors now aimed a second time, but again Minerva made their<br>weapons for the most part without effect. One hit a bearing-post of<br>the cloister; another went against the door; while the pointed shaft<br>of another struck the wall. Still, Amphimedon just took a piece of the<br>top skin from off Telemachus's wrist, and Ctesippus managed to graze<br>Eumaeus's shoulder above his shield; but the spear went on and fell to<br>the ground. Then Ulysses and his men let drive into the crowd of<br>suitors. Ulysses hit Eurydamas, Telemachus Amphimedon, and Eumaeus<br>Polybus. After this the stockman hit Ctesippus in the breast, and<br>taunted him saying, "Foul-mouthed son of Polytherses, do not be so<br>foolish as to talk wickedly another time, but let heaven direct your<br>speech, for the gods are far stronger than men. I make you a present<br>of this advice to repay you for the foot which you gave Ulysses when<br>he was begging about in his own house."<br>Thus spoke the stockman, and Ulysses struck the son of Damastor with<br>a spear in close fight, while Telemachus hit Leocritus son of Evenor<br>in the belly, and the dart went clean through him, so that he fell<br>forward full on his face upon the ground. Then Minerva from her seat<br>on the rafter held up her deadly aegis, and the hearts of the<br>suitors quailed. They fled to the other end of the court like a herd<br>of cattle maddened by the gadfly in early summer when the days are<br>at their longest. As eagle-beaked, crook-taloned vultures from the<br>mountains swoop down on the smaller birds that cower in flocks upon<br>the ground, and kill them, for they cannot either fight or fly, and<br>lookers on enjoy the sport- even so did Ulysses and his men fall<br>upon the suitors and smite them on every side. They made a horrible<br>groaning as their brains were being battered in, and the ground<br>seethed with their blood.<br>Leiodes then caught the knees of Ulysses and said, "Ulysses I<br>beseech you have mercy upon me and spare me. I never wronged any of<br>the women in your house either in word or deed, and I tried to stop<br>the others. I saw them, but they would not listen, and now they are<br>paying for their folly. I was their sacrificing priest; if you kill<br>me, I shall die without having done anything to deserve it, and<br>shall have got no thanks for all the good that I did."<br>Ulysses looked sternly at him and answered, "If you were their<br>sacrificing priest, you must have prayed many a time that it might<br>be long before I got home again, and that you might marry my wife<br>and have children by her. Therefore you shall die."<br>With these words he picked up the sword that Agelaus had dropped<br>when he was being killed, and which was lying upon the ground. Then he<br>struck Leiodes on the back of his neck, so that his head fell<br>rolling in the dust while he was yet speaking.<br>The minstrel Phemius son of Terpes- he who had been forced by the<br>suitors to sing to them- now tried to save his life. He was standing<br>near towards the trap door, and held his lyre in his hand. He did<br>not know whether to fly out of the cloister and sit down by the<br>altar of Jove that was in the outer court, and on which both Laertes<br>and Ulysses had offered up the thigh bones of many an ox, or whether<br>to go straight up to Ulysses and embrace his knees, but in the end<br>he deemed it best to embrace Ulysses' knees. So he laid his lyre on<br>the ground the ground between the mixing-bowl and the silver-studded<br>seat; then going up to Ulysses he caught hold of his knees and said,<br>"Ulysses, I beseech you have mercy on me and spare me. You will be<br>sorry for it afterwards if you kill a bard who can sing both for<br>gods and men as I can. I make all my lays myself, and heaven visits me<br>with every kind of inspiration. I would sing to you as though you were<br>a god, do not therefore be in such a hurry to cut my head off. Your<br>own son Telemachus will tell you that I did not want to frequent<br>your house and sing to the suitors after their meals, but they were<br>too many and too strong for me, so they made me."<br>Telemachus heard him, and at once went up to his father. "Hold!"<br>he cried, "the man is guiltless, do him no hurt; and we will Medon<br>too, who was always good to me when I was a boy, unless Philoetius<br>or Eumaeus has already killed him, or he has fallen in your way when<br>you were raging about the court."<br>Medon caught these words of Telemachus, for he was crouching under a<br>seat beneath which he had hidden by covering himself up with a freshly<br>flayed heifer's hide, so he threw off the hide, went up to Telemachus,<br>and laid hold of his knees.<br>"Here I am, my dear sir," said he, "stay your hand therefore, and<br>tell your father, or he will kill me in his rage against the suitors<br>for having wasted his substance and been so foolishly disrespectful to<br>yourself."<br>Ulysses smiled at him and answered, "Fear not; Telemachus has<br>saved your life, that you may know in future, and tell other people,<br>how greatly better good deeds prosper than evil ones. Go, therefore,<br>outside the cloisters into the outer court, and be out of the way of<br>the slaughter- you and the bard- while I finish my work here inside."<br>The pair went into the outer court as fast as they could, and sat<br>down by Jove's great altar, looking fearfully round, and still<br>expecting that they would be killed. Then Ulysses searched the whole<br>court carefully over, to see if anyone had managed to hide himself and<br>was still living, but he found them all lying in the dust and<br>weltering in their blood. They were like fishes which fishermen have<br>netted out of the sea, and thrown upon the beach to lie gasping for<br>water till the heat of the sun makes an end of them. Even so were<br>the suitors lying all huddled up one against the other.