The Odyssey, Page 51

  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

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  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

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  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,

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  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,

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  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."

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  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

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  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

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  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

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  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,

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  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!

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  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,

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  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

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  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,

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  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

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  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

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  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."

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  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

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  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:

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  "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

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  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:

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  "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.

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  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,

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  and a double-edged sword, and sandals to strap on under

  his feet, and send him wherever his heart and spirit dictate."

  Then sagac
ious 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--

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  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--

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  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.

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  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,

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  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."

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  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

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  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."

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  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:

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  "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."

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  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

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  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;

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  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!"

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  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--

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  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,

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  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.

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  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,

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  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

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  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."

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  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.

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  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

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  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

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  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,

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  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,

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  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-stricken, in the hall,