The Odyssey by Homer
signal:
all the others, the whole crowd of these haughty suitors,
won't agree to me being given the bow and the quiver;
but you, noble Eumaios, as you go through the house
with the bow, put it into my hands--and order the women
235
to bar the close-fitting doors at the entrance to their quarters;
and if any of them hear groans, or the thud of falling
men within our walls, they're not to go out, but remain
just where they are, keep silent, and go on with their work.
And to you, noble Philoitios, I entrust the task of bolting
240
the courtyard gates, and quickly roping them shut as well."
So saying, he made his way into the pleasantly sited house,
and went and sat down on the chair from which he'd risen;
godlike Odysseus' two servants then followed him inside.
Eurymachos was now turning the bow about in his hands,
245
warming it, this side and that, in the fire's glow; yet not even
thus could he bend it: his lordly heart was sore vexed,
and, deeply troubled, he now addressed them, saying:
"Alas, here's distress for myself and for all of you too!
It's not this lost marriage that I lament so much,
250
grieved though I am; there are many Achaian ladies,
some here on sea-girt Ithake, and more in other cities.
But if we're so far lacking in strength compared
to godlike Odysseus that we can't even bend and string
his bow--that's a disgrace that men yet unborn will hear of."
255
Antinoos, son of Eupeithes, then responded to him, saying:
"It will not be so, Eurymachos, as you know very well!
Throughout the region this is the god's solemn feast day--
who'd be bending a bow now? Today we'll take things easy,
so put that aside! And why don't we leave all the axes standing
260
where they are? No one, I think, is going to come here, to the hall
of Odysseus, Laertes' son, and remove them! So for now
let the wine steward pour the initial drops in our cups
so we can offer libations, and lay the curved bow aside;
then early tomorrow morning tell the goatherd Melanthios
265
to bring the very best she-goats in all the herds, so we
may offer thigh-pieces to Apollo the famous archer,
and then make trial of the bow and conclude the contest."
So spoke Antinoos, and what he said found approval.
Now the heralds poured water over their hands, and youths
270
filled up the mixing-bowls with drink, poured drops
into the cups for libation, then served wine to all.
After they'd offered libations and drunk all they'd a mind to,
resourceful Odysseus addressed them, with deception in mind:
"Listen to me, you suitors of the illustrious queen,
275
to what the heart in my breast now urges me to tell you!
To Eurymachos most of all, and to godlike Antinoos
I appeal, since the latter got it right when he said
that for now you should put the bow by, let the gods decide--
In the morning the god will confer the power where he wishes!
280
But come, give the polished bow to me, that here among you
I may try out my hands and strength, see whether the force
is still there, as when my limbs were supple, or whether
by now lack of care and vagrancy have destroyed it."
So he spoke, and they all expressed high indignation,
285
afraid as they were that he might string the polished bow.
So Antinoos spoke in reproof, and addressed him, saying:
"Ah, wretched stranger, devoid of even the slightest sense!
Is it not enough for you that you dine at ease among us,
your betters, that you're barred from none of the feast, sit in
290
on all our conversation, when there's no other stranger
or beggar who gets to listen to everything we say?
It's the wine, the honey-sweet wine, that damages you, just as
it harms anyone who swills it, who drinks to excess! It was wine
that infatuated the Centaur, far-famed Eurytion,
295
in the hall of great-hearted Peirithoos, when he went
to visit the Lapiths: there, wits fuddled with wine,
in his madness he wrought evil in Peirithoos' house.8
Outraged, the heroes sprang on him, dragged him outside
through the forecourt, cut off his ears and nose
300
with the pitiless bronze; and he, now stupefied in mind,
went about with his unstable spirit bearing that fatal burden.
Hence sprang the feud between the Centaurs and mankind;
but he first for himself met trouble, when heavy with wine.
