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Telemachus executes the unfaithful maids; Melanthios is tortured:
So he spoke, and and taking the cable of a dark-prowed ship,
fastened it to the tall pillar, and fetched it about the round-house;
and like thrushes, who spread their wings, or pigeons, who have
flown into a snare set up for them in a thicket, trying
to find a resting place, but the sleep given them was hateful;
so their heads were all in a line, and each had her neck caught
fast in a noose, so that their death would be most pitiful.
They struggled with their feet for a little, not for very long.
They took Melanthios along the porch and the courtyard.
They cut off, with the pitiless bronze, his nose and ears,
tore off his private parts and gave them to the dogs to feed on
raw, and lopped off his hands and feet, in fury of anger.
Then, after they had washed their own hands and feet clean,
they went into the house of Odysseus. Their work was ended. |
