Book 22 of 24
Book 22: The killing of the suitors
The Killing of the Suitors—the Maids Who Have Misconducted Themselves Are Made to Cleanse the Cloisters and Are Then Hanged.
Odysseus throws off his rags and shoots Antinous. He then kills the other suitors with the help of Telemachus, Eumaeus, Philoetius and Athena. He spares only the bard and the herald.
Afterwards the maids who slept with the suitors are made to clean the hall, and then are hanged. The goatherd Melanthius, who helped the suitors, is mutilated. Many readers find these scenes hard, and we report them as the text gives them.