The Odyssey

Smooth talk, but deep in the suitor's heart his hopes were bent on stringing the bow and shooting through the axes. Antinous—fated to be the first man to taste an arrow whipped from great Odysseus' hands, the king he mocked, at ease in the king's house, egging comrades on to mock him too.

"Amazing!" Prince Telemachus waded in with a laugh: "Zeus up there has robbed me of my wits. My own dear mother, sensible as she is, says she'll marry again, forsake our house, and look at me—laughing for all I'm worth, giggling like some fool. Step up, my friends! Here is the prize at issue, right before you, look— a woman who has no equal now in all Achaean country, neither in holy Pylos, nor in Argos or Mycenae,

not even Ithaca itself or the loamy mainland.

You know it well. Why sing my mother's praises?

Come, let the games begin! No dodges, no delays,

no turning back from the stringing of the bow—

we'll see who wins, we will.

I'd even take a crack at the bow myself ...

If I string it and shoot through all the axes,

I'd worry less if my noble mother left our house

with another man and left me here behind—man enough

at last to win my father's splendid prizes!"

With that

he leapt to his feet and dropped his bright red cloak,

slipping the sword and sword-belt off his shoulders.

First he planted the axes, digging a long trench,

one for all, and trued them all to a line,

then tamped the earth to bed them. Wonder took

the revelers looking on: his work so firm, precise,

though he'd never seen the axes ranged before.

He stood at the threshold, poised to try the bow ...

Three times he made it shudder, straining to bend it,

three times his power flagged—but his hopes ran high

he'd string his father's bow and shoot through every iron

and now, struggling with all his might for the fourth time,

he would have strung the bow, but Odysseus shook his head

and stopped him short despite his tensing zeal.

"God help me," the inspired prince cried out,

"must I be a weakling, a failure all my life?

Unless I'm just too young to trust my hands

to fight off any man who rises up against me.

Come, my betters, so much stronger than Iam—

try the bow and finish off the contest."

He propped his father's weapon on the ground, tilting it up against the polished well-hung doors and resting a shaft aslant the bow's fine horn, then back he went to the seat that he had left. "Up, friends!" Antinous called, taking over. "One man after another, left to right,

starting from where the steward pours the wine."

So Antinous urged and all agreed. The first man up was Leodes, Oenops' son, a seer who could see their futures in the smoke, who always sat by the glowing winebowl, well back, the one man in the group who loathed their reckless ways, appalled by all their outrage. His turn first ... Picking up the weapon now and the swift arrow, he stood at the threshold, poised to try the bow but failed to bend it. As soon as he tugged the string his hands went slack, his soft, uncallused hands, and he called back to the suitors, "Friends, Ican't bend it. Take it, someone—try. Here is a bow to rob our best of life and breath, all our best contenders! Still, better be dead than live on here, never winning the prize that tempts us all—forever in pursuit, burning with expectation every day. If there's still a suitor here who hopes, who aches to marry Penelope, Odysseus' wife, just let him try the bow; he'll see the truth! He'll soon lay siege to another Argive woman trailing her long robes, and shower her with gifts— and then our queen can marry the one who offers most, the man marked out by fate to be her husband."

With those words he thrust the bow aside, tilting it up against the polished well-hung doors and resting a shaft aslant the bow's fine horn, then back he went to the seat that he had left. But Antinous turned on the seer, abuses flying: "Leodes! what are you saying? what's got past your lips? What awful, grisly nonsense—it shocks me to hear it— 'here is a bow to rob our best of life and breath!' Just because you can't string it, you're, so weak? Clearly your genteel mother never bred her boy for the work of bending bows and shooting arrows.

We have champions in our ranks to string it quickly.

Hop to it, Melanthius!"—he barked at the goatherd—

"Rake the fire in the hall, pull up a big stool,

heap it with fleece and fetch that hefty ball

of lard from the stores inside. So we young lords

can heat and limber the bow and rub it down with grease

before we try again and finish off the contest!"

The goatherd bustled about to rake the fire still going strong. He pulled up a big stool, heaped it with fleece and fetched the hefty ball of lard from the stores inside. And the young men limbered the bow, rubbing it down with hot grease, then struggled to bend it back but failed. No use— they fell far short of the strength the bow required. Antinous still held off, dashing Eurymachus too, the ringleaders of all the suitors, head and shoulders the strongest of the lot.

But now

the king's two men, the cowherd and the swineherd, had slipped out of the palace side-by-side and great Odysseus left the house to join them. Once they were past the courtyard and the gates he probed them deftly, surely: "Cowherd, swineherd, what, shall I blurt this out or keep it to myself? No, speak out. The heart inside me says so. How far would you go to fight beside Odysseus? Say he dropped like that from a clear blue sky and a god brought him back— would you fight for the suitors or your king? Tell me how you feel inside your hearts."

"Father Zeus," the trusty cowherd shouted, "bring my prayer to pass! Let the master come— some god guide him now! You'd see my power, my fighting arms in action!"

Eumaeus echoed his prayer to all the gods that their wise king would soon come home again. Certain at least these two were loyal to the death, Odysseus reassured them quickly: "I'm right here, here in the flesh—myself—and home at last, after bearing twenty years of brutal hardship. Now I know that of all my men you two alone longed for my return. From the rest I've heard not one real prayer that I come back again. So now I'll tell you what's in store for you. If a god beats down the lofty suitors at my hands, I'll find you wives, both of you, grant you property, sturdy houses beside my own, and in my eyes you'll be comrades to Prince Telemachus, brothers from then on. Come, I'll show you something—living proof— know me for certain, put your minds at rest.

This scar,

look, where a boar's white tusk gored me, years ago, hunting on Parnassus, Autolycus' sons and I."

With that,

pushing back his rags, he revealed the great scar ...

And the men gazed at it, scanned it, knew it well,

broke into tears and threw their arms around their master—

lost in affection, kissing his head and shoulders,

and so Odysseus kissed their heads and hands.

Now the sun would have set upon their tears

if Odysseus had not called a halt himself.

"No more weeping. Coming out of the house

a man might see us, tell the men inside.

Let's slip back in—singly, not in a pack.

I'll go first. You're next. Here's our signal.

When all the rest in there, our lordly friends,

are dead against my having the bow and quiver,

good Eumaeus, carry the weapon down the hall

and put it in my hands. Then tell the serving-women

to lock the snugly fitted doors to their own rooms.

If anyone hears from there the jolting blows

and groans of men, caught in our huge net,

not one of them show her face—

sit tight, keep to her weaving, not a sound. You, my good Philoetius, here are your orders. Shoot the bolt of the courtyard's outer gate, lock it, lash it fast."

With that command the master entered his well-constructed house and back he went to the stool that he had left. The king's two men, in turn, slipped in as well.

Just now Eurymachus held the bow in his hands, turning it over, tip to tip, before the blazing fire to heat the weapon. But he failed to bend it even so and the suitor's high heart groaned to bursting. "A black day," he exclaimed in wounded pride, "a blow to myself, a blow to each man here! It's less the marriage that mortifies me now— that's galling too, but lots of women are left, some in seagirt Ithaca, some in other cities. What breaks my heart is the fact we fall so short of great Odysseus' strength we cannot string his bow. A disgrace to ring in the ears of men to come."

"Eurymachus," Eupithes' son Antinous countered, "it will never come to that, as you well know. Today is a feast-day up and down the island in honor of the Archer God. Who flexes bows today? Set it aside. Rest easy now. And all the axes, let's just leave them planted where they are. Trust me, no one's about to crash the gates of Laertes' son and carry off these trophies. Steward, pour some drops for the god in every cup, we'll tip the wine, then put the bow to bed. And first thing in the morning have Melanthius bring the pick of his goats from all his herds so we can burn the thighs to Apollo, god of archers— then try the bow and finish off the contest."

Welcome advice. And again they all agreed.

Heralds sprinkled water over their hands for rinsing, the young men brimmed the mixing bowls with wine, they tipped first drops for the god in every cup, then poured full rounds for all. And now, once they'd tipped libations out and drunk their fill, the king of craft, Odysseus, said with all his cunning, "Listen to me, you lords who court the noble queen. I have to say what the heart inside me urges. I appeal especially to Eurymachus, and you, brilliant Antinous, who spoke so shrewdly now. Give the bow a rest for today, leave it to the gods— at dawn the Archer God will grant a victory to the man he favors most.

For the moment, give me the polished bow now, won't you? So, to amuse you all, I can try my hand, my strength ... is the old force still alive inside these gnarled limbs? Or has a life of roaming, years of rough neglect, destroyed it long ago?"

Modest words that sent them all into hot, indignant rage, fearing he just might string the polished bow. So Antinous rounded on him, dressed him down: "Not a shred of sense in your head, you filthy drifter! Not content to feast at your ease with us, the island's pride? Never denied your full share of the banquet, never, you can listen in on our secrets. No one else can eavesdrop on our talk, no tramp, no beggar. The wine has overpowered you, heady wine— the ruin of many another man, whoever gulps it down and drinks beyond his limit. Wine—it drove the Centaur, famous Eurytion, mad in the halls of lionhearted Pirithous. There to visit the Lapiths, crazed with wine the headlong Centaur bent to his ugly work in the prince's own house! His hosts sprang up, seized with fury, dragged him across the forecourt, flung him out of doors, hacking his nose and ears off with their knives, no mercy. The creature reeled away, still blind with drink, his heart like a wild storm, loaded with all the frenzy in his mind!

And so

the feud between mortal men and Centaurs had its start. But the drunk was first to bring disaster on himself by drowning in his cups. You too, I promise you no end of trouble if you should string that bow. You'll meet no kindness in our part of the world— we'll sail you off in a black ship to Echetus, the mainland king who wrecks all men alive. Nothing can save you from his royal grip! So drink, but hold your peace, don't take on the younger, stronger men."

"Antinous," watchful Penelope stepped in, "how impolite it would be, how wrong, to scant whatever guest Telemachus welcomes to his house. You really think—if the stranger trusts so to his hands and strength that he strings Odysseus' great bow— he'll take me home and claim me as his bride? He never dreamed of such a thing, I'm sure. Don't let that ruin the feast for any reveler here. Unthinkable—nothing, nothing could be worse."

