teous law, and I was but the
instrument of divine vengeance. Tell me now which of the women in the
house have dishonoured me, and which of them be blameless."

"Behold I will tell thee all the truth," answered the nurse; "fifty
women there are in all in thy house, that card the wool and bear the
yoke of bondage. And of these twelve have been faithless, honouring
neither me nor Penelope, their mistress. But now let me go and tell
the news to thy wife, who all this time has been lying in a deep
sleep."

"Rouse her not yet," said Odysseus, "but go quickly and send those
guilty women hither."

While Eurycleia was gone to summon the maid-servants, Telemachus and
the two herdsmen began, by the command of Odysseus, to set the hall in
order, and wash away the traces of slaughter. Presently, with loud
weeping and lamentation, the wretched women entered, and were
compelled to assist in the horrid task. The bodies of the slain were
carried out, and laid in order along the wall of the courtyard. Then
they washed and scoured the tables, and scraped the floor with spades;
and when all was ready Odysseus bade his son and the two others to
drive the women forth, and slay them with the edge of the sword. So
these three drove them into a corner of the courtyard, and Eumaeus and
Philoetius drew their swords to slay them. But Telemachus held them
back saying: "Let them die in shame, even as they have lived." So they
took a long ship's cable, which was lying in an outhouse, and
stretched it across an angle of the wall; to this they attached twelve
nooses, and left the women hanging there by the neck until they were
dead.

A horrid death was reserved for the traitor Melanthius. Dragging him
out into the courtyard, they cut off his nose and ears, and his hands
and feet, and so left him to die.

After that they washed themselves and went back to the hall. Then
Odysseus bade Eurycleia kindle a fire, and bring sulphur to purify the
chamber. And having thoroughly cleansed the house from the fumes of
slaughter, he sat down to wait for the coming of his wife.

Odysseus and Penelope

I

Her face beaming with joy, and her feet stumbling over one another in
their haste, Eurycleia ascended to the chamber where Penelope lay
sleeping. "Awake, Penelope, awake!" she cried, standing by the
bedside; "come and see with thine own eyes the fulfilment of all thy
hopes. Odysseus has come home at last, and all the wooers lie slain by
his hand!"