Mythology, Greek -- Juvenile literature; Mythology, Roman -- Juvenile literature
Then said Eurymachus to his comrades, “This man will not stay his
hands. He will smite us all with his arrows where he stands. But let us
win the door, and raise a cry in the city; soon then will this archer
have shot his last.”
And he rushed on, with his two-edged knife in his hand. But as he
rushed, Ulysses smote him on the breast with an arrow, and he fell
forwards. And when Amphinomus came on, Telemachus slew him with his
spear, but drew not the spear from the body, lest some one should smite
him unawares.
Then he ran to his father and said, “Shall I fetch arms for us and our
helpers?”
“Yea,” said he, “and tarry not, lest my arrows be spent.”
So he fetched from the armory four shields and four helmets and
eight spears. And he and the servants, Eumæus and Philætius, armed
themselves. Also Ulysses, when his arrows were spent, donned helmet
and shield, and took a mighty spear in each hand. But Melanthius, the
goatherd, crept up to the armory and brought down therefrom twelve
helmets and shields, and spears as many. And when Ulysses saw that the
suitors were arming themselves, he feared greatly, and said to his
son,--
“There is treachery here. It is one of the women, or, it may be,
Melanthius, the goatherd.”
And Telemachus said, “This fault is mine, my father, for I left the
door of the chamber unfastened.”
And soon Eumæus spied Melanthius stealing up to the chamber again, and
followed him, and Philætius with him. There they caught him, even as
he took a helmet in one hand and a shield in the other, and bound his
feet and hands, and fastened him aloft by a rope to the beams of the
ceiling.
Then these two went back to the hall, and there also came Athené having
the shape of Mentor. Still, for she would yet further try the courage
of Ulysses and his son, she helped them not as yet, but changing her
shape, sat on the roof-beam like unto a swallow.
And then cried Agelaüs, “Friends, Mentor is gone, and helps them not.
Let us not cast our spears at random, but let six come on together, if
perchance we may prevail against them.”
Then they cast their spears, but Athené turned them aside, one to the
pillar and another to the door and another to the wall. But Ulysses and
Telemachus and the two herdsmen slew each his man; and yet again they
did so, and again. Only Amphimedon wounded Telemachus, and Ctesippus
grazed the shoulder of Eumæus. But Telemachus struck down Amphimedon,
and the herdsman of the kine slew Ctesippus, saying, “Take this, for
the ox foot which thou gavest to our guest.” And all the while Athené
waved her flaming ægis-shield from above, and the suitors fell as birds
are scattered and torn by eagles.
Then Leiodes, the priest, made supplication to Ulysses, saying, “I
never wrought evil in this house, and would have kept others from
it, but they would not. Nought have I done save serve at the altar;
wherefore slay me not.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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