Polybus' son Eurymachus had an answer: "Wise Penelope, daughter of Icarius, do we really expect the man to wed you? Unthinkable, I know. But we do recoil at the talk of men and women. One of the island's meaner sort will mutter, 'Look at the riffraff courting a king's wife. Weaklings, look, they can't even string his bow. But along came this beggar, drifting out of the blue— strung his bow with ease and shot through all the axes!' Gossip will fly. We'll hang our heads in shame."

"Shame?' alert Penelope protested— "How can you hope for any public fame at all? You who disgrace, devour a great man's house and home! Why hang your heads in shame over next to nothing? Our friend here is a strapping, well-built man and claims to be the son of a noble father. Come, hand him the bow now, let's just see . I tell you this—and I'll make good my word— if he strings the bow and Apollo grants him glory, I'll dress him in shirt and cloak, in handsome clothes, I'll give him a good sharp lance to fight off men and dogs, give him a two-edged sword and sandals for his feet and send him off, wherever his heart desires."

"Mother,"

poised Telemachus broke in now, "my father's bow— no Achaean on earth has more right than I to give it or withhold it, as I please. Of all the lords in Ithaca's rocky heights or the islands facing Elis grazed by horses, not a single one will force or thwart my will, even if I decide to give our guest this bow— a gift outright—to carry off himself.

So, mother,

go back to your quarters. Tend to your own tasks, the distaff and the loom, and keep the women working hard as well. As for the bow now, men will see to that, but I most of all: Ihold the reins of power in this house."

Astonished,

she withdrew to her own room. She took to heart the clear good sense in what her son had said. Climbing up to the lofty chamber with her women, she fell to weeping for Odysseus, her beloved husband, till watchful Athena sealed her eyes with welcome sleep.

And now the loyal swineherd had lifted up the bow, was taking it toward the king, when all the suitors burst out in an ugly uproar through the palace— brash young bullies, this or that one heckling, "Where on earth are you going with that bow?"

"You, you grubby swineherd, are you crazy?"

"The speedy dogs you reared will eat your corpse—"

"Out there with your pigs, out in the cold, alone!"

"If only Apollo and all the gods shine down on us!

Eumaeus froze in his tracks, put down the bow, panicked by every outcry in the hall. Telemachus shouted too, from the other side, and full of threats: "Carry on with the bow, old boy! If you serve too many masters, you'll soon suffer. Look sharp, or I'll pelt you back to your farm with flying rocks. I may be younger than you but I'm much stronger. If only I had that edge in fists and brawn over all this courting crowd, I'd soon dispatch them—licking their wounds at last— clear of our palace where they plot their vicious plots!"

His outburst sent them all into gales of laughter, blithe and oblivious, that dissolved their pique against the prince. The swineherd took the bow, carried it down the hall to his ready, waiting king and standing by him, placed it in his hands, then he called the nurse aside and whispered, "Good Eurycleia—Telemachus commands you now to lock the snugly fitted doors to your own rooms. If anyone hears from there the jolting blows and groans of men, caught in our huge net, not one of you show your face— sit tight, keep to your weaving, not a sound."

That silenced the old nurse— she barred the doors that led from the long hall. The cowherd quietly bounded out of the house to lock the gates of the high-stockaded court. Under the portico lay a cable, ship's tough gear: he lashed the gates with this, then slipped back in and ran and sat on the stool that he'd just left, eyes riveted on Odysseus.

Now he held the bow in his own hands, turning it over, tip to tip, testing it, this way, that way ... fearing worms had bored through the weapon's horn with the master gone abroad. A suitor would glance at his neighbor, jeering, taunting, "Look at our connoisseur of bows!"

"Sly old fox-

maybe he's got bows like it, stored in his house."

"That or he's bent on making one himself."

"Look how he twists and turns it in his hands!"

"The clever tramp means trouble—"

"I wish him luck," some cocksure lord chimed in, "as good as his luck in bending back that weapon!"

So they mocked, but Odysseus, mastermind in action, once he'd handled the great bow and scanned every inch, then, like an expert singer skilled at lyre and song— who strains a string to a new peg with ease, making the pliant sheep-gut fast at either end— so with his virtuoso ease Odysseus strung his mighty bow. Quickly his right hand plucked the string to test its pitch and under his touch it sang out clear and sharp as a swallow's cry. Horror swept through the suitors, faces blanching white, and Zeus cracked the sky with a bolt, his blazing sign, and the great man who had borne so much rejoiced at last that the son of cunning Cronus flung that omen down for him.

He snatched a winged arrow lying bare on the board— the rest still bristled deep inside the quiver, soon to be tasted by all the feasters there. Setting shaft on the handgrip, drawing the notch and bowstring back, back ... right from his stool, just as he sat but aiming straight and true, he let fly— and never missing an ax from the first ax-handle clean on through to the last and out the shaft with its weighted brazen head shot free!

"My son,"

Odysseus looked to Telemachus and said, "your guest, sitting here in your house, has not disgraced you. No missing the mark, look, and no long labor spent to string the bow. My strength's not broken yet, not quite so frail as the mocking suitors thought. But the hour has come to serve our masters right— supper in broad daylight—then to other revels, song and dancing, all that crowns a feast."

He paused with a warning nod, and at that sign Prince Telemachus, son of King Odysseus, girding his sharp sword on, clamping hand to spear, took his stand by a chair that flanked his father— his bronze spearpoint glinting now like fire .

Book XXII

Slaughter in the Hall

Now stripping back his rags Odysseus master of craft and battle vaulted onto the great threshold, gripping his bow and quiver bristling arrows, and poured his flashing shafts before him, loose at his feet, and thundered out to all the suitors: "Look—your crucial test is finished, now, at last! But another target's left that no one's hit before— we'll see if I can hit it—Apollo give me glory!"

With that he trained a stabbing arrow on Antinous . just lifting a gorgeous golden loving-cup in his hands, just tilting the two-handled goblet back to his lips, about to drain the wine—and slaughter the last thing on the suitor's mind: who could dream that one foe in that crowd of feasters, however great his power, would bring down death on himself, and black doom?

But Odysseus aimed and shot Antinous square in the throat and the point went stabbing clean through the soft neck and out— and off to the side he pitched, the cup dropped from his grasp as the shaft sank home, and the man's life-blood came spurting out his nostrils—

thick red jets—

a sudden thrust of his foot—

he kicked away the table—

food showered across the floor, the bread and meats soaked in a swirl of bloody filth. The suitors burst into uproar all throughout the house when they saw their leader down. They leapt from their seats, milling about, desperate, scanning the stone walls— not a shield in sight, no rugged spear to seize. They wheeled on Odysseus, lashing out in fury: "Stranger, shooting at men will cost your life!"

"Your game is over—you, you've shot your last!"

"You'll never escape your own headlong death!"

"You killed the best in Ithaca—our fine prince!"

"Vultures will eat your corpse!"

Groping, frantic— each one persuading himself the guest had killed the man by chance. Poor fools, blind to the fact that all their necks were in the noose, their doom sealed. With a dark look, the wily fighter Odysseus shouted back, "You dogs! you never imagined I'd return from Troy— so cocksure that you bled my house to death, ravished my serving-women—wooed my wife behind my back while I was still alive! No fear of the gods who rule the skies up there, no fear that men's revenge might arrive someday— now all your necks are in the noose—your doom is sealed!"

Terror gripped them all, blanched their faces white, each man glancing wildly—how to escape his instant death? Only Eurymachus had the breath to venture, "If you, you're truly Odysseus of Ithaca, home at last, you're right to accuse these men of what they've done— so much reckless outrage here in your palace, so much on your lands. But here he lies, quite dead, and he incited it all—Antinous— look, the man who drove us all to crime! Not that he needed marriage, craved it so; he'd bigger game in mind—though Zeus barred his way— he'd lord it over Ithaca's handsome country, king himself, once he'd lain in wait for your son and cut him down! But now he's received the death that he deserved. So spare your own people! Later we'll recoup your costs with a tax laid down upon the land, covering all we ate and drank inside your halls, and each of us here will pay full measure too— twenty oxen in value, bronze and gold we'll give until we melt your heart. Before we've settled, who on earth could blame you for your rage?"

But the battle-master kept on glaring, seething. "No, Eurymachus! Not if you paid me all your father's wealth— all you possess now, and all that could pour in from the world's end— no, not even then would I stay my hands from slaughter till all you suitors had paid for all your crimes! Now life or death—your choice—fight me or flee if you hope to escape your sudden bloody doom! I doubt one man in the lot will save his skin!"

His menace shook their knees, their hearts too but Eurymachus spoke again, now to the suitors: "Friends! This man will never restrain his hands, invincible hands— now that he's seized that polished bow and quiver, look, he'll shoot from the sill until he's killed us all! So fight—call up the joy of battle! Swords out! Tables lifted—block his arrows winging death! Charge him, charge in a pack—

try to rout the man from the sill, the doors, race through town and sound an alarm at once— our friend would soon see he's shot his bolt!"

Brave talk—

he drew his two-edged sword, bronze, honed for the kill and hurled himself at the king with a raw savage cry in the same breath that Odysseus loosed an arrow ripping his breast beside the nipple so hard it lodged in the man's liver— Out of his grasp the sword dropped to the ground— over his table, head over heels he tumbled, doubled up, flinging his food and his two-handled cup across the floor— he smashed the ground with his forehead, writhing in pain, both feet flailing out, and his high seat tottered— the mist of death came swirling down his eyes.

Amphinomus rushed the king in all his glory, charging him face-to-face, a slashing sword drawn— if only he could force him clear of the doorway, now, but Telemachus—too quick—stabbed the man from behind, plunging his bronze spear between the suitor's shoulders and straight on through his chest the point came jutting out— down he went with a thud, his forehead slammed the ground. Telemachus swerved aside, leaving his long spearshaft lodged in Amphinomus—fearing some suitor just might lunge in from behind as he tugged the shaft, impale him with a sword or hack him down, crouching over the corpse. He went on the run, reached his father at once and halting right beside him, let fly, "Father— now I'll get you a shield and a pair of spears, a helmet of solid bronze to fit your temples! I'll arm myself on the way back and hand out arms to the swineherd, arm the cowherd too— we'd better fight equipped!"

