These (every table cleansed, and every throne,

And all the melancholy labour done)

Drive to yon court, without the palace wall,

There the revenging sword shall smite them all;

So with the suitors let them mix in dust,

Stretch’d in a long oblivion of their lust.”

He said: the lamentable train appear,

Each vents a groan, and drops a tender tear;

Each heaved her mournful burden, and beneath

The porch deposed the ghastly heap of death.

The chief severe, compelling each to move,

Urged the dire task imperious from above;

With thirsty sponge they rub the tables o’er

(The swains unite their toil); the walls, the floor,

Wash’d with the effusive wave, are purged of gore.

Once more the palace set in fair array,

To the base court the females take their way;

There compass’d close between the dome and wall

(Their life’s last scene) they trembling wait their fall.


Then thus the prince: “To these shall we afford

A fate so pure as by the martial sword?

To these, the nightly prostitutes to shame,

And base revilers of our house and name?”


Thus speaking, on the circling wall he strung

A ship’s tough cable from a column hung;

Near the high top he strain’d it strongly round,

Whence no contending foot could reach the ground.

Their heads above connected in a row,

They beat the air with quivering feet below:

Thus on some tree hung struggling in the snare,

The doves or thrushes flap their wings in