And for you I foresee great misery should you indeed
305
bend and string this bow: you'll find no courtesy here
in our district--we'll send you straight off in a black ship
to King Echetos, maimer of all mortal men alive,9
from whom you would have no escape. So now sit quiet,
drink your wine, don't contend with men younger than yourself."
310
Prudent Penelope responded to him, saying: "It's neither
decent nor just, Antinoos, to deprive Telemachos' guests
--whoever may come to the house here--of their proper due!
Do you expect, if this stranger, trusting his hands and strength,
strings the great bow of Odysseus, that he'll then take me
315
off to his home, and make me his bedfellow? I'm sure
that he himself now nurses no such expectation!
So none of you need to worry on that account, or let it
spoil your appetite here: that indeed would be unseemly."
Eurymachos, Polybos' son, then responded to her, saying:
320
"Ikarios' daughter, prudent Penelope, we don't think
this man will make off with you--yes, that would be unseemly!--
but the gossip of men and women could embarrass us: some low
Achaian lout may well later start saying this kind of thing:
'Oh yes, far weaker men now are courting the bedfellow
325
of a faultless man--they can't even string his polished bow!
But some other fellow, a vagrant beggar, who turned up here
strung the bow easily, and shot clear through the iron.'
So men will talk, and this would be a reproach to us all."
Then prudent Penelope once more responded to him, saying:
330
"Eurymachos, no way can good report spread in public
about those who devour, and so dishonor, a nobleman's
household goods! Why make this, then, a matter for reproach?
The stranger's a very big fellow, and strongly built; he also
claims he's the son of a father of excellent ancestry.
335
So give him the polished bow now, and let's see what happens!
For this I'll declare to you, and it shall come to pass:
if he does string the bow, and Apollo lets him triumph,
I'll dress him in cloak and tunic, fine quality garments,
and give him a sharpened javelin, to ward off dogs and men,
340
and a double-edged sword, and sandals to strap on under
his feet, and send him wherever his heart and spirit dictate."
Then sagacious Telemachos responded to her, saying:
"There's not one Achaian, my mother, more entitled than myself
to give, or refuse, this bow to whomsoever I please--
345
not any of those who hold power here on rugged Ithake,
or lord it over the islands toward horse-pasturing Elis!
Of these none will thwart my will, even if I choose to make
an outright gift of the bow, for this stranger to carry off!
Into the house with you now, attend to your own tasks--
350
the loom and the distaff! And give orders to your handmaids
to stick to their proper work! The bow shall be men's business--
all men's, but mine above all: in this house I hold the power."
Astonished, Penelope went back into the house,
and took to heart her son's sagacious remarks.
355
she climbed to her upper chamber with her handmaids,
and there she wept for Odysseus, her dear husband, until
grey-eyed Athene shed sweet sleep upon her eyelids.
The noble swineherd now picked up the curved bow,
and was bearing it off; but the suitors all clamored in the hall,
360
and thus would one of the arrogant younger men exclaim:
"Where, wretched swineherd, are you taking that curved bow?
Are you crazy? The hunting dogs you bred yourself will soon
wolf you down, all alone among your pigs, if Apollo
looks kindly upon us--he, and the other immortal gods."
365
So they spoke. Right there he dropped the bow where he stood,
terrified: they were so many, the noise in the hall so loud.
But Telemachos shouted threateningly from the other side:
"Old fellow, keep on with the bow! Obey them, and you'll be sorry!
Though I'm younger than you I'll chase you out to the fields
370
with a shower of stones! At least I'm stronger than you!
I only wish I was tougher, and a better man with my fists,
than all the suitors arrayed here in these halls: then I'd
soon send some of them packing from our house
in a dire state, because of the trouble they make here."
375
So he spoke, but the suitors all laughed cheerfully at him,
forgetting the bitter resentment that they'd long nursed
against Telemachos. The swineherd carried the bow
through the hall to skillful Odysseus, placed it in his hands,
then summoned the nurse Eurykleia, and addressed her, saying:
380
"Orders for you from Telemachos, prudent Eurykleia:
you're to bar the close-fitted doors at the entrance to your quarters,
and if any of you hear groans or the thud of falling
men here within our walls, they're not to go out, but remain
just where they are, keep silent, and go on with their work."
