The Odyssey - 21

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


BOOK XXIII

PENELOPE EVENTUALLY RECOGNISES HER HUSBAND—EARLY IN THE MORNING
ULYSSES, TELEMACHUS, EUMAEUS, AND PHILOETIUS LEAVE THE TOWN.

Euryclea now went upstairs laughing to tell her mistress that her dear
husband had come home. Her aged knees became young again and her feet
were nimble for joy as she went up to her mistress and bent over her
head to speak to her. “Wake up Penelope, my dear child,” she exclaimed,
“and see with your own eyes something that you have been wanting this
long time past. Ulysses has at last indeed come home again, and has
killed the suitors who were giving so much trouble in his house, eating
up his estate and ill treating his son.”
“My good nurse,” answered Penelope, “you must be mad. The gods
sometimes send some very sensible people out of their minds, and make
foolish people become sensible. This is what they must have been doing
to you; for you always used to be a reasonable person. Why should you
thus mock me when I have trouble enough already—talking such nonsense,
and waking me up out of a sweet sleep that had taken possession of my
eyes and closed them? I have never slept so soundly from the day my
poor husband went to that city with the ill-omened name. Go back again
into the women’s room; if it had been any one else who had woke me up
to bring me such absurd news I should have sent her away with a severe
scolding. As it is your age shall protect you.”
“My dear child,” answered Euryclea, “I am not mocking you. It is quite
true as I tell you that Ulysses is come home again. He was the stranger
whom they all kept on treating so badly in the cloister. Telemachus
knew all the time that he was come back, but kept his father’s secret
that he might have his revenge on all these wicked people.”
Then Penelope sprang up from her couch, threw her arms round Euryclea,
and wept for joy. “But my dear nurse,” said she, “explain this to me;
if he has really come home as you say, how did he manage to overcome
the wicked suitors single handed, seeing what a number of them there
always were?”
“I was not there,” answered Euryclea, “and do not know; I only heard
them groaning while they were being killed. We sat crouching and
huddled up in a corner of the women’s room with the doors closed, till
your son came to fetch me because his father sent him. Then I found
Ulysses standing over the corpses that were lying on the ground all
round him, one on top of the other. You would have enjoyed it if you
could have seen him standing there all bespattered with blood and
filth, and looking just like a lion. But the corpses are now all piled
up in the gatehouse that is in the outer court, and Ulysses has lit a
great fire to purify the house with sulphur. He has sent me to call
you, so come with me that you may both be happy together after all; for
now at last the desire of your heart has been fulfilled; your husband
is come home to find both wife and son alive and well, and to take his
revenge in his own house on the suitors who behaved so badly to him.”
“My dear nurse,” said Penelope, “do not exult too confidently over all
this. You know how delighted every one would be to see Ulysses come
home—more particularly myself, and the son who has been born to both of
us; but what you tell me cannot be really true. It is some god who is
angry with the suitors for their great wickedness, and has made an end
of them; 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 in
consequence of their iniquity; Ulysses is dead far away from the
Achaean land; he will never return home again.”
Then nurse Euryclea said, “My child, what are you talking about? but
you were all hard of belief and have made up your mind that your
husband is never coming, although he is in the house and by his own
fire side at this very moment. Besides I can give you another proof;
when I was washing him I perceived the scar which the wild boar gave
him, and I wanted to tell you about it, but in his wisdom he would not
let me, and clapped his hands over my mouth; so come with me and I will
make this bargain with you—if I am deceiving you, you may have me
killed by the most cruel death you can think of.”
“My dear nurse,” said Penelope, “however wise you may be you can hardly
fathom the counsels of the gods. Nevertheless, we will go in search of
my son, that I may see the corpses of the suitors, and the man who has
killed them.”
On this she came down from her upper room, and while doing so she
considered whether she should keep at a distance from her husband and
question him, or whether she should at once go up to him and embrace
him. When, however, she had crossed the stone floor of the cloister,
she sat down opposite Ulysses by the fire, against the wall at right
angles180 [to that by which she had entered], while Ulysses sat near
one of the bearing-posts, looking upon the ground, and waiting to see
what his brave wife would say to him when she saw him. For a long time
she sat silent and as one lost in amazement. At one moment she looked
him full in the face, but then again directly, she was misled by his
shabby clothes and failed to recognise him,181 till Telemachus began to
reproach her and said:
“Mother—but you are so hard that I cannot call you by such a name—why
do you keep away from my father in this way? Why do you not sit by his
side and begin talking to him and asking him questions? No other woman
could bear to keep away from her husband when he had come back to her
after twenty years of absence, and after having gone through so much;
but your heart always was as hard as a stone.”
Penelope answered, “My son, I am so lost in astonishment that I can
find no words in which either to ask questions or to answer them. I
cannot even look him straight in the face. Still, if he really is
Ulysses come back to his own home again, we shall get to understand one
another better by and by, for there are tokens with which we two are
alone acquainted, and which are hidden from all others.”
Ulysses smiled at this, and said to Telemachus, “Let your mother put me
to any proof she likes; she will make up her mind about it presently.
She rejects me for the moment and believes me to be somebody else,
because I am covered with dirt and have such bad clothes on; let us,
however, consider what we had better do next. When one man has killed
another—even though he was not one who would leave many friends to take
up his quarrel—the man who has killed him must still say good bye to
his friends and fly the country; whereas we have been killing the stay
of a whole town, and all the picked youth of Ithaca. I would have you
consider this matter.”
“Look to it yourself, father,” answered Telemachus, “for they say you
are the wisest counsellor in the world, and that there is no other
mortal man who can compare with you. We will follow you with right good
will, nor shall you find us fail you in so far as our strength holds
out.”
“I will say what I think will be best,” answered Ulysses. “First wash
and put your shirts on; tell the maids also to go to their own room and
dress; Phemius shall then strike up a dance tune on his lyre, so that
if people outside hear, or any of the neighbours, or some one going
along the street happens to notice it, they may think there is a
wedding in the house, and no rumours about the death of the suitors
will get about in the town, before we can escape to the woods upon my
own land. Once there, we will settle which of the courses heaven
vouchsafes us shall seem wisest.”
Thus did he speak, and they did even as he had said. First they washed
and put their shirts on, while the women got ready. Then Phemius took
his lyre and set them all longing for sweet song and stately dance. The
house re-echoed with the sound of men and women dancing, and the people
outside said, “I suppose the queen has been getting married at last.
She ought to be ashamed of herself for not continuing to protect her
husband’s property until he comes home.”182
This was what they said, but they did not know what it was that had
been happening. The upper servant Eurynome washed and anointed Ulysses
in his own house and gave him a shirt and cloak, while Minerva made him
look taller and stronger than before; she also made the hair grow thick
on the top of his head, and flow down in curls like hyacinth blossoms;
she glorified him about the head and shoulders just as a skilful