Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE ODYSSEY: BOOKS 21-22. THE SLAYING, by HOMER


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THE ODYSSEY: BOOKS 21-22. THE SLAYING, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: So he spake, and all the wooers laughed on him pleasantly
Last Line: So spake, and the bitter shaft on antinous then he turned.
Subject(s): Mythology - Classical


SO he spake, and all the Wooers laughed on him pleasantly,
And their bitter wrath against him they laid aside withal.
And in that while the swineherd bare the bow adown the hall,
And drawing anear to Odysseus in his hands the weapons laid.
Then he called forth the nurse, Euryclea, and spake to her and said:
'Euryclea, thou the heart-wise, Telemachus biddeth thee
That the hall-doors closely-fitting thou shut and lock with a key;
And if any hear a groaning, or the noise of men and the din
Amidst our walls, in nowise go ye outdoors from within,
But there abide in silence beside the work ye speed.'
So he spake; and his word was wingless and abode with her for her heed,
And she locked with a key the doors of the halls of the lovely stead.
And silently forth from the house meanwhile had Philoetius sped,
And therewith he bolted the gate of the well-walled forecourt there;
But there lay beneath the cloister a curved ship's mooring-gear,
A flax-wrought rope, and therewith he bound o'er the gate of the close,
And then gat him aback and sat down on the bench whence he erewhile arose,
And set his eyes on Odysseus, who as now the great bow bare,
And was turning it over on all sides, and trying it here and there,
Lest the worms its horn should have eaten while long was its master away,
And one would be eyeing his neighbour, and thuswise would he say:
'Lo here, a lover of bows, one cunning in archery!
Or belike in his house at home e'en such-like gear doth lie;
Or e'en such an one is he minded to fashion, since handling it still,
He turneth it o'er, this gangrel, this crafty one of ill!'
And then would another be saying of those younglings haughty and high:
'E'en so soon and so great a measure of gain may be come by
As he may now accomplish the bending of the bow.'
So the Wooers spake; but Odysseus, that many a rede did know,
When the great bow he had handled, and eyed it about and along,
Then straight, as a man well learned in the lyre and the song,
On a new pin lightly stretcheth the cord, and maketh fast,
From side to side the sheep-gut well-twined and overcast:
So the mighty bow he bended with no whit of labouring,
And caught it up in his right hand, and fell to try the string,
That 'neath his hand sang lovely as a swallow's voice is fair.
But great grief fell on the Wooers, and their skin changed colour there,
And mightily Zeus thundered, and made manifest a sign;
And thereat rejoiced Odysseus, the toil-stout man divine,
At that sign of the Son of Cronus, the crooked-counselled Lord;
And he caught up a swift arrow that lay bare upon the board,
Since in the hollow quiver as yet the others lay,
Which those men of the Achaeans should taste ere long that day,
And he laid it on the bow-bridge, and the nock and the string he drew,
And thence from his seat on the settle he shot a shaft that flew
Straight-aimed, and of all the axes missed not a single head,
From the first ring: through and through them, and out at the last it sped
The brass-shod shaft; and therewith to Telemachus spake he:
'The guest in thine halls a-sitting in nowise shameth thee,
Telemachus. I missed not thy mark, nor overlong
Toiled I the bow a-bending; stark yet am I and strong.
Forsooth, the Wooers that shamed me no more may make me scorn!
But now for these Achaeans is the hour and the season born
To dight the feast in the daylight, and otherwise to be fain
With the song and the harp thereafter that crown the banquet's gain.'
So he spake; and with bent brow nodded, and Telemachus the lord,
Dear son of the godlike Odysseus, girt on his whetted sword;
His dear hand gripped the spear-shaft, and his father's side anear,
He stood by the high-seat crested with the gleaming brazen gear.
But Odysseus of many a rede of his rags he stripped him bare,
And on the great threshold he leapt, and the bow, and the quiver fair
Fulfilled of arrows he handled, and all the shafts to the ground
Before his feet then poured he, and spake to those Wooers around:
'Thuswise then is accomplished the strife so hard to do;
Now another mark will I loose at that no man hath hit hitherto,
If I perchance may attain it, and so fame of Apollo be earned.'
So spake, and the bitter shaft on Antinous then he turned.





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