“O Ulysses! Ulysses!” cried Penelope, falling, fainting into the arms of the old nurse.
The suitors were speechless with amazement. Then in the wildest alarm they turned and tried to escape from the hall. But the arrows of Ulysses were swift and sure, and not one missed its mark. “Now I avenge myself upon those who have eaten up my substance and would destroy my home!” cried the hero.
Twang!Went the bow; and Antinous, the insolent, fell headlong upon the threshold of the palace. Twang! Went the bow; and Agelaus in his silken robes rolled in the dust. Twang! Went the bow; and all the wealth of Leocritus availed him nothing. And thus, one after another, the lawless suitors perished—slain by the wrath of the hero whom they had wronged.
The next day as Ulysses sat in the great hall with his queenly wife and his noble son Telemachus and the joyful men and maidens of his household, he told the story of his long wanderings over the sea. And Penelope, in turn, related how she had faithfully kept the kingdom for him, as she had promised, though beset by insolent and wicked suitors. Then she brought from her chamber a roll of soft, white cloth of wonderful fineness and beauty, and said, “This is the web, Ulysses. I promised that on the day of its completion I would choose a husband; and I choose you.”