Book XXIV

the fraud deceived The Grecian youths; but when the hours had brought The fourth year round, a woman who knew all Revealed the mystery, and we ourselves Saw her unravelling the ample web. Thenceforth constrained, and with unwilling hands, She finished it. And when at length she showed The vesture she had woven, the broad web That she had bleached to brightness like the sun’s Or like the moon’s, some hostile deity Brought back Ulysses to a distant nook Of his own fields, and to his swineherd’s lodge. And thither also came in his black ship His son, returning from the sandy coast Of Pylos. Thence the twain, when they had planned To slay the suitors, came within the walls Of the great city; first Telemachus, And after him Ulysses, with his guide The swineherd. He was clad in sordid weeds, And seemed a wretched beggar, very old, Propped on a staff. In that disguise of rags None knew him, as he suddenly appeared, Not even the oldest of us all. Harsh words And blows we gave him. He endured them all Awhile with patience, smitten and reviled In his own palace. Moved at length by Jove, He and his son Telemachus bore off The shining weapons from the hall, to lie In a far chamber, and barred all the doors. Then, prompted by her husband’s craft, the queen Proposed a game of archery, with bow And rings of hoary steel, to all of us Ill-fated suitors. This drew on our death. Not one of us could bend that sturdy bow, None had the strength. But as it passed from us Into Ulysses’ hands, we loudly chid The bearer, and forbade him, but in vain. Telemachus alone with stern command Bade him deliver it. When in his hands The much-enduring chief, Ulysses, took The bow, he drew the string with ease, and sent A shaft through all the rings. He sprang and stood Upon the threshold; at his feet he poured The winged arrows, cast a terrible glance Around him, and laid King Antinoüs dead, Then sent the fatal shafts at those who stood Before him; side by side they fell and died. Some god, we saw, was with them, as they rushed Upon us mightily, and chased us through The palace, slaying us on every side; And fearful were the groans of dying men, As skulls were cloven, and the pavement swam With blood. Such, Agamemnon, was the