"Run, fetch them," the wily captain urged, "while I've got arrows left to defend me—or they'll force me from the doors while I fight on alone!"

Telemachus moved to his father's orders smartly. Off he ran to the room where the famous arms lay stored, took up four shields, eight spears, four bronze helmets ridged with horsehair crests and, loaded with these, ran back to reach his father's side in no time. The prince was first to case himself in bronze and his servants followed suit—both harnessed up and all three flanked Odysseus, mastermind of war, and he, as long as he'd arrows left to defend himself, kept picking suitors off in the palace, one by one and down they went, corpse on corpse in droves. Then, when the royal archer's shafts ran out, he leaned his bow on a post of the massive doors— where walls of the hallway catch the light—and armed: across his shoulder he slung a buckler four plies thick, over his powerful head he set a well-forged helmet, the horsehair crest atop it tossing, bristling terror, and grasped two rugged lances tipped with fiery bronze.

Now a side-door was fitted into the main wall— right at the edge of the great hall's stone sill— and led to a passage always shut by good tight boards. But Odysseus gave the swineherd strict commands to stand hard by the side-door, guard it well— the only way the suitors might break out. Agelaus called to his comrades with a plan: "Friends, can't someone climb through the hatch?— tell men outside to sound the alarm, be quick— our guest would soon see he'd shot his last!"

The goatherd Melanthius answered, "Not a chance, my lord—the door to the courtyard's much too near, dangerous too, the mouth of the passage cramped. One strong man could block us, one and all! No, I'll fetch you some armor to harness on, out of the storeroom—there, nowhere else, I'm sure, the king and his gallant son have stowed their arms!"

With that the goatherd clambered up through smoke-ducts high on the wall arid scurried into Odysseus' storeroom, bundled a dozen shields, as many spears and helmets ridged with horsehair crests and, loaded with these, rushed back down to the suitors, quickly issued arms. Odysseus' knees shook, his heart too, when he saw them buckling on their armor, brandishing long spears— here was a battle looming, well he knew. He turned at once to Telemachus, warnings flying: "A bad break in the fight, my boy! One of the women's tipped the odds against us—or could it be the goatherd?"

"My fault, father," the cool clear prince replied, "the blame's all mine. That snug door to the vault, I left it ajar—they've kept a better watch than I. Go, Eumaeus, shut the door to the storeroom, check and see if it's one of the women's tricks or Dolius' son Melanthius. He's our man, I'd say."

And even as they conspired, back the goatherd climbed to the room to fetch more burnished arms, but Eumaeus spotted him, quickly told his king who stood close by: "Odysseus, wily captain, there he goes again, the infernal nuisance— just as we suspected—back to the storeroom. Give me a clear command! Do I kill the man—if I can take him down— or drag him back to you, here, to pay in full for the dirty work he's plotted in your house?"

Odysseus, master of tactics, answered briskly, "I and the prince will keep these brazen suitors crammed in the hall, for all their battle-fury. You two wrench Melanthius' arms and legs behind him, fling him down in the storeroom—lash his back to a plank and strap a twisted cable fast to the scoundrel's body,

hoist him up a column until he hits the rafters— let him dangle in agony, still alive, for a good long time!"

They hung on his orders, keen to do his will. Off they ran to the storeroom, unseen by him inside— Melanthius, rummaging after arms, deep in a dark recess as the two men took their stand, either side the doorposts, poised till the goatherd tried to cross the doorsill ... one hand clutching a crested helmet, the other an ample old buckler blotched with mildew, the shield Laertes bore as a young soldier once— but there it lay for ages, seams on the handstraps split— Quick, they rushed him, seized him, haled him back by the hair, flung him down on the floor, writhing with terror, bound him hand and foot with a chafing cord, wrenched his limbs back, back till the joints locked tight— just as Laertes' cunning son commanded— they strapped a twisted cable round his body, hoisted him up a column until he hit the rafters, then you mocked him, Eumaeus, my good swineherd: "Now stand guard through the whole night, Melanthius— stretched out on a soft bed fit for you, your highness! You're bound to see the Morning rising up from the Ocean, mounting her golden throne—at just the hour you always drive in goats to feast the suitors in the hall!"

So they left him, trussed in his agonizing sling; they clapped on armor again, shut the gleaming doors and ran to rejoin Odysseus, mastermind of war. And now as the ranks squared off, breathing fury— four at the sill confronting a larger, stronger force arrayed inside the hall—now Zeus's daughter Athena, taking the build and voice of Mentor, swept in and Odysseus, thrilled to see her, cried out, "Rescue us, Mentor, now it's life or death!

Remember your old comrade—all the service I offered you! We were boys together!"

So he cried

yet knew in his bones it was Athena, Driver of Armies.

But across the hall the suitors brayed against her,

Agelaus first, his outburst full of threats:

"Mentor, never let Odysseus trick you into

siding with him to fight against the suitors.

Here's our plan of action, and we will see it through!

Once we've killed them both, the father and the son,

we'll kill you too, for all you're bent on doing

here in the halls—you'll pay with your own head!

And once our swords have stopped your violence cold—

all your property, all in your house, your fields,

we'll lump it all with Odysseus' rich estate

and never let your sons live on in your halls

or free your wife and daughters to walk through town!"

Naked threats—and Athena hit new heights of rage, she lashed out at Odysseus now with blazing accusations: "Where's it gone, Odysseus—your power, your fighting heart? The great soldier who fought for famous white-armed Helen, battling Trojans nine long years—nonstop, no mercy, mowing their armies down in grueling battle— you who seized the broad streets of Troy with your fine strategic stroke! How can you— now you've returned to your own house, your own wealth— bewail the loss of your combat strength in a war with suitors? Come, old friend, stand by me! You'll see action now, see how Mentor the son of Alcimus, that brave fighter, kills your enemies, pays you back for service!"

Rousing words— but she gave no all-out turning of the tide, not yet, she kept on testing Odysseus and his gallant son, putting their force and fighting heart to proof. For all the world like a swallow in their sight she flew on high to perch

on the great hall's central roofbeam black with smoke.

But the suitors closed ranks, commanded now by Damastor's

sonAgelaus, flanked by Eurynomus, Demoptolemus and Amphimedon,

Pisander, Polyctor's son, and Polybus ready, waiting—

head and shoulders the best and bravest of the lot

still left to fight for their lives,

now that the pelting shafts had killed the rest.

Agelaus spurred his comrades on with battle-plans:

"Friends, at last the man's invincible hands are useless!

Mentor has mouthed some empty boasts and flitted off—

just four are left to fight at the front doors. So now,

no wasting your long spears—all at a single hurl,

just six of us launch out in the first wave!

If Zeus is willing, we may hit Odysseus,

carry off the glory! The rest are nothing

once the captain's down!"

At his command, concentrating their shots, all six hurled as one but Athena sent the whole salvo wide of the mark— one of them hit the jamb of the great hall's doors, another the massive door itself, and the heavy bronze point of a third ashen javelin crashed against the wall. Seeing his men untouched by the suitors' flurry, steady Odysseus leapt to take command: "Friends! now it's for us to hurl at them, I say, into this ruck of suitors! Topping all their crimes they're mad to strip the armor off our bodies!"

Taking aim at the ranks, all four let fly as one and the lances struck home—Odysseus killed Demoptolemus, Telemachus killed Euryades—the swineherd, Elatus— and the cowherd cut Pisander down in blood. They bit the dust of the broad floor, all as one. Back to the great hall's far recess the others shrank as the four rushed in and plucked up spears from corpses.

And again the suitors hurled their whetted shafts but Athena sent the better part of the salvo wide— one of them hit the jamb of the great hall's doors, another the massive door itself, and the heavy bronze point

of a third ashen javelin crashed against the wall.

True, Amphimedon nicked Telemachus on the wrist—

the glancing blade just barely broke his skin.

Ctesippus sent a long spear sailing over

Eumaeus' buckler, grazing his shoulder blade

but the weapon skittered off and hit the ground.

And again those led by the brilliant battle-master

hurled their razor spears at the suitors' ranks—

and now Odysseus raider of cities hit Eurydamas,

Telemachus hit Amphimedon—Eumaeus, Polybus—

and the cowherd stabbed Ctesippus

right in the man's chest and triumphed over his body:

"Love your mockery, do you? Son of that blowhard Polytherses!

No more shooting off your mouth, you idiot, such big talk—

leave the last word to the gods—they're much stronger!

Take this spear, this guest-gift, for the cow's hoof

you once gave King Odysseus begging in his house!"

So the master of longhorn cattle had his say— as Odysseus, fighting at close quarters, ran Agelaus through with a long lance—Telemachus speared Leocritus so deep in the groin the bronze came punching out his back and the man crashed headfirst, slamming the ground full-face. And now Athena, looming out of the rafters high above them, brandished her man-destroying shield of thunder, terrifying the suitors out of their minds, and down the hall they panicked— wild, like herds stampeding, driven mad as the darting gadfly strikes in the late spring when the long days come round. The attackers struck like eagles, crook-clawed, hook-beaked, swooping down from a mountain ridge to harry smaller birds that skim across the flatland, cringing under the clouds but the eagles plunge in fury, rip their lives out—hopeless, never a chance of flight or rescue—and people love the sport— so the attackers routed suitors headlong down the hall, wheeling into the slaughter, slashing left and right and grisly screams broke from skulls cracked open— the whole floor awash with blood.

Leodes now—

he flung himself at Odysseus, clutched his knees, crying out to the king with a sudden, winging prayer: "I hug your knees, Odysseus—mercy! spare my life! Never, I swear, did I harass any woman in your house— never a word, a gesture—nothing, no, I tried to restrain the suitors, whoever did such things. They wouldn't listen, keep their hands to themselves— so reckless, so they earn their shameful fate. But I was just their prophet— my hands are clean—and I'm to die their death! Look at the thanks I get for years of service!"

A killing look, and the wry soldier answered, "Only a priest, a prophet for this mob, you say? How hard you must have prayed in my own house that the heady day of my return would never dawn— my dear wife would be yours, would bear your children! For that there's no escape from grueling death—you die!"

