Whom Mentor, after all his airy vaunts
Hath left, and at the portal now remain
Themselves alone. Dismiss not therefore, all,
Your spears together, but with six alone
Assail them first; Jove willing, we shall pierce
Ulysses, and subduing him, shall slay
With ease the rest; their force is safely scorn’d.
Together; but Minerva gave them all
A devious flight; one struck a column, one
The planks of the broad portal, and a third
Flung right his ashen beam pond’rous with brass
Against the wall. The (ev’ry suitor’s spear
Eluded) thus Ulysses gave the word—
Your spears at them, who, not content with past
Enormities, thirst also for our blood.
Their glitt’ring spears. Ulysses on the ground
Stretch’d Demoptolemus; Euryades
Fell by Telemachus; the swine-herd slew
Elatus; and the keeper of the beeves
Pisander; in one moment all alike
Lay grinding with their teeth the dusty floor.
Back flew the suitors to the farthest wall,
On whom those valiant four advancing each
Recover’d quick, his weapon from the dead.
Then hurl’d the desp’rate suitors yet again
Their glitt’ring spears, but Pallas gave to each
A frustrate course; one struck a column, one
The planks of the broad portal, and a third
Flung full his ashen beam against the wall.
Yet pierced Amphimedon the Prince’s wrist,
But slightly, a skin-wound, and o’er his shield
Ctesippus reach’d the shoulder of the good
Eumæus, but his glancing weapon swift
O’erflew the mark, and fell. And now the four,
Ulysses, dauntles Hero, and his friends
All hurl’d their spears together in return,
Himself Ulysses, city-waster Chief,
Wounded Eurydamas; Ulysses’ son
Amphimedon; the swine-herd Polybus;
And in his breast the keeper of the beeves
Ctesippus, glorying over whom, he cried.
Hath been to taunt and jeer, never again
Boast foolishly, but to the Gods commit
Thy tongue, since they are mightier far than thou,
Take this—a compensation for thy pledge
Of hospitality, the huge ox-hoof,
Which while he roam’d the palace, begging alms,
Ulysses at thy bounteous hand received.
Ulysses pierced Damastor’s son, and, next,
Telemachus, enforcing his long beam
Sheer through his bowels and his back, transpierced
Leiocritus; he prostrate smote the floor.
Then, Pallas from the lofty roof held forth
Her host-confounding Ægis o’er their heads,
With’ring their souls with fear. They through the hall
Fled, scatter’d as an herd, which rapid-wing’d
The gad-fly dissipates, infester fell
Of beeves, when vernal suns shine hot and long.
But, as when bow-beak’d vultures crooked- claw’d
Stoop from the mountains on the smaller fowl;
Terrified at the toils that spread the plain
The flocks take wing, they, darting from above,
Strike, seize, and slay, resistance or escape
Is none, the flower’s heart leaps with delight,
So they, pursuing through the spacious hall
The suitors, smote them on all sides, their heads
Sounded beneath the sword, with hideous groans
The palace rang, and the floor foamed with blood.
Then flew Leiodes to Ulysses’ knees,
Which clasping, in wing’d accents thus he cried.
My suit, and spare me! Never have I word
Injurious spoken, or injurious deed
Atempted ’gainst the women of thy house,
But others, so transgressing, oft forbad.
Yet they abstain’d not, and a dreadful fate
Due to their wickedness have, therefore, found.
But I, their soothsayer alone, must fall,
Though unoffending; such is the return
By mortals made for benefits received!
Is that thy boast? Hast thou indeed for these
The seer’s high office fill’d? Then, doubtless, oft
Thy pray’r hath been that distant far might prove
The day delectable of my return,
And that my consort might thy own become
To bear thee children; wherefore thee I doom
To a dire death which thou shalt not avoid.
Which Agelaü had let fall, and smote
Leiodes, while he kneel’d, athwart his neck
So suddenly, that ere his tongue had ceased
To plead for life, his head was in the dust.
But Phemius, son of Terpius, bard divine,
Who, through compulsion, with his song regaled
The suitors, a like dreadful death escaped.
Fast by the postern, harp in hand, he stood,
Doubtful if, issuing, he should take his seat
Beside the altar of Hercæan Jove,
Where oft Ulysses offer’d, and his sire,
Fat things of
| Previous chapter/page | Back | Home | Email this | Search | Discuss | Bookmark | Next chapter/page |