385
So he spoke; but her answer remained unwinged. She went
and barred the doors of their pleasantly sited quarters,
while Philoitios said nothing, but hurried out of the house,
and barred the gates to the well-walled courtyard. Down
in the colonnade there lay coiled a shapely vessel's
390
fiber cable: with this he secured the gates, and himself
went back in, sat down on the chair from which he'd risen,
and watched Odysseus, who was already handling the bow,
kept turning it round, made trial of it this way and that,
to see if worms had eaten the horn in its master's absence;
395
and thus would an onlooker speak, with a glance at his neighbor:
"He must be a connoisseur, some kind of expert in bows!
Either he himself has such fine bows stored back home,
or else he intends to make one, the way he turns it about
this way and that--evildoer and vagrant that he is!"
400
And another of these haughty youths would speak up, saying:
"I wish just as much good fortune for this old fellow
as he's likely to get in the contest for stringing the bow."
Such was the talk of the suitors. But resourceful Odysseus,
as soon as he'd got his great bow and viewed it all over--
405
just as a man, a professional lyre player and singer,
will easily stretch the string around a new peg, secure
the twisted sheep gut at either end, so now
Odysseus without hard effort strung the great bow,
and took it in his right hand, and tested the string,
410
which sang good and high at his touch, like a swallow's voice.
The suitors were much distressed. The faces of them all
changed color. Zeus thundered loudly, making plain his signs,
and much-enduring noble Odysseus now rejoiced
that sly-counselling Kronos' son had sent him an omen.
415
He picked up the swift shaft that lay there on the table,
ready (the rest were still stored in their hollow quiver--
those arrows that the Achaians were soon to experience),
set it on the bow's hand grip, then--still seated
there in his chair--drew the string with the notched arrow,
420
took careful aim, and let fly. He did not miss one helve base
of all the axes: clean through and out at the end
flew his bronze-heavy shaft. He addressed Telemachos, saying:
"The stranger that sits in your hall, Telemachos, does you no
discredit: I neither missed the mark, nor spent
425
much labor on stringing the bow. My strength is still there--
not gone, as these suitors insult me by claiming so mockingly!
But now it's time to get dinner ready for the Achaians--
in daylight. And after that there's other entertainment,
songs and the lyre, the accompaniment to feasting."
430
Then godlike Odysseus signaled them with his eyebrows,
and his dear son Telemachos strapped on his keen-edged sword,10
and put out a hand to the spear, tipped with gleaming bronze,
that was standing close to him, propped up beside his chair.
Book 22
Now resourceful Odysseus stripped himself of his rags
and sprang up on the great threshold, taking the bow
and the shaft-packed quiver. He poured out the swift arrows
there at his feet, and addressed the suitors, saying:
"This contest's over, decisively ended; and now
5
I'll go for another target, reached by no man hitherto,
to see whether I can hit it, and Apollo grant me glory."
He spoke, and then aimed a bitter shaft at Antinoos,
who was on the point of raising an elegant cup to his lips--
golden, twin-eared--had it in his hands, was intending
10
to drink wine from it: in his mind was no thought of death.
For who amid fellow feasters would ever imagine
that one man, however strong, alone against many,
would contrive for him a bad death and black fate? But Odysseus
took aim and struck him in the throat with his arrow,
15
and clear through the tender neck the point was driven,
and he slumped to one side, the cup dropped from his hand
when he was hit, and up through his nostrils at once
came a thick spurt of human blood; a kick of his foot
sent the table flying, scattered all the food on the floor,
20
bread and roast meat in the dirt together. The suitors
made an uproar throughout the hall when they saw the man
fallen: sprang from their seats, panic-st
all the others, the whole crowd of these haughty suitors,
won't agree to me being given the bow and the quiver;
but you, noble Eumaios, as you go through the house
with the bow, put it into my hands--and order the women
235
to bar the close-fitting doors at the entrance to their quarters;
and if any of them hear groans, or the thud of falling
men within our walls, they're not to go out, but remain
just where they are, keep silent, and go on with their work.