And snatching up in one powerful hand a sword left on the ground—Agelaus dropped it when he fell— Odysseus hacked the prophet square across the neck and the praying head went tumbling in the dust.

Now one was left, trying still to escape black death. Phemius, Terpis' son, the bard who always performed among the suitors— they forced the man to sing ... There he stood, backing into the side-door, still clutching his ringing lyre in his hands, his mind in turmoil, torn—what should he do now? Steal from the hall and crouch at the altar-stone of Zeus who Guards the Court, where time and again Odysseus and Laertes burned the long thighs of oxen? Or throw himself on the master's mercy, clasp his knees? That was the better way—or so it struck him, yes, grasp the knees of Laertes' royal son. And so, cradling his hollow lyre, he laid it on the ground between the mixing-bowl and the silver-studded throne,

then rushed up to Odysseus, yes, and clutched his knees, singing out to his king with a stirring, winged prayer: "I hug your knees, Odysseus—mercy! spare my life! What a grief it will be to you for all the years to come if you kill the singer now, who sings for gods and men. I taught myself the craft, but a god has planted deep in my spirit all the paths of song— songs I'm fit to sing for you as for a god. Calm your bloodlust now—don't take my head! He'd bear me out, your own dear son Telemachus— never of my own will, never for any gain did I perform in your house, singing after the suitors had their feasts. They were too strong, too many— they forced me to come and sing—I had no choice!"

The inspired Prince Telemachus heard his pleas and quickly said to his father close beside him, "Stop, don't cut him down! This one's innocent. So is the herald Medon—the one who always tended me in the house when I was little— spare him too. Unless he's dead by now, killed by Philoetius or Eumaeus here— or ran into you rampaging through the halls."

The herald pricked up his anxious ears at that ... cautious soul, he cowered, trembling, under a chair— wrapped in an oxhide freshly stripped—to dodge black death. He jumped in a flash from there, threw off the smelly hide and scuttling up to Telemachus, clutching his knees, the herald begged for life in words that fluttered: "Here I am, dear boy—spare me! Tell your father, flushed with victory, not to kill me with his sword— enraged as he is with these young lords who bled his palace white and showed you no respect, the reckless fools!"

Breaking into a smile the canny Odysseus reassured him, "Courage! The prince has pulled you through, he's saved you now

so you can take it to heart and tell the next man too: clearly doing good puts doing bad to shame. Now leave the palace, go and sit outside— out in the courtyard, clear of the slaughter— you and the bard with all his many songs. Wait till I've done some household chores that call for my attention."

The two men scurried out of the house at once and crouched at the altar-stone of mighty Zeus— glancing left and right, fearing death would strike at any moment.

Odysseus scanned his house to see if any man still skulked alive, still hoped to avoid black death. But he found them one and all in blood and dust ... great hauls of them down and out like fish that fishermen drag from the churning gray surf in looped and coiling nets and fling ashore on a sweeping hook of beach—some noble catch heaped on the sand, twitching, lusting for fresh salt sea but the Sungod hammers down and burns their lives out . so the suitors lay in heaps, corpse covering corpse. At last the seasoned fighter turned to his son: "Telemachus, go, call the old nurse here— I must tell her all that's on my mind."

Telemachus ran to do his father's bidding, shook the women's doors, calling Eurycleia: "Come out now! Up with you, good old woman! You who watch over all the household hands— quick, my father wants you, needs to have a word!"

Crisp command that left the old nurse hushed— she spread the doors to the well-constructed hall, slipped out in haste, and the prince led her on ... She found Odysseus in the thick of slaughtered corpses, splattered with bloody filth like a lion that's devoured some ox of the field and lopes home, covered with blood,

his chest streaked, both jaws glistening, dripping red—

a sight to strike terror. So Odysseus looked now,

splattered with gore, his thighs, his fighting hands,

and she, when she saw the corpses, all the pooling blood,

was about to lift a cry of triumph—here was a great exploit,

look—but the soldier held her back and checked her zeal

with warnings winging home: "Rejoice in your heart,

old woman—peace! No cries of triumph now.

It's unholy to glory over the bodies of the dead.

These men the doom of the gods has brought low,

and their own indecent acts. They'd no regard

for any man on earth—good or bad—

who chanced to come their way. And so, thanks

to their reckless work, they met this shameful fate.

Quick, report in full on the women in my halls—

who are disloyal to me, who are guiltless?"

"Surely, child," his fond old nurse replied, "now here's the truth. Fifty women you have inside your house, women we've trained to do their duties well, to card the wool and bear the yoke of service. Some dozen in all went tramping to their shame, thumbing their noses at me, at the queen herself! And Telemachus, just now come of age—his mother would never let the boy take charge of the maids. But let me climb to her well-lit room upstairs and tell your wife the news— some god has put the woman fast asleep."

"Don't wake her yet," the crafty man returned, "you tell those women to hurry here at once— just the ones who've shamed us all along."

Away the old nurse bustled through the house to give the women orders, rush them to the king. Odysseus called Telemachus over, both herdsmen too, with strict commands: "Start clearing away the bodies. Make the women pitch in too. Chairs and tables—

scrub them down with sponges, rinse them clean. And once you've put the entire house in order, march the women out of the great hall—between the roundhouse and the courtyard's strong stockade— and hack them with your swords, slash out all their lives— blot out of their minds the joys of love they relished under the suitors' bodies, rutting on the sly!"

The women crowded in, huddling all together . wailing convulsively, streaming live warm tears. First they carried out the bodies of the dead and propped them under the courtyard colonnade, standing them one against another. Odysseus shouted commands himself, moving things along, and they kept bearing out the bodies—they were forced. Next they scrubbed down the elegant chairs and tables, washed them with sopping sponges, rinsed them clean. Then Telemachus and the herdsmen scraped smooth the packed earth floor of the royal house with spades as the women gathered up the filth and piled it outside. And then, at last, once the entire house was put in order, they marched the women out of the great hall—between the roundhouse and the courtyard's strong stockade— crammed them into a dead end, no way out from there, and stern Telemachus gave the men their orders: "No clean death for the likes of them, by god! Not from me—they showered abuse on my head, my mother's too!

You sluts—the suitors' whores!"

With that, taking a cable used on a dark-prowed ship he coiled it over the roundhouse, lashed it fast to a tall column, hoisting it up so high no toes could touch the ground. Then, as doves or thrushes beating their spread wings against some snare rigged up in thickets—flying in for a cozy nest but a grisly bed receives them— so the women's heads were trapped in a line, nooses yanking their necks up, one by one

so all might die a pitiful, ghastly death . they kicked up heels for a little—not for long.

Melanthius?

They hauled him out through the doorway, into the court, lopped his nose and ears with a ruthless knife, tore his genitals out for the dogs to eat raw and in manic fury hacked off hands and feet.

Then,

once they'd washed their own hands and feet, they went inside again to join Odysseus. Their work was done with now. But the king turned to devoted Eurycleia, saying, "Bring sulfur, nurse, to scour all this pollution— bring me fire too, so I can fumigate the house. And call Penelope here with all her women— tell all the maids to come back in at once."

"Well said, my boy," his old nurse replied, "right to the point. But wait, let me fetch you a shirt and cloak to wrap you. No more dawdling round the palace, nothing but rags to cover those broad shoulders—it's a scandal!"

"Fire first," the good soldier answered. "Light me a fire to purify this house."

The devoted nurse snapped to his command, brought her master fire and brimstone. Odysseus purged his palace, halls and court, with cleansing fumes.

Then back through the royal house the old nurse went to tell the women the news and bring them in at once. They came crowding out of their quarters, torch in hand, flung their arms around Odysseus, hugged him, home at last, and kissed his head and shoulders, seized his hands, and he, overcome by a lovely longing, broke down and wept ... deep in his heart he knew them one and all.

Book XXIII

The Great Rooted Bed

Up to the rooms the old nurse clambered, chuckling all the way,

to tell the queen her husband was here now, home at last.

Her knees bustling, feet shuffling over each other,

till hovering at her mistress' head she spoke:

"Penelope—child—wake up and see for yourself,

with your own eyes, all you dreamed of, all your days!

He's here—Odysseus—he's come home, at long last!

He's killed the suitors, swaggering young brutes

who plagued his house, wolfed his cattle down,

rode roughshod over his son!"

"Dear old nurse," wary Penelope replied, "the gods have made you mad. They have that power, putting lunacy into the clearest head around

or setting a half-wit on the path to sense. They've unhinged you, and you were once so sane. Why do you mock me?—haven't I wept enough?— telling such wild stories, interrupting my sleep, sweet sleep that held me, sealed my eyes just now. Not once have I slept so soundly since the day Odysseus sailed away to see that cursed city ... Destroy, I call it—I hate to say its name! Now down you go. Back to your own quarters. If any other woman of mine had come to me, rousing me out of sleep with such a tale, I'd have her bundled back to her room in pain. It's only your old gray head that spares you that!"

"Never"—the fond old nurse kept pressing on— "dear child, I'd never mock you! No, it's all true, he's here—Odysseus—he's come home, just as I tell you! He's the stranger they all manhandled in the hall. Telemachus knew he was here, for days and days, but he knew enough to hide his father's plans so he could pay those vipers back in kind!"

Penelope's heart burst in joy, she leapt from bed, her eyes streaming tears, she hugged the old nurse and cried out with an eager, winging word, "Please, dear one, give me the whole story. If he's really home again, just as you tell me, how did he get those shameless suitors in his clutches?— single-handed, braving an army always camped inside."

"I have no idea," the devoted nurse replied. "I didn't see it, I didn't ask—all I heard was the choking groans of men cut down in blood. We crouched in terror—a dark nook of our quarters— all of us locked tight behind those snug doors till your boy Telemachus came and called me out— his father rushed him there to do just that. Then I found Odysseus in the thick of slaughtered corpses;

there he stood and all around him, over the beaten floor, the bodies sprawled in heaps, lying one on another ... How it would have thrilled your heart to see him— splattered with bloody filth, a lion with his kill! And now they're all stacked at the courtyard gates— he's lit a roaring fire,

he's purifying the house with cleansing fumes and he's sent me here to bring you back to him. Follow me down! So now, after all the years of grief, you two can embark, loving hearts, along the road to joy. Look, your dreams, put off so long, come true at last— he's back alive, home at his hearth, and found you, found his son still here. And all those suitors who did him wrong, he's paid them back, he has, right in his own house!"

