Homer's Odyssey, Book 22

“Now stripping back his rags Odysseus master of craft and battle vaulted onto the great threshold, gripping his bow and quiver bristling arrows, and poured his flashing shafts before him, loose at his feet, and thundered out to all the suitors: ‘Look — your crucial test is finished, now, at last! But another target's left that no one's hit before — we'll see if I can hit it — Apollo give me glory!’”

Art: Thomas Degeorge, Ulysses and Telemachus slay the suitors (1812).

The bow is strung. The shot is fired. And now, it’s all about justice. In one thunderous moment, Odysseus reveals himself and the killing begins. The suitors mocked and abused the custom of hospitality for so long, and the lesson here is that the time for mercy has passed. Those who remained loyal stand shoulder to shoulder to reclaim their home: Odysseus, Telemachus, Eumaeus, and Philoetius. And Odysseus’s vengeance is brutal and swift. But this isn’t mindless vengeance—Odysseus is avenging the wrongs against his household, and justice has long been denied. He takes back what’s his with unwavering resolve. Boundaries matter. Honor matters. He owns his moment. This is war: against injustice, against betrayal, and more importantly, for the future of Ithaca. In many ways, it’s the final scene of the war in Troy, and as the treacherous suitors die in a bloodbath that echoes the Illiad, and at the hands of the long-lost king of Ithaca, the old conflict is comes full circle. Odysseus reclaims his rightful place at the helm of Ithaca. But the journey is not yet at an end…