With that word he tied the cable of a dark-prowed
ship to a great pillar and flung it round the vaulted
room, and fastened it aloft, that none might touch
the ground with her feet. And even as when thrushes,
long of wing, or doves fall into a net that is set
in a thicket, as they seek to their roosting-place,
and a loathly bed harbours them, even so the women
held their heads all in a row, and about all their
necks nooses were cast, that they might die by the
most pitiful death. And they writhed with their
feet for a little space, but for no long while.
Then they led out Melanthius through the doorway and
the court, and cut off his nostrils and his ears with
the pitiless sword, and drew forth his vitals for
the dogs to devour raw, and cut off his hands and
feet in their cruel anger.
Thereafter they washed their hands and feet, and went
into the house to Odysseus, and all the adventure
was over. So Odysseus called to the good nurse
Eurycleia: ’Bring sulphur, old nurse, that
cleanses all pollution and bring me fire, that I may
purify the house with sulphur, and do thou bid Penelope
come here with her handmaidens, and tell all the women
to hasten into the hall.’
Then the good nurse Eurycleia made answer: ’Yea,
my child, herein thou hast spoken aright. But
go to, let me bring thee a mantle and a doublet for
raiment, and stand not thus in the halls with thy
broad shoulders wrapped in rags; it were blame in
thee so to do.’
And Odysseus of many counsels answered her saying:
’First let a fire now be made me in the hall.’
So he spake, and the good nurse Eurycleia was not
slow to obey, but brought fire and brimstone; and
Odysseus thoroughly purged the women’s chamber
and the great hall and the court.
Then the old wife went through the fair halls of Odysseus
to tell the women, and to hasten their coming.
So they came forth from their chamber with torches
in their hands, and fell about Odysseus, and embraced
him and kissed and clasped his head and shoulders
and his hands lovingly, and a sweet longing came on
him to weep and moan, for he remembered them every
one.
Odysseus maketh himself known to Penelope,
tells his
adventures briefly, and in the morning
goes to Laertes
and makes himself known to him.
Then the ancient woman went up into the upper chamber
laughing aloud, to tell her mistress how her dear lord
was within, and her knees moved fast for joy, and
her feet stumbled one over the other; and she stood
above the lady’s head and spake to her, saying:
’Awake, Penelope, dear child, that thou mayest
see with thine own eyes that which thou desirest day
by day. Odysseus hath come, and hath got him
to his own house, though late hath he come, and hath
slain the proud wooers that troubled his house, and
devoured his substance, and oppressed his child.’