"Hush, dear woman," guarded Penelope cautioned her at once. "Don't laugh, don't cry in triumph—not yet. You know how welcome the sight of him would be to all in the house, and to me most of all and the son we bore together. But the story can't be true, not as you tell it, no, it must be a god who's killed our brazen friends— up in arms at their outrage, heartbreaking crimes. They'd no regard for any man on earth— good or bad—who chanced to come their way. So, thanks to their reckless work they die their deaths. Odysseus? Far from Achaea now, he's lost all hope of coming home ... he's lost and gone himself."

"Child," the devoted old nurse protested, "what nonsense you let slip through your teeth. Here's your husband, warming his hands at his own hearth, here—and you, you say he'll never come home again, always the soul of trust! All right, this too— I'll give you a sign, a proof that's plain as day. That scar, made years ago by a boar's white tusk— I spotted the scar myself, when I washed his feet,

and I tried to tell you, ah, but he, the crafty rascal,

clamped his hand on my mouth—I couldn't say a word.

Follow me down now. I'll stake my life on it:

if I am lying to you—

kill me with a thousand knives of pain!"

"Dear old nurse," composed Penelope responded, "deep as you are, my friend, you'll find it hard to plumb the plans of the everlasting gods. All the same, let's go and join my son so I can see the suitors lying dead and see ... the one who killed them."

With that thought Penelope started down from her lofty room, her heart in turmoil, torn . should she keep her distance, probe her husband? Or rush up to the man at once and kiss his head and cling to both his hands? As soon as she stepped across the stone threshold, slipping in, she took a seat at the closest wall and radiant in the firelight, faced Odysseus now. There he sat, leaning against the great central column, eyes fixed on the ground, waiting, poised for whatever words his hardy wife might say when she caught sight of him. A long while she sat in silence ... numbing wonder filled her heart as her eyes explored his face. One moment he seemed ... Odysseus, to the life— the next, no, he was not the man she knew, a huddled mass of rags was all she saw.

"Oh mother," Telemachus reproached her, "cruel mother, you with your hard heart! Why do you spurn my father so—why don't you sit beside him, engage him, ask him questions? What other wife could have a spirit so unbending? Holding back from her husband, home at last for her after bearing twenty years of brutal struggle— your heart was always harder than a rock!"

"My child,"

Penelope, well-aware, explained, "I'm stunned with wonder,

powerless. Cannot speak to him, ask him questions,

look him in the eyes ... But if he is truly

Odysseus, home at last, make no mistake:

we two will know each other, even better—

we two have secret signs,

known to us both but hidden from the world."

Odysseus, long-enduring, broke into a smile and turned to his son with pointed, winging words: "Leave your mother here in the hall to test me as she will. She soon will know me better. Now because I am filthy, wear such grimy rags, she spurns me—your mother still can't bring herself to believe I am her husband.

But you and I, put heads together. What's our best defense? When someone kills a lone man in the realm who leaves behind him no great band of avengers, still the killer flees, goodbye to kin and country. But we brought down the best of the island s princes, the pillars of Ithaca. Weigh it well, I urge you."

"Look to it all yourself now, father," his son deferred at once. "You are the best on earth, they say, when it comes to mapping tactics. No one, no mortal man, can touch you there. But we're behind you, hearts intent on battle, nor do I think you'll find us short on courage, long as our strength will last."

"Then here's our plan," the master of tactics said. "I think it's best. First go and wash, and pull fresh tunics on, and tell the maids in the hall to dress well too. And let the inspired bard take up his ringing lyre and lead off for us all a dance so full of heart that whoever hears the strains outside the gates— a passerby on the road, a neighbor round about—

will think it's a wedding-feast that's under way. No news of the suitors' death must spread through town till we have slipped away to our own estates, our orchard green with trees. There we'll see what winning strategy Zeus will hand us then."

They hung on his words and moved to orders smartly. First they washed and pulled fresh tunics on, the women arrayed themselves—the inspired bard struck up his resounding lyre and stirred in all a desire for dance and song, the lovely lilting beat, till the great house echoed round to the measured tread of dancing men in motion, women sashed and lithe. And whoever heard the strains outside would say, "A miracle—someone's married the queen at last!"

"One of her hundred suitors."

"That callous woman, too faithless to keep her lord and master's house to the bitter end—"

"Till he came sailing home."

So they'd say, blind to what had happened: the great-hearted Odysseus was home again at last. The maid Eurynome bathed him, rubbed him down with oil and drew around him a royal cape and choice tunic too. And Athena crowned the man with beauty, head to foot, made him taller to all eyes, his build more massive, yes, and down from his brow the great goddess ran his curls like thick hyacinth clusters full of blooms. As a master craftsman washes gold over beaten silver—a man the god of fire and Queen Athena trained in every fine technique— and finishes of his latest effort, handsome work ... so she lavished splendor over his head and shoulders now. He stepped from his bath, glistening like a god, and back he went to the seat that he had left and facing his wife, declared,

"Strange woman! So hard—the gods of Olympus made you harder than any other woman in the world! What other wife could have a spirit so unbending? Holding back from her husband, home at last for her after bearing twenty years of brutal struggle. Come, nurse, make me a bed, I'll sleep alone. She has a heart of iron in her breast."

"Strange man," wary Penelope said. "I'm not so proud, so scornful, nor am I overwhelmed by your quick change . You look—how well I know—the way he looked, setting sail from Ithaca years ago aboard the long-oared ship.

Come, Eurycleia, move the sturdy bedstead out of our bridal chamber— that room the master built with his own hands. Take it out now, sturdy bed that it is, and spread it deep with fleece, blankets and lustrous throws to keep him warm."

Putting her husband to the proof—but Odysseus blazed up in fury, lashing out at his loyal wife: "Woman—your words, they cut me to the core! Who could move my bed? Impossible task, even for some skilled craftsman—unless a god came down in person, quick to lend a hand, lifted it out with ease and moved it elsewhere. Not a man on earth, not even at peak strength, would find it easy to prise it up and shift it, no, a great sign, a hallmark lies in its construction. I know, I built it myself—no one else ... There was a branching olive-tree inside our court, grown to its full prime, the bole like a column, thickset. Around it I built my bedroom, finished off the walls with good tight stonework, roofed it over soundly and added doors, hung well and snugly wedged. Then I lopped the leafy crown of the olive, clean-cutting the stump bare from roots up,

planing it round with a bronze smoothing-adze— I had the skill—I shaped it plumb to the line to make my bedpost, bored the holes it needed with an auger. Working from there I built my bed, start to finish, I gave it ivory inlays, gold and silver fittings, wove the straps across it, oxhide gleaming red. There's our secret sign, I tell you, our life story! Does the bed, my lady, still stand planted firm?— I don't know—or has someone chopped away that olive-trunk and hauled our bedstead off?"

Living proof— Penelope felt her knees go slack, her heart surrender, recognizing the strong clear signs Odysseus offered. She dissolved in tears, rushed to Odysseus, flung her arms around his neck and kissed his head and cried out, " Odysseus—don't flare up at me now, not you, always the most understanding man alive! The gods, it was the gods who sent us sorrow— they grudged us both a life in each other's arms from the heady zest of youth to the stoop of old age. But don't fault me, angry with me now because I failed, at the first glimpse, to greet you, hold you, so ... In my heart of hearts I always cringed with fear some fraud might come, beguile me with his talk; the world is full of the sort, cunning ones who plot their own dark ends. Remember Helen of Argos, Zeus's daughter— would she have sported so in a stranger's bed if she had dreamed that Achaea's sons were doomed to fight and die to bring her home again? Some god spurred her to do her shameless work. Not till then did her mind conceive that madness, blinding madness that caused her anguish, ours as well. But now, since you have revealed such overwhelming proof— the secret sign of our bed, which no one's ever seen but you and I and a single handmaid, Actoris, the servant my father gave me when I came,

who kept the doors of our room you built so well ... you've conquered my heart, my hard heart, at last!"

The more she spoke, the more a deep desire for tears welled up inside his breast—he wept as he held the wife he loved, the soul of loyalty, in his arms at last. Joy, warm as the joy that shipwrecked sailors feel when they catch sight of land—Poseidon has struck their well-rigged ship on the open sea with gale winds and crushing walls of waves, and only a few escape, swimming, struggling out of the frothing surf to reach the shore, their bodies crusted with salt but buoyed up with joy as they plant their feet on solid ground again, spared a deadly fate. So joyous now to her the sight of her husband, vivid in her gaze, that her white arms, embracing his neck would never for a moment let him go . Dawn with her rose-red fingers might have shone upon their tears, if with her glinting eyes Athena had not thought of one more thing. She held back the night, and night lingered long at the western edge of the earth, while in the east she reined in Dawn of the golden throne at Ocean's banks, commanding her not to yoke the windswift team that brings men light, Blaze and Aurora, the young colts that race the Morning on. Yet now Odysseus, seasoned veteran, said to his wife, "Dear woman . we have still not reached the end of all our trials. One more labor lies in store— boundless, laden with danger, great and long, and I must brave it out from start to finish. So the ghost of Tiresias prophesied to me, the day that I went down to the House of Death to learn our best route home, my comrades' and my own. But come, let's go to bed, dear woman—at long last delight in sleep, delight in each other, come!"

"If it's bed you want," reserved Penelope replied, "it's bed you'll have, whenever the spirit moves, now that the gods have brought you home again to native land, your grand and gracious house. But since you've alluded to it, since a god has put it in your mind, please, tell me about this trial still to come. I'm bound to learn of it later, I am sure— what's the harm if I hear of it tonight?"

"Still so strange," Odysseus, the old master of stories, answered. "Why again, why force me to tell you all? Well, tell I shall. I'll hide nothing now. But little joy it will bring you, I'm afraid, as little joy for me.

