The suitors now aimed a second
time, but again Athena made their weapons for the most part without
effect. One hit a bearing-post of the room; another went against the
door; while the pointed shaft of another struck the wall. Still,
Amphimedon just took a piece of the top skin from off
Telemakhos’ wrist, and Ktesippos managed to graze Eumaios’
shoulder above his shield; but the spear went on and fell to the
ground. Then Odysseus and his men let drive into the crowd of
suitors. Odysseus hit Eurydamas, Telemakhos Amphimedon, and Eumaios
Polybos. After this the stockman hit Ktesippos in the breast, and
taunted him saying, "Foul-mouthed son of Polytherses, do not be so
foolish as to talk wickedly another time, but let heaven direct your
speech, for the gods are far stronger than men. I make you a present
of this advice to repay you for the foot which you gave Odysseus when
he was begging about in his own house."
Thus spoke the stockman, and
Odysseus struck the son of Damastor with a spear in close fight,
while Telemakhos hit Leiokritos son of Euenor in the belly, and the
dart went clean through him, so that he fell forward full on his face
upon the ground. Then Athena from her seat on the rafter held up her
deadly aegis, and the hearts of the suitors quailed. They fled to the
other end of the court like a herd of cattle maddened by the gadfly
in early summer [hôra] when the days are at
their longest. As eagle-beaked, crook-taloned vultures from the
mountains swoop down on the smaller birds that cower in flocks upon
the ground, and kill them, for they cannot either fight or flee, and
lookers on enjoy the sport - even so did Odysseus and his men fall
upon the suitors and smite them on every side. They made a horrible
groaning as their brains were being battered in, and the ground
seethed with their blood.
Leiodes then caught the knees of
Odysseus and said, "Odysseus I beseech you have mercy upon me and
spare me. I never wronged any of the women in your house either in
word or deed, and I tried to stop the others. I saw them, but they
would not listen, and now they are paying for their folly. I was
their sacrificing priest; if you kill me, I shall die without having
done anything to deserve it, and shall have got no thanks
[kharis] for all the good that I did."
Odysseus looked sternly at him
and answered, "If you were their sacrificing priest, you must have
prayed many a time that it might be long before I got home again
[nostos], and that you might marry my wife and have
children by her. Therefore you shall die."
Homer. The Odyssey. Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original. Samuel Butler. Based on public domain edition, revised by Timothy Power and Gregory Nagy. A. C. Fifield, London. 1900 (?).
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