too is involved in the net, he knew the wrong,
yet remained the chaplain of that godless company.

Two, however, are saved, the guiltless. The bard, who "sings for Gods
and men" is spared, because he sang "by necessity for the Suitors, and
not for sake of gain;" also Telemachus intercedes for the herald Medon,
who "took care of me as a child," a beautiful gleam on this ghastly
scene. From Ulysses, however, we hear the moral of the event
proclaimed, which the reader may take unto himself: "From this thou
mayst know and tell to another how much better well-doing is than
evil-doing." So speaks the slayer over these corpses, which utterance
we may at least regard as an attempt of the poet once more to enforce
the ethical purpose of his work. Not a single living Suitor or
attendant can be found skulking anywhere, and none have escaped.

II. Having completed his task in regard to the guilty men, Ulysses now
turns his attention toward the guilty women of his household. For this
purpose Eurycleia is called, and is brought to him; when she sees the
deadly work, she shouts for joy. Ulysses restrains her: "It is an
unholy thing to exult over the slain." Here again the ethical nature of
this act is emphasized: "The decree of the Gods and their own evil
deeds overwhelmed these men; they paid respect to no human being, high
or low, who approached them." Yet there are modern writers who can see
no ethical purpose in the Odyssey.

Eurycleia gives her report: out of fifty serving maids in the palace,
"twelve have mounted the car of shamelessness." These latter are now
called, are compelled to carry out the dead (among whom are their
lovers), and to make clean the place of slaughter. Then they are led
out and hung: such was the ancient fate of the prostitute in the
household.

A still harsher and more ignoble punishment awaits the goatherd
Melanthius, a cruel mutilation is inflicted upon him, horrible to the
last degree, but it grades his punishment according to his offense. A
fumigation with sulphur we find here, as old as Homer. Then all the
rest of the handmaids are summoned along with Penelope, to witness the
deed and to see the hero.

Such is this terrible Book in which destruction is fully meted out to
destroyers. According to our count 129 people are here dead, all of
them guilty. A doomsday spectacle for that household, and for all
readers and hearers since; it shows the return of the deed negatively
upon the negative doer