The prophet said that I must rove through towns on towns of men, that I must carry a well-planed oar until I come to a people who know nothing of the sea, whose food is never seasoned with salt, strangers all to ships with their crimson prows and long slim oars, wings that make ships fly. And here is my sign, he told me, clear, so clear I cannot miss it, and I will share it with you now ... When another traveler falls in with me and calls that weight across my shoulder a fan to winnow grain, then, he told me, I must plant my oar in the earth and sacrifice fine beasts to the lord god of the sea, Poseidon—a ram, a bull and a ramping wild boar— then journey home and render noble offerings up to the deathless gods who rule the vaulting skies, to all the gods in order.

And at last my own death will steal upon me ... a gentle, painless death, far from the sea it comes to take me down, borne down with the years in ripe old age with all my people here in blessed peace around me. All this, the prophet said, will come to pass."

"And so," Penelope said, in her great wisdom, "if the gods will really grant a happier old age, there's hope that we'll escape our trials at last."

So husband and wife confided in each other, while nurse and Eurynome, under the flaring brands, were making up the bed with coverings deep and soft. And working briskly, soon as they'd made it snug, back to her room the old nurse went to sleep as Eurynome, their attendant, torch in hand, lighted the royal couple's way to bed and, leading them to their chamber, slipped away. Rejoicing in each other, they returned to their bed, the old familiar place they loved so well.

Now Telemachus, the cowherd and the swineherd rested their dancing feet and had the women do the same, and across the shadowed hall the men lay down to sleep.

But the royal couple, once they'd reveled in all the longed-for joys of love, reveled in each other's stories, the radiant woman telling of all she'd borne at home, watching them there, the infernal crowd of suitors slaughtering herds of cattle and good fat sheep— while keen to win her hand— draining the broached vats dry of vintage wine. And great Odysseus told his wife of all the pains he had dealt out to other men and all the hardships he'd endured himself—his story first to last— and she listened on, enchanted ... Sleep never sealed her eyes till all was told.

He launched in with how he fought the Cicones down, then how he came to the Lotus-eaters' lush green land. Then all the crimes of the Cyclops and how he paid him back for the gallant men the monster ate without a qualm— then how he visited Aeolus, who gave him a hero's welcome then he sent him off, but the homeward run was not his fate, not yet—some sudden squalls snatched him away once more

and drove him over the swarming sea, groaning in despair.

Then how he moored at Telepylus, where Laestrygonians

wrecked his fleet and killed his men-at-arms.

He told her of Circe's cunning magic wiles

and how he voyaged down in his long benched ship

to the moldering House of Death, to consult Tiresias,

ghostly seer of Thebes, and he saw old comrades there

and he saw his mother, who bore and reared him as a child.

He told how he caught the Sirens' voices throbbing in the wind

and how he had scudded past the Clashing Rocks, past grim Charybdis,

past Scylla—whom no rover had ever coasted by, home free—

and how his shipmates slaughtered the cattle of the Sun

and Zeus the king of thunder split his racing ship

with a reeking bolt and killed his hardy comrades,

all his fighting men at a stroke, but he alone

escaped their death at sea. He told how he reached

Ogygia's shores and the nymph Calypso held him back,

deep in her arching caverns, craving him for a husband—

cherished him, vowed to make him immortal, ageless, all his days,

yes, but she never won the heart inside him, never .

then how he reached the Phaeacians—heavy sailing there—

who with all their hearts had prized him like a god

and sent him off in a ship to his own beloved land,

giving him bronze and hoards of gold and robes .

and that was the last he told her, just as sleep

overcame him . sleep loosing his limbs,

slipping the toils of anguish from his mind.

Athena, her eyes afire, had fresh plans. Once she thought he'd had his heart's content of love and sleep at his wife's side, straightaway she roused young Dawn from Ocean's banks to her golden throne to bring men light and roused Odysseus too, who rose from his soft bed and advised his wife in parting, "Dear woman, we both have had our fill of trials. You in our house, weeping over my journey home, fraught with storms and torment, true, and I, pinned down in pain by Zeus and other gods,

for all my desire, blocked from reaching home.

But now that we've arrived at our bed together—

the reunion that we yearned for all those years—

look after the things still left me in our house.

But as for the flocks those strutting suitors plundered,

much I'll recoup myself, making many raids;

the rest our fellow-Ithacans will supply

till all my folds are full of sheep again.

But now I must be off to the upland farm,

our orchard green with trees, to see my father,

good old man weighed down with so much grief for me.

And you, dear woman, sensible as you are,

I would advise you, still ...

quick as the rising sun the news will spread

of the suitors that I killed inside the house.

So climb to your lofty chamber with your women.

Sit tight there. See no one. Question no one."

He strapped his burnished armor round his shoulders, roused Telemachus, the cowherd and the swineherd, and told them to take up weapons honed for battle. They snapped to commands, harnessed up in bronze, opened the doors and strode out, Odysseus in the lead. By now the daylight covered the land, but Pallas, shrouding them all in darkness, quickly led the four men out of town.

Book XXIV

Peace

Now Cyllenian Hermes called away the suitors' ghosts,

holding firm in his hand the wand of fine pure gold

that enchants the eyes of men whenever Hermes wants

or wakes us up from sleep.

With a wave of this he stirred and led them on

and the ghosts trailed after with high thin cries

as bats cry in the depths of a dark haunted cavern,

shrilling, flittering, wild when one drops from the chain—

slipped from the rock face, while the rest cling tight ...

So with their high thin cries the ghosts flocked now

and Hermes the Healer led them on, and down the dank

moldering paths and past the Ocean's streams they went

and past the White Rock and the Sun's Western Gates and past

the Land of Dreams, and they soon reached the fields of asphodel

where the dead, the burnt-out wraiths of mortals, make their home.

There they found the ghosts of Peleus' son Achilles, Patroclus, fearless Antilochus—and Great Ajax too, the first in stature, first in build and bearing of all the Argives after Peleus' matchless son. They had grouped around Achilles' ghost, and now the shade of Atreus' son Agamemnon marched toward them— fraught with grief and flanked by all his comrades, troops of his men-at-arms who died beside him, who met their fate in lord Aegisthus' halls. Achilles' ghost was first to greet him: "Agamemnon, you were the one, we thought, of all our fighting princes Zeus who loves the lightning favored most, all your days, because you commanded such a powerful host of men on the fields of Troy where we Achaeans suffered. But you were doomed to encounter fate so early, you too, yet no one born escapes its deadly force. If only you had died your death in the full flush of the glory you had mastered—died on Trojan soil! Then all united Achaea would have raised your tomb and you'd have won your son great fame for years to come. Not so. You were fated to die a wretched death."

And the ghost of Atrides Agamemnon answered, "Son of Peleus, great godlike Achilles! Happy man, you died on the fields of Troy, a world away from home, and the best of Trojan and Argive champions died around you, fighting for your corpse. And you ... there you lay in the whirling dust, overpowered in all your power and wiped from memory all your horseman's skills. That whole day we fought, we'd never have stopped if Zeus had not stopped us with sudden gales. Then we bore you out of the fighting, onto the ships, we laid you down on a litter, cleansed your handsome flesh with warm water and soothing oils, and round your body troops of Danaans wept hot tears and cut their locks.

Hearing the news, your mother, Thetis, rose from the sea,

immortal sea-nymphs in her wake, and a strange unearthly cry

came throbbing over the ocean. Terror gripped Achaea's armies,

they would have leapt in panic, boarded the long hollow ships

if one man, deep in his age-old wisdom, had not checked them:

Nestor—from the first his counsel always seemed the best,

and now, concerned for the ranks, he rose and shouted,

'Hold fast, Argives! Sons of Achaea, don't run now!

This is Achilles' mother rising from the sea

with all her immortal sea-nymphs—

she longs to join her son who died in battle!'

That stopped our panicked forces in their tracks

as the Old Man of the Sea's daughters gathered round you—

wailing, heartsick—dressed you in ambrosial, deathless robes

and the Muses, nine in all, voice-to-voice in choirs,

their vibrant music rising, raised your dirge.

Not one soldier would you have seen dry-eyed,

the Muses' song so pierced us to the heart.

For seventeen days unbroken, days and nights

we mourned you—immortal gods and mortal men.

At the eighteenth dawn we gave you to the flames

and slaughtered around your body droves of fat sheep

and shambling longhorn cattle, and you were burned

in the garments of the gods and laved with soothing oils

and honey running sweet, and a long cortege of Argive heroes

paraded in review, in battle armor round your blazing pyre,

men in chariots, men on foot—a resounding roar went up.

And once the god of fire had burned your corpse to ash,

at first light we gathered your white bones, Achilles,

cured them in strong neat wine and seasoned oils.

Your mother gave us a gold two-handled urn,

a gift from Dionysus, she said,

a masterwork of the famous Smith, the god of fire.

Your white bones rest in that, my brilliant Achilles,

mixed with the bones of dead Patroclus, Menoetius' son,

apart from those of Antilochus, whom you treasured

more than all other comrades once Patroclus died.

Over your bones we reared a grand, noble tomb—

devoted veterans all, Achaea's combat forces— high on its jutting headland over the Hellespont's broad reach, a landmark glimpsed from far out at sea by men of our own day and men of days to come.

And then

your mother, begging the gods for priceless trophies,

set them out in the ring for all our champions.

You in your day have witnessed funeral games

for many heroes, games to honor the death of kings,

when young men cinch their belts, tense to win some prize—

but if you'd laid eyes on these it would have thrilled your heart,

magnificent trophies the goddess, glistening-footed Thetis,

held out in your honor. You were dear to the gods,

so even in death your name will never die .

Great glory is yours, Achilles,

for all time, in the eyes of all mankind!

But I?

What joy for me when the coil of war had wound down?

For my return Zeus hatched a pitiful death

at the hands of Aegisthus—and my accursed wife."

As they exchanged the stories of their fates, Hermes the guide and giant-killer drew up close to both, leading down the ghosts of the suitors King Odysseus killed. Struck by the sight, the two went up to them right away and the ghost of Atreus' son Agamemnon recognized the noted prince Amphimedon, Melaneus' dear son who received him once in Ithaca, at his home, and Atrides' ghost called out to his old friend now, "Amphimedon, what disaster brings you down to the dark world? All of you, good picked men, and all in your prime— no captain out to recruit the best in any city could have chosen better. What laid you low? Wrecked in the ships when lord Poseidon roused some punishing blast of gales and heavy breakers? Or did ranks of enemies mow you down on land as you tried to raid and cut off herds and flocks or fought to win their city, take their women?

