The Odyssey Book XXII Lines 1-44
Translated by Samuel Butler. Source: cla**ics.mit.edu http://cla**ics.mit.edu/Homer/odyssey.20.xx.html
This is the pa**age when Odysseus (Ulysses) reveals his identity to the suitors and to his servants. It is the beginning of the ma**acre when he and those he trusts (Eumaeus, the cowherd, and Telemachus), along with the goddess Athena, destroy the suitors and any of the traitors in Odysseus' staff. The story of how terrible the suitors were was seen very often throughout the entire epic. They plotted to k** Telemachus, hoped that Odysseus was dead, and tried to force his wife Penelope to marry one of them. Despite all of this, Penelope, Telemachus, and the servants showed unending hospitality by providing them with food and any other necessities. Throughout the text, the theme showing the importance of being a good guest has foreshadowed that the suitors would suffer greatly for taking advantage of the hospitality they received. This point in the epic is nearly a moment of catharsis for the reader as well as Odysseus, because the suitors are finally getting what they deserve. This is a great pa**age because it displays many of the important themes seen in the epic, including revenge, reliance upon the gods, and bravery. It is also the final end of Odysseus' journey, as he is officially home and no longer hiding his identity.
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Then Ulysses tore off his rags, and sprang on to the broad pavement with his bow and his quiver full of arrows. He shed the arrows on to the ground at his feet and said, "The mighty contest is at an end. I will now see whether Apollo will vouchsafe it to me to hit another mark which no man has yet hit."
On this he aimed a deadly arrow at Antinous, who was about to take up a two-handled gold cup to drink his wine and already had it in his hands. He had no thought of d**h- who amongst all the revellers would think that one man, however brave, would stand alone among so many and k** him? The arrow struck Antinous in the throat, and the point went clean through his neck, so that he fell over and the cup dropped from his hand, while a thick stream of blood gushed from his nostrils. He kicked the table from him and upset the things on it, so that the bread and roasted meats were all soiled as they fell over on to the ground. The suitors were in an uproar when they saw that a man had been hit; they sprang in dismay one and all of them from their seats and looked everywhere towards the walls, but there was neither shield nor spear, and they rebuked Ulysses very angrily. "Stranger," said they, "you shall pay for shooting people in this way: om yi you shall see no other contest; you are a doomed man; he whom you have slain was the foremost youth in Ithaca, and the vultures shall devour you for having k**ed him."
Thus they spoke, for they thought that he had k**ed Antinous by mistake, and did not perceive that d**h was hanging over the head of every one of them. But Ulysses glared at them and said:
"Dogs, did you think that I should not come back from Troy? You have wasted my substance, have forced my women servants to lie with you, and have wooed my wife while I was still living. You have feared neither God nor man, and now you shall die."
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