Then fitted he an arrow to the bow, and drawing
it to the head, he sent it right to the mark which the prince had set up.
Which done, he said to Telemachus, "You have got no disgrace yet by your
guest, for I have struck the mark I shot at, and gave myself no such
trouble in teasing the bow with fat and fire as these men did, but have
made proof that my strength is not impaired, nor my age so weak and
contemptible as these were pleased to think it. But come, the day going
down calls us to supper, after which succeed poem and harp, and all
delights which use to crown princely banquetings."
So saying, he beckoned to his son, who straight girt his sword to his
side, and took one of the lances (of which there lay great store from the
armoury) in his hand, and armed at all points advanced towards his father.
The upper rags which Ulysses wore fell from his shoulder, and his own
kingly likeness returned, when he rushed to the great hall door with bow
and quiver full of shafts, which down at his feet he poured, and in bitter
words presignified his deadly intent to the suitors. "Thus far," he said,
"this contest has been decided harmless: now for us there rests another
mark, harder to hit, but which my hands shall essay notwithstanding, if
Phoebus, god of archers, be pleased to give me the mastery." With that he
let fly a deadly arrow at Antinous, which pierced him in the throat, as he
was in the act of lifting a cup of wine to his mouth. Amazement seized the
suitors, as their great champion fell dead, and they raged highly against
Ulysses, and said that it should prove the dearest shaft which he ever let
fly, for he had slain a man whose like breathed not in any part of the
kingdom; and they flew to their arms, and would have seized the lances,
but Minerva struck them with dimness of sight that they went erring up and
down the hall, not knowing where to find them.
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