Answer me, tell me. I was once your guest. Don't you recall the day I came to visit your house in Ithaca—King Menelaus came too— to urge Odysseus to sail with us in the ships on our campaign to Troy? And the long slow voyage, crossing wastes of ocean, cost us one whole month. That's how hard it was to bring him round, Odysseus, raider of cities."

"Famous Atrides!" Amphimedon's ghost called back. "Lord of men, Agamemnon, I remember it all, your majesty, as you say, and I will tell you, start to finish now, the story of our death, the brutal end contrived to take us off. We were courting the wife of Odysseus, gone so long. She neither spurned nor embraced a marriage she despised, no, she simply planned our death, our black doom! This was her latest masterpiece of guile: she set up a great loom in the royal halls and she began to weave, and the weaving finespun, the yarns endless, and she would lead us on: 'Young men, my suitors, now that King Odysseus is no more, go slowly, keen as you are to marry me, until I can finish off this web ...

so my weaving won't all fray and come to nothing.

This is a shroud for old lord Laertes, for that day

when the deadly fate that lays us out at last will take him down.

I dread the shame my countrywomen would heap upon me,

yes, if a man of such wealth should lie in state

without a shroud for cover.'

Her very words, and despite our pride and passion we believed her. So by day she'd weave at her great and growing web— by night, by the light of torches set beside her, she would unravel all she'd done. Three whole years she deceived us blind, seduced us with this scheme . Then, when the wheeling seasons brought the fourth year on and the months waned and the long days came round once more,

one of her women, in on the queen's secret, told the truth

and we caught her in the act—unweaving her gorgeous web.

So she finished it off. Against her will. We forced her.

But just as she bound off that great shroud and washed it,

spread it out—glistening like the sunlight or the moon—

just then some wicked spirit brought Odysseus back,

from god knows where, to the edge of his estate

where the swineherd kept his pigs. And back too,

to the same place, came Odysseus' own dear son,

scudding home in his black ship from sandy Pylos.

The pair of them schemed our doom, our deathtrap,

then lit out for town—

Telemachus first in fact, Odysseus followed,

later, led by the swineherd, and clad in tatters,

looking for all the world like an old and broken beggar

hunched on a stick, his body wrapped in shameful rags.

Disguised so none of us, not even the older ones,

could spot that tramp for the man he really was,

bursting in on us there, out of the blue. No,

we attacked him, blows and insults flying fast,

and he took it all for a time, in his own house,

all the taunts and blows—he had a heart of iron.

But once the will of thundering Zeus had roused his blood,

he and Telemachus bore the burnished weapons off

and stowed them deep in a storeroom, shot the bolts

and he—the soul of cunning—told his wife to set

the great bow and the gleaming iron axes out

before the suitors—all of us doomed now—

to test our skill and bring our slaughter on ...

Not one of us had the strength to string that powerful weapon,

all of us fell far short of what it took. But then,

when the bow was coming round to Odysseus' hands,

we raised a hue and cry—he must not have it,

no matter how he begged! Only Telemachus

urged him to take it up, and once he got it

in his clutches, long-suffering great Odysseus

strung his bow with ease and shot through all the axes,

then, vaulting onto the threshold, stood there poised, and pouring

his flashing arrows out before him, glaring for the kill, he cut Antinous down, then shot his painful arrows into the rest of us, aiming straight and true, and down we went, corpse on corpse in droves. Clearly a god was driving him and all his henchmen, routing us headlong in their fury down the hall, wheeling into the slaughter, slashing left and right and grisly screams broke from skulls cracked open— the whole floor awash with blood.

So we died,

Agamemnon . our bodies lie untended even now, strewn in Odysseus' palace. They know nothing yet, the kin in our houses who might wash our wounds of clotted gore and lay us out and mourn us. These are the solemn honors owed the dead."

"Happy Odysseus!" Agamemnon's ghost cried out. "Son of old Laertes— mastermind—what a fine, faithful wife you won! What good sense resided in your Penelope— how well Icarius' daughter remembered you, Odysseus, the man she married once! The fame of her great virtue will never die. The immortal gods will lift a song for all mankind, a glorious song in praise of self-possessed Penelope. A far cry from the daughter of Tyndareus, Clytemnestra— what outrage she committed, killing the man she married once!— yes, and the song men sing of her will ring with loathing. She brands with a foul name the breed of womankind, even the honest ones to come!"

So they traded stories, the two ghosts standing there in the House of Death, far in the hidden depths below the earth.

Odysseus and his men had stridden down from town and quickly reached Laertes' large, well-tended farm that the old king himself had wrested from the wilds, years ago, laboring long and hard. His lodge was here and around it stretched a row of sheds where fieldhands,

bondsmen who did his bidding, sat and ate and slept.

With an old Sicilian woman, too, much in charge,

who faithfully looked after her aged master

out on his good estate remote from town.

Odysseus told his servants and his son,

"Into the timbered lodge now, go, quickly,

kill us the fattest porker, fix our meal.

And I will put my father to the test,

see if the old man knows me now, on sight,

or fails to, after twenty years apart."

With that he passed his armor to his men and in they went at once, his son as well. Odysseus wandered off, approaching the thriving vineyard, searching, picking his way down to the great orchard, searching, but found neither Dolius nor his sons nor any hand. They'd just gone off, old Dolius in the lead, to gather stones for a dry retaining wall to shore the vineyard up. But he did find his father, alone, on that well-worked plot, spading round a sapling—clad in filthy rags, in a patched, unseemly shirt, and round his shins he had some oxhide leggings strapped, patched too, to keep from getting scraped, and gloves on his hands to fight against the thorns, and on his head he wore a goatskin skullcap to cultivate his misery that much more . Long-enduring Odysseus, catching sight of him now— a man worn down with years, his heart racked with sorrow— halted under a branching pear-tree, paused and wept. Debating, head and heart, what should he do now? Kiss and embrace his father, pour out the long tale— how he had made the journey home to native land— or probe him first and test him every way? Torn, mulling it over, this seemed better: test the old man first,

reproach him with words that cut him to the core. Convinced, Odysseus went right up to his father.

Laertes was digging round the sapling, head bent low as his famous offspring hovered over him and began, "You want no skill, old man, at tending a garden. All's well-kept here; not one thing in the plot, no plant, no fig, no pear, no olive, no vine, not a vegetable, lacks your tender, loving care. But I must say—and don't be offended now— your plants are doing better than yourself. Enough to be stooped with age but look how squalid you are, those shabby rags. Surely it's not for sloth your master lets you go to seed. There's nothing of slave about your build or bearing. I have eyes: you look like a king to me. The sort entitled to bathe, sup well, then sleep in a soft bed. That's the right and pride of you old-timers. Come now, tell me—in no uncertain terms— whose slave are you? whose orchard are you tending? And tell me this—I must be absolutely sure— this place I've reached, is it truly Ithaca? Just as that fellow told me, just now ... I fell in with him on the road here. Clumsy, none too friendly, couldn't trouble himself to hear me out or give me a decent answer when I asked about a long-lost friend of mine, whether he's still alive, somewhere in Ithaca, or dead and gone already, lost in the House of Death. Do you want to hear his story? Listen. Catch my drift. I once played host to a man in my own country; he'd come to my door, the most welcome guest from foreign parts I ever entertained. He claimed he came of good Ithacan stock, said his father was Arcesius' son, Laertes. So I took the new arrival under my own roof, I gave him a hero's welcome, treated him in style— stores in our palace made for princely entertainment. And I gave my friend some gifts to fit his station, handed him seven bars of well-wrought gold, a mixing-bowl of solid silver, etched with flowers,

a dozen cloaks, unlined and light, a dozen rugs and as many full-cut capes and shirts as well, and to top it off, four women, perfect beauties skilled in crafts—he could pick them out himself."

"Stranger," his father answered, weeping softly, "the land you've reached is the very one you're after, true, but it's in the grip of reckless, lawless men. And as for the gifts you showered on your guest, you gave them all for nothing. But if you'd found him alive, here in Ithaca, he would have replied in kind, with gift for gift, and entertained you warmly before he sent you off. That's the old custom, when one has led the way. But tell me, please—in no uncertain terms— how many years ago did you host the man, that unfortunate guest of yours, my son ... there was a son, or was he all a dream? That most unlucky man, whom now, I fear, far from his own soil and those he loves, the fish have swallowed down on the high seas or birds and beasts on land have made their meal. Nor could the ones who bore him—mother, father— wrap his corpse in a shroud and mourn him deeply. Nor could his warm, generous wife, so self-possessed, Penelope, ever keen for her husband on his deathbed, the fit and proper way, or close his eyes at last. These are the solemn honors owed the dead. But tell me your own story—that I'd like to know: Who are you? where are you from? your city? your parents? Where does the ship lie moored that brought you here, your hardy shipmates too? Or did you arrive as a passenger aboard some stranger's craft and men who put you ashore have pulled away?"

"The whole tale," his crafty son replied, "I'll tell you start to finish. I come from Roamer-Town, my home's a famous place, my father's Unsparing, son of old King Pain,

and my name's Man of Strife .

I sailed from Sicily, aye, but some ill wind

blew me here, off course—much against my will—

and my ship lies moored off farmlands far from town.

As for Odysseus, well, five years have passed

since he left my house and put my land behind him,

luckless man! But the birds were good as he launched out,

all on the right, and I rejoiced as I sent him off

and he rejoiced in sailing. We had high hopes

we'd meet again as guests, as old friends,

and trade some shining gifts."

At those words a black cloud of grief came shrouding over Laertes. Both hands clawing the ground for dirt and grime, he poured it over his grizzled head, sobbing, in spasms. Odysseus' heart shuddered, a sudden twinge went shooting up through his nostrils, watching his dear father struggle ... He sprang toward him, kissed him, hugged him, crying, "Father—I am your son—myself, the man you're seeking, home after twenty years, on native ground at last! Hold back your tears, your grief. Let me tell you the news, but we must hurry— I've cut the suitors down in our own house, I've paid them back their outrage, vicious crimes!"

