Chapter 24 : The Odyssey / Rendered into English prose for…

Ulysses spends a sleepless night in the cloister lying upon a bullock hide and sheepskins while brooding over how to destroy the arrogant suitors. He becomes intensely angered as the unfaithful women of the household leave to lie with the suitors, but he checks his rage and commands his heart to endure as it did when the Cyclops trapped them. Minerva descends from heaven to comfort him and reassures him of her divine protection before returning to Olympus. Meanwhile, Penelope wakes in deep distress and prays tearfully to Diana to take her life or cast her into the sea so that she will not have to marry another man. As dawn breaks, Ulysses hears her weeping and asks Father Jove for a sign from heaven. Jove answers with a sudden thunderclap from a clear sky while a weary miller woman in the adjoining mill room voices a prayer that this may be the very last day the suitors dine in the house. Telemachus rises, dresses, girds his sword, and goes to the assembly after confirming that the stranger was properly accommodated. Euryclea rouses the servants to clean and prepare the hall for the expected feast day. Soon afterward, Eumaeus arrives with pigs, Melanthius the goatherd arrives with goats to taunt Ulysses, and Philoetius the stockman arrives with a heifer. Philoetius expresses deep loyalty and yearns for the return of his master Ulysses. Ulysses reassures Philoetius and swears by Jove and the hearth that he will soon see the master return to slay the suitors. While the suitors plot to murder Telemachus, an eagle carrying a dove appears on their left hand, leading Amphinomus to advise abandoning the plot in favor of dining. Telemachus seats Ulysses on a shabby stool in the stone-paved part of the cloister, giving him a portion of meat and wine in a gold cup and warning the suitors to keep their hands and tongues to themselves. Ctesippus mocks this hospitality by throwing an ox foot at Ulysses, who dodges it with a grim smile as it strikes the wall. Telemachus fiercely rebukes Ctesippus and declares that he would run him through with a spear if the missile had struck its target. Agelaus attempts to calm the tension by advising Telemachus to urge his mother to marry the best suitor, but Telemachus insists he will not force her against her will. Minerva then inflicts a fit of helpless, forced laughter upon the suitors, causing their meat to drip with blood and their eyes to fill with tears. The prophet Theoclymenus observes this horrific vision and warns them that the walls drip with blood and the court is full of ghosts hurrying down to hell. Eurymachus mocks the prophet as a madman and suggests turning him out into the streets, prompting Theoclymenus to leave the house voluntarily while predicting swift doom for everyone inside.