the bow and turning it this way and that,
to see if worms had eaten at the horn
while he was gone. The suitors told each other,
“He stares at it as if he were an expert
in bows. He acts the part! Perhaps he has400
a bow like this at home or plans to make one.
See how this pitiful migrant fingers it!”
One confident young suitor said, “I hope
his future luck will match how well he does
in stringing it!”
So he had tricked them all.
After examining the mighty bow
carefully, inch by inch—as easily
as an experienced musician stretches
a sheep-gut string around a lyre’s peg
and makes it fast—Odysseus, with ease,410
strung the great bow. He held it in his right hand
and plucked the string, which sang like swallow-song,
a clear sweet note. The suitors, horrified,
grew pale, and Zeus made ominous thunder rumble.
Odysseus, who had so long been waiting,
was glad to hear the signal from the son
of double-dealing Cronus. He took up
an arrow, which was lying on the table.
The others were all packed up in the quiver,
soon to be used. He laid it on the bridge,420
then pulled the notch-end and the string together,
still sitting in his chair. With careful aim,
he shot. The weighted tip of bronze flew through
each axe head and then out the other side.
He told his son,
“Telemachus, your guest
does you a credit. I hit all the targets
and with no effort strung the bow. I am
still strong, despite their jibes about my weakness.
Though it is daytime, it is time to feast;
and later, we can celebrate with music,430
the joyful part of dinner.”
With his eyebrows
he signaled, and his son strapped on his sword,
picked up his spear, and stood beside his chair,
next to his father, his bronze weapons flashing.
BOOK 22
Bloodshed
Odysseus ripped off his rags. Now naked,
he leapt upon the threshold with his bow
and quiverfull of arrows, which he tipped
out in a rush before his feet, and spoke.
“Playtime is over. I will shoot again,
towards another mark no man has hit.
Apollo, may I manage it!”
He aimed
his deadly arrow at Antinous.
The young man sat there, just about to lift
his golden goblet, swirling wine around,10
ready to drink. He had no thought of death.
How could he? Who would think a single man,
among so many banqueters, would dare
to risk dark death, however strong he was?
Odysseus aimed at his throat, then shot.
The point pierced all the way through his soft neck.
He flopped down to the side and his cup slipped
out of his hand, and then thick streams of blood
gushed from his nostrils. His foot twitched and knocked
the table down; food scattered on the ground.20
The bread and roasted meat were soiled with blood.
Seeing him fall, the suitors, in an uproar,
with shouts that filled the hall, jumped up and rushed
to search around by all the thick stone walls
for shields or swords to grab—but there were none.
They angrily rebuked Odysseus.
“Stranger, you shot a man, and you will pay!
You will join no more games—you have to die!
For certain! You have killed the best young man
in all of Ithaca. Right here, the vultures30
will eat your corpse.” Those poor fools did not know
that he had killed Antinous on purpose,
nor that the snares of death were round them all.
Clever Odysseus scowled back and sneered,
“Dogs! So you thought I would not come back home
from Troy? And so you fleeced my house, and raped
my slave girls, and you flirted with my wife
while I am still alive! You did not fear
the gods who live in heaven, and you thought
no man would ever come to take revenge.40
Now you are trapped inside the snares of death.”
At that, pale fear seized all of them. They groped
to find a way to save their lives somehow.
Only Eurymachus found words to answer.
“If it is you, Odysseus, come back,
then we agree! Quite right, the Greeks have done
outrageous things to your estate and home.
But now the one responsible is dead—
Antinous! It was all his idea.
He did not even really want your wife,50
but had another plan, which Zeus has foiled:
to lie in ambush for your son, and kill him,
then seize the throne and rule in Ithaca.
Now he is slain—quite rightly. Please, my lord,
have mercy on your people! We will pay
in public, yes, for all the food and drink.
We each will bring the price of twenty oxen,
and pay you all the gold and bronze you want.
Your anger is quite understandable.”
Odysseus saw through him; with a glare60
he told him, “Even if you give me all
your whole inheritance, and even more,
I will not keep my hands away from slaughter
until I pay you suitors back for all
your wickedness. You have two choices: fight,
or run away: just try to save your lives!
Not one of you will get away from death.”
At that their knees grew weak, their hearts stopped still.
Eurymachus again addressed the suitors.
“My friends, this man will not hold back his hands.70
Seizing the bow and arrows, he will shoot us
right from that polished threshold, till he kills
each one of us. Be quick, make plans for battle.
Draw out your swords, use tables as your shields
against the deadly arrows. All together,
rush at him, try to drive him off the threshold,
and out of doors, then run all through the town,
and quickly call for help. This man will soon
have shot his last!”
He drew his sharp bronze sword
and with a dreadful scream he leapt at him.80
But that same instant, Lord Odysseus
let fly and hit his chest, beside the nipple,
and instantly the arrow pierced his liver.
The sword fell from his hand. He doubled up
and fell across the table, spilling food
and wine across the floor. He smashed his head
against the ground, and in his desperate pain
kicked up the chair, and darkness drenched his eyes.
Amphinomus attacked Odysseus.
He drew his sharp sword, hoping he could force him90
to yield his place. Telemachus leapt in
and thrust his bronze spear through him from behind,
ramming it through his back and out his chest.
Face-first he crashed and thudded to the ground.
Telemachus dashed back—he left his spear
stuck in the body; he was terrified
that if he bent to pull it out, some Greek
would jump on him and stab him with a sword.
He ran and quickly reached his loyal father.
He stood beside him and his words flew out.100
“Now Father, I will fetch a shield for you
and two spears and a helmet made of bronze,
and I will arm myself, and bring more arms
for our two herdsmen, since we all need weapons.”
Odysseus, the master planner, answered,
“Run fast while I still have a stock of arrows,
before they force me from the doors—I am
fighting alone up here.”
His son obeyed.
He hurried to the storeroom for the arms,
and took eight spears, four shields, and four bronze helmets110
each fitted out with bushy horsehair plumes.
He hurried back to take them to his father,
and was the first to strap the armor on.
The two slaves also armed themselves, and stood
flanking their brilliant, resourceful leader.
As long as he had arrows, he kept shooting,
and one by one he picked the suitors off,
inside his own home. Then at last the king
ran out of arrows; he set down his bow
next to the sturdy doorpost, leaning up120