"Odysseus

Laertes, catching his breath, found words to answer. "You—you're truly my son, Odysseus, home at last? Give me a sign, some proof—I must be sure."

"This scar first," quick to the mark, his son said, "look at this— the wound I took from the boar's white tusk on Mount Parnassus. There you'd sent me, you and mother, to see her fond old father, Autolycus, and collect the gifts he vowed to give me, once, when he came to see us here.

Or these, these trees— let me tell you the trees you gave me years ago, here on this well-worked plot .

I begged you for everything I saw, a little boy trailing you through the orchard, picking our way among these trees, and you named them one by one. You gave me thirteen pear, ten apple trees and forty figs—and promised to give me, look, fifty vinerows, bearing hard on each other's heels, clusters of grapes year-round at every grade of ripeness, mellowed as Zeus's seasons weigh them down."

Living proof— and Laertes' knees went slack, his heart surrendered, recognizing the strong clear signs Odysseus offered. He threw his arms around his own dear son, fainting as hardy great Odysseus hugged him to his heart until he regained his breath, came back to life and cried out, "Father Zeus— you gods of Olympus, you still rule on high if those suitors have truly paid in blood for all their reckless outrage! Oh, but now my heart quakes with fear that all the Ithacans will come down on us in a pack, at any time, and rush the alarm through every island town!"

"There's nothing to fear," his canny son replied, "put it from your mind. Let's make for your lodge beside the orchard here. I sent Telemachus on ahead, the cowherd, swineherd too, to fix a hasty meal."

So the two went home, confiding all the way, and arriving at the ample, timbered lodge, they found Telemachus with the two herdsmen carving sides of meat and mixing ruddy wine. Before they ate, the Sicilian serving-woman bathed her master, Laertes—his spirits high in his own room—and rubbed him down with oil and round his shoulders drew a fresh new cloak. And Athena stood beside him, fleshing out the limbs of the old commander, made him taller to all eyes, his build more massive, stepping from his bath,

so his own son gazed at him, wonderstruck— face-to-face he seemed a deathless god ... "Father"—Odysseus' words had wings—"surely one of the everlasting gods has made you taller, stronger, shining in my eyes!"

Facing his son, the wise old man returned, "If only—Father Zeus, Athena and lord Apollo— I were the man I was, king of the Cephallenians when I sacked the city of Nericus, sturdy fortress out on its jutting cape! If I'd been young in arms last night in our house with harness on my back, standing beside you, fighting off the suitors, how many I would have cut the knees from under— the heart inside you would have leapt for joy!"

So father and son confirmed each other's spirits. And then, with the roasting done, the meal set out, the others took their seats on chairs and stools, were just putting their hands to bread and meat when old Dolius trudged in with his sons, worn out from the fieldwork. The old Sicilian had gone and fetched them home, the mother who reared the boys and tended Dolius well, now that the years had ground the old man down ... When they saw Odysseus—knew him in their bones— they stopped in their tracks, staring, struck dumb, but the king waved them on with a warm and easy air: "Sit down to your food, old friend. Snap out of your wonder. We've been cooling our heels here long enough, eager to get our hands on all this pork, hoping you'd all troop in at any moment."

Spreading his arms, Dolius rushed up to him, clutched Odysseus by the wrist and kissed his hand, greeting his king now with a burst of winging words: "Dear master, you're back—the answer to our prayers! We'd lost all hope, but the gods have brought you home!

Welcome—health! The skies rain blessings on you! But tell me the truth now—this I'd like to know— shrewd Penelope, has she heard you're home? Or should we send a messenger?"

"She knows by now, old man," his wily master answered brusquely. "Why busy yourself with that?"

So Dolius went back to his sanded stool. His sons too, pressing around the famous king, greeted Odysseus warmly, grasped him by the hand, then took their seats in order by their father.

But now, as they fell to supper in the lodge, Rumor the herald sped like wildfire through the city, crying out the news of the suitors' bloody death and doom, and massing from every quarter as they listened, kinsmen milled with wails and moans of grief before Odysseus' palace. And then they carried out the bodies, every family buried their own, and the dead from other towns they loaded onto the rapid ships for crews to ferry back again, each to his own home ... Then in a long, mourning file they moved to assembly where, once they'd grouped, crowding the meeting grounds, old lord Eupithes rose in their midst to speak out. Unforgettable sorrow wrung his heart for his son, Antinous, the first that great Odysseus killed. In tears for the one he lost, he stood and cried, "My friends, what a mortal blow this man has dealt to all our island people! Those fighters, many and brave, he led away in his curved ships—he lost the ships and he lost the men and back he comes again to kill the best of our Cephallenian princes. Quick, after him! Before he flees to Pylos or holy Elis, where Epeans rule in power— up, attack! Or we'll hang our heads forever, all disgraced, even by generations down the years, if we don't punish the murderers of our brothers and our sons!

Why, life would lose its relish—for me, at least— I'd rather die at once and go among the dead. Attack!—before the assassins cross the sea and leave us in their wake."

He closed in tears and compassion ran through every Achaean there. Suddenly Medon and the inspired bard approached them, fresh from Odysseus' house, where they had just awakened. They strode into the crowds; amazement took each man but the herald Medon spoke in all his wisdom: "Hear me, men of Ithaca. Not without the hand of the deathless gods did Odysseus do these things! Myself, I saw an immortal fighting at his side— like Mentor to the life. I saw the same god, now in front of Odysseus, spurring him on, now stampeding the suitors through the hall, crazed with fear, and down they went in droves!"

Terror gripped them all, their faces ashen white. At last the old warrior Halitherses, Master's son— who alone could see the days behind and days ahead— rose up and spoke, distraught for each man there: "Hear me, men of Ithaca. Hear what I have to say. Thanks to your own craven hearts these things were done! You never listened to me or the good commander Mentor, you never put a stop to your sons' senseless folly. What fine work they did, so blind, so reckless, carving away the wealth, affronting the wife of a great and famous man, telling themselves that he'd return no more! So let things rest now. Listen to me for once—I say don't attack! Else some will draw the lightning on their necks."

So he urged

and some held fast to their seats, but more than half sprang up with warcries now. They had no taste for the prophet's sane plan—winning Eupithes quickly won them over. They ran for armor and once they'd harnessed up in burnished bronze

they grouped in ranks before the terraced city. Eupithes led them on in their foolish, mad campaign, certain he would avenge the slaughter of his son but the father was not destined to return— he'd meet his death in battle then and there.

Athena at this point made appeals to Zeus: "Father, son of Cronus, our high and mighty king, now let me ask you a question ... tell me the secrets hidden in your mind. Will you prolong the pain, the cruel fighting here or hand down pacts of peace between both sides?"

"My child," Zeus who marshals the thunderheads replied, "why do you pry and probe me so intently? Come now, wasn't the plan your own? You conceived it yourself: Odysseus should return and pay the traitors back. Do as your heart desires— but let me tell you how it should be done. Now that royal Odysseus has taken his revenge, let both sides seal their pacts that he shall reign for life, and let us purge their memories of the bloody slaughter of their brothers and their sons. Let them be friends, devoted as in the old days. Let peace and wealth come cresting through the land."

So Zeus decreed

and launched Athena already poised for action— down she swept from Olympus' craggy peaks.

By then Odysseus' men had had their fill of hearty fare, and the seasoned captain said, "One of you go outside—see if they're closing in." A son of Dolius snapped to his command, ran to the door and saw them all too close and shouted back to Odysseus, "They're on top of us! To arms—and fast!" Up they sprang and strapped themselves in armor, the three men with Odysseus, Dolius' six sons

and Dolius and Laertes clapped on armor too, gray as they were, but they would fight if forced. Once they had all harnessed up in burnished bronze they opened the doors and strode out, Odysseus in the lead.

And now, taking the build and voice of Mentor, Zeus's daughter Athena marched right in. The good soldier Odysseus thrilled to see her, turned to his son and said in haste, "Telemachus, you'll learn soon enough—as you move up to fight where champions strive to prove themselves the best— not to disgrace your father's line a moment. In battle prowess we've excelled for ages all across the world."

Telemachus reassured him, "Now you'll see, if you care to watch, father, now I'm fired up. Disgrace, you say? I won't disgrace your line!"

Laertes called out in deep delight, "What a day for me, dear gods! What joy— my son and my grandson vying over courage!"

"Laertes!"

Goddess Athena rushed beside him, eyes ablaze: "Son of Arcesius, dearest of all my comrades, say a prayer to the bright-eyed girl and Father Zeus, then brandish your long spear and wing it fast!"

Athena breathed enormous strength in the old man. He lifted a prayer to mighty Zeus's daughter, brandished his spear a moment, winged it fast and hit Eupithes, pierced his bronze-sided helmet that failed to block the bronze point tearing through— down Eupithes crashed, his armor clanging against his chest. Odysseus and his gallant son charged straight at the front lines, slashing away with swords, with two-edged spears and now they would have killed them all, cut them off from home if Athena, daughter of storming Zeus, had not cried out

in a piercing voice that stopped all fighters cold, "Hold back, you men of Ithaca, back from brutal war! Break off—shed no more blood—make peace at once!"

So Athena commanded. Terror blanched their faces, they went limp with fear, weapons slipped from their hands and strewed the ground at the goddess' ringing voice. They spun in flight to the city, wild to save their lives, but loosing a savage cry, the long-enduring great Odysseus, gathering all his force, swooped like a soaring eagle— just as the son of Cronus hurled a reeking bolt that fell at her feet, the mighty Father's daughter, and blazing-eyed Athena wheeled on Odysseus, crying, "Royal son of Laertes, Odysseus, master of exploits, hold back now! Call a halt to the great leveler, War— don't court the rage of Zeus who rules the world!"

So she commanded. He obeyed her, glad at heart. And Athena handed down her pacts of peace between both sides for all the years to come— the daughter of Zeus whose shield is storm and thunder, yes, but the goddess still kept Mentor's build and voice.