And to you, noble Philoitios, I entrust the task of bolting
240
the courtyard gates, and quickly roping them shut as well."
So saying, he made his way into the pleasantly sited house,
and went and sat down on the chair from which he'd risen;
godlike Odysseus' two servants then followed him inside.
Eurymachos was now turning the bow about in his hands,
245
warming it, this side and that, in the fire's glow; yet not even
thus could he bend it: his lordly heart was sore vexed,
and, deeply troubled, he now addressed them, saying:
"Alas, here's distress for myself and for all of you too!
It's not this lost marriage that I lament so much,
250
grieved though I am; there are many Achaian ladies,
some here on sea-girt Ithake, and more in other cities.
But if we're so far lacking in strength compared
to godlike Odysseus that we can't even bend and string
his bow--that's a disgrace that men yet unborn will hear of."
255
Antinoos, son of Eupeithes, then responded to him, saying:
"It will not be so, Eurymachos, as you know very well!
Throughout the region this is the god's solemn feast day--
who'd be bending a bow now? Today we'll take things easy,
so put that aside! And why don't we leave all the axes standing
260
where they are? No one, I think, is going to come here, to the hall
of Odysseus, Laertes' son, and remove them! So for now
let the wine steward pour the initial drops in our cups
so we can offer libations, and lay the curved bow aside;
then early tomorrow morning tell the goatherd Melanthios
265
to bring the very best she-goats in all the herds, so we
may offer thigh-pieces to Apollo the famous archer,
and then make trial of the bow and conclude the contest."
So spoke Antinoos, and what he said found approval.
Now the heralds poured water over their hands, and youths
270
filled up the mixing-bowls with drink, poured drops
into the cups for libation, then served wine to all.
After they'd offered libations and drunk all they'd a mind to,
resourceful Odysseus addressed them, with deception in mind:
"Listen to me, you suitors of the illustrious queen,
275
to what the heart in my breast now urges me to tell you!
To Eurymachos most of all, and to godlike Antinoos
I appeal, since the latter got it right when he said
that for now you should put the bow by, let the gods decide--
In the morning the god will confer the power where he wishes!
280
But come, give the polished bow to me, that here among you
I may try out my hands and strength, see whether the force
is still there, as when my limbs were supple, or whether
by now lack of care and vagrancy have destroyed it."
So he spoke, and they all expressed high indignation,
285
afraid as they were that he might string the polished bow.
So Antinoos spoke in reproof, and addressed him, saying:
"Ah, wretched stranger, devoid of even the slightest sense!
Is it not enough for you that you dine at ease among us,
your betters, that you're barred from none of the feast, sit in
290
on all our conversation, when there's no other stranger
or beggar who gets to listen to everything we say?
It's the wine, the honey-sweet wine, that damages you, just as
it harms anyone who swills it, who drinks to excess! It was wine
that infatuated the Centaur, far-famed Eurytion,
295
in the hall of great-hearted Peirithoos, when he went
to visit the Lapiths: there, wits fuddled with wine,
in his madness he wrought evil in Peirithoos' house.8
Outraged, the heroes sprang on him, dragged him outside
through the forecourt, cut off his ears and nose
300
with the pitiless bronze; and he, now stupefied in mind,
went about with his unstable spirit bearing that fatal burden.
Hence sprang the feud between the Centaurs and mankind;
but he first for himself met trouble, when heavy with wine.