<br>Then Ulysses said to Telemachus, "Call nurse Euryclea; I have<br>something to say to her."<br>Telemachus went and knocked at the door of the women's room. "Make<br>haste," said he, "you old woman who have been set over all the other<br>women in the house. Come outside; my father wishes to speak to you."<br>When Euryclea heard this she unfastened the door of the women's room<br>and came out, following Telemachus. She found Ulysses among the<br>corpses bespattered with blood and filth like a lion that has just<br>been devouring an ox, and his breast and both his cheeks are all<br>bloody, so that he is a fearful sight; even so was Ulysses<br>besmirched from head to foot with gore. When she saw all the corpses<br>and such a quantity of blood, she was beginning to cry out for joy,<br>for she saw that a great deed had been done; but Ulysses checked<br>her, "Old woman," said he, "rejoice in silence; restrain yourself, and<br>do not make any noise about it; it is an unholy thing to vaunt over<br>dead men. Heaven's doom and their own evil deeds have brought these<br>men to destruction, for they respected no man in the whole world,<br>neither rich nor poor, who came near them, and they have come to a bad<br>end as a punishment for their wickedness and folly. Now, however, tell<br>me which of the women in the house have misconducted themselves, and<br>who are innocent."<br>"I will tell you the truth, my son," answered Euryclea. "There are<br>fifty women in the house whom we teach to do things, such as carding<br>wool, and all kinds of household work. Of these, twelve in all have<br>misbehaved, and have been wanting in respect to me, and also to<br>Penelope. They showed no disrespect to Telemachus, for he has only<br>lately grown and his mother never permitted him to give orders to<br>the female servants; but let me go upstairs and tell your wife all<br>that has happened, for some god has been sending her to sleep."<br>"Do not wake her yet," answered Ulysses, "but tell the women who<br>have misconducted themselves to come to me."<br>Euryclea left the cloister to tell the women, and make them come<br>to Ulysses; in the meantime he called Telemachus, the stockman, and<br>the swineherd. "Begin," said he, "to remove the dead, and make the<br>women help you. Then, get sponges and clean water to swill down the<br>tables and seats. When you have thoroughly cleansed the whole<br>cloisters, take the women into the space between the domed room and<br>the wall of the outer court, and run them through with your swords<br>till they are quite dead, and have forgotten all about love and the<br>way in which they used to lie in secret with the suitors."<br>On this the women came down in a body, weeping and wailing bitterly.<br>First they carried the dead bodies out, and propped them up against<br>one another in the gatehouse. Ulysses ordered them about and made them<br>do their work quickly, so they had to carry the bodies out. When<br>they had done this, they cleaned all the tables and seats with sponges<br>and water, while Telemachus and the two others shovelled up the<br>blood and dirt from the ground, and the women carried it all away<br>and put it out of doors. Then when they had made the whole place quite<br>clean and orderly, they took the women out and hemmed them in the<br>narrow space between the wall of the domed room and that of the<br>yard, so that they could not get away: and Telemachus said to the<br>other two, "I shall not let these women die a clean death, for they<br>were insolent to me and my mother, and used to sleep with the<br>suitors."<br>So saying he made a ship's cable fast to one of the bearing-posts<br>that supported the roof of the domed room, and secured it all around<br>the building, at a good height, lest any of the women's feet should<br>touch the ground; and as thrushes or doves beat against a net that has<br>been set for them in a thicket just as they were getting to their<br>nest, and a terrible fate awaits them, even so did the women have to<br>put their heads in nooses one after the other and die most<br>miserably. Their feet moved convulsively for a while, but not for very<br>long.<br>As for Melanthius, they took him through the cloister into the inner<br>court. There they cut off his nose and his ears; they drew out his<br>vitals and gave them to the dogs raw, and then in their fury they<br>cut off his hands and his feet.<br>When they had done this they washed their hands and feet and went<br>back into the house, for all was now over; and Ulysses said to the<br>dear old nurse Euryclea, "Bring me sulphur, which cleanses all<br>pollution, and fetch fire also that I may burn it, and purify the<br>cloisters. Go, moreover, and tell Penelope to come here with her<br>attendants, and also all the maid servants that are in the house."<br>"All that you have said is true," answered Euryclea, "but let me<br>bring you some clean clothes- a shirt and cloak. Do not keep these<br>rags on your back any longer. It is not right."<br>"First light me a fire," replied Ulysses.<br>She brought the fire and sulphur, as he had bidden her, and<br>Ulysses thoroughly purified the cloisters and both the inner and outer<br>courts. Then she went inside to call the women and tell them what<br>had happened; whereon they came from their apartment with torches in<br>their hands, and pressed round Ulysses to embrace him, kissing his<br>head and shoulders and taking hold of his hands. It made him feel as<br>if he should like to weep, for he remembered every one of them.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Homer">Homer</a>, translated by Samuel Butler<div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=410328" data-title="The Odyssey: Book 22 de Homer" data-description="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 vouchsaf..."></div> </div> </div>

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