And for you I foresee great misery should you indeed
305
bend and string this bow: you'll find no courtesy here
in our district--we'll send you straight off in a black ship
to King Echetos, maimer of all mortal men alive,9
from whom you would have no escape. So now sit quiet,
drink your wine, don't contend with men younger than yourself."
310
Prudent Penelope responded to him, saying: "It's neither
decent nor just, Antinoos, to deprive Telemachos' guests
--whoever may come to the house here--of their proper due!
Do you expect, if this stranger, trusting his hands and strength,
strings the great bow of Odysseus, that he'll then take me
315
off to his home, and make me his bedfellow? I'm sure
that he himself now nurses no such expectation!
So none of you need to worry on that account, or let it
spoil your appetite here: that indeed would be unseemly."
Eurymachos, Polybos' son, then responded to her, saying:
320
"Ikarios' daughter, prudent Penelope, we don't think
this man will make off with you--yes, that would be unseemly!--
but the gossip of men and women could embarrass us: some low
Achaian lout may well later start saying this kind of thing:
'Oh yes, far weaker men now are courting the bedfellow
325
of a faultless man--they can't even string his polished bow!
But some other fellow, a vagrant beggar, who turned up here
strung the bow easily, and shot clear through the iron.'
So men will talk, and this would be a reproach to us all."
Then prudent Penelope once more responded to him, saying:
330
"Eurymachos, no way can good report spread in public
about those who devour, and so dishonor, a nobleman's
household goods! Why make this, then, a matter for reproach?
The stranger's a very big fellow, and strongly built; he also
claims he's the son of a father of excellent ancestry.
335
So give him the polished bow now, and let's see what happens!
For this I'll declare to you, and it shall come to pass:
if he does string the bow, and Apollo lets him triumph,
I'll dress him in cloak and tunic, fine quality garments,
and give him a sharpened javelin, to ward off dogs and men,
340
and a double-edged sword, and sandals to strap on under
his feet, and send him wherever his heart and spirit dictate."
Then sagacious Telemachos responded to her, saying:
"There's not one Achaian, my mother, more entitled than myself
to give, or refuse, this bow to whomsoever I please--
345
not any of those who hold power here on rugged Ithake,
or lord it over the islands toward horse-pasturing Elis!
Of these none will thwart my will, even if I choose to make
an outright gift of the bow, for this stranger to carry off!
Into the house with you now, attend to your own tasks--
350
the loom and the distaff! And give orders to your handmaids
to stick to their proper work! The bow shall be men's business--
all men's, but mine above all: in this house I hold the power."
Astonished, Penelope went back into the house,
and took to heart her son's sagacious remarks.
355
she climbed to her upper chamber with her handmaids,
and there she wept for Odysseus, her dear husband, until
grey-eyed Athene shed sweet sleep upon her eyelids.
The noble swineherd now picked up the curved bow,
and was bearing it off; but the suitors all clamored in the hall,
360
and thus would one of the arrogant younger men exclaim:
"Where, wretched swineherd, are you taking that curved bow?
Are you crazy? The hunting dogs you bred yourself will soon
wolf you down, all alone among your pigs, if Apollo
looks kindly upon us--he, and the other immortal gods."
365
So they spoke. Right there he dropped the bow where he stood,
terrified: they were so many, the noise in the hall so loud.
But Telemachos shouted threateningly from the other side:
"Old fellow, keep on with the bow! Obey them, and you'll be sorry!
Though I'm younger than you I'll chase you out to the fields
370
with a shower of stones! At least I'm stronger than you!
I only wish I was tougher, and a better man with my fists,
than all the suitors arrayed here in these halls: then I'd
soon send some of them packing from our house
in a dire state, because of the trouble they make here."
375
So he spoke, but the suitors all laughed cheerfully at him,
forgetting the bitter resentment that they'd long nursed
against Telemachos. The swineherd carried the bow
through the hall to skillful Odysseus, placed it in his hands,
then summoned the nurse Eurykleia, and addressed her, saying:
380
"Orders for you from Telemachos, prudent Eurykleia:
you're to bar the close-fitted doors at the entrance to your quarters,
and if any of you hear groans or the thud of falling
men here within our walls, they're not to go out, but remain
just where they are, keep silent, and go on with their work."
385
So he spoke; but her answer remained unwinged. She went
and barred the doors of their pleasantly sited quarters,
while Philoitios said nothing, but hurried out of the house,
and barred the gates to the well-walled courtyard. Down
in the colonnade there lay coiled a shapely vessel's
390
fiber cable: with this he secured the gates, and himself
went back in, sat down on the chair from which he'd risen,
and watched Odysseus, who was already handling the bow,
kept turning it round, made trial of it this way and that,
to see if worms had eaten the horn in its master's absence;
395
and thus would an onlooker speak, with a glance at his neighbor:
"He must be a connoisseur, some kind of expert in bows!
Either he himself has such fine bows stored back home,
or else he intends to make one, the way he turns it about
this way and that--evildoer and vagrant that he is!"
400
And another of these haughty youths would speak up, saying:
"I wish just as much good fortune for this old fellow
as he's likely to get in the contest for stringing the bow."
Such was the talk of the suitors. But resourceful Odysseus,
as soon as he'd got his great bow and viewed it all over--
405
just as a man, a professional lyre player and singer,
will easily stretch the string around a new peg, secure
the twisted sheep gut at either end, so now
Odysseus without hard effort strung the great bow,
and took it in his right hand, and tested the string,
410
which sang good and high at his touch, like a swallow's voice.
The suitors were much distressed. The faces of them all
changed color. Zeus thundered loudly, making plain his signs,
and much-enduring noble Odysseus now rejoiced
that sly-counselling Kronos' son had sent him an omen.
415
He picked up the swift shaft that lay there on the table,
ready (the rest were still stored in their hollow quiver--
those arrows that the Achaians were soon to experience),
set it on the bow's hand grip, then--still seated
there in his chair--drew the string with the notched arrow,
420
took careful aim, and let fly. He did not miss one helve base
of all the axes: clean through and out at the end
flew his bronze-heavy shaft. He addressed Telemachos, saying:
"The stranger that sits in your hall, Telemachos, does you no
discredit: I neither missed the mark, nor spent
425
much labor on stringing the bow. My strength is still there--
not gone, as these suitors insult me by claiming so mockingly!
But now it's time to get dinner ready for the Achaians--
in daylight. And after that there's other entertainment,
songs and the lyre, the accompaniment to feasting."
430
Then godlike Odysseus signaled them with his eyebrows,
and his dear son Telemachos strapped on his keen-edged sword,10
and put out a hand to the spear, tipped with gleaming bronze,
that was standing close to him, propped up beside his chair.
Book 22
Now resourceful Odysseus stripped himself of his rags
and sprang up on the great threshold, taking the bow
and the shaft-packed quiver. He poured out the swift arrows
there at his feet, and addressed the suitors, saying:
"This contest's over, decisively ended; and now
5
I'll go for another target, reached by no man hitherto,
to see whether I can hit it, and Apollo grant me glory."
He spoke, and then aimed a bitter shaft at Antinoos,
who was on the point of raising an elegant cup to his lips--
golden, twin-eared--had it in his hands, was intending
10
to drink wine from it: in his mind was no thought of death.
For who amid fellow feasters would ever imagine
that one man, however strong, alone against many,
would contrive for him a bad death and black fate? But Odysseus
took aim and struck him in the throat with his arrow,
15
and clear through the tender neck the point was driven,
and he slumped to one side, the cup dropped from his hand
when he was hit, and up through his nostrils at once
came a thick spurt of human blood; a kick of his foot
sent the table flying, scattered all the food on the floor,
20
bread and roast meat in the dirt together. The suitors
made an uproar throughout the hall when they saw the man
fallen: sprang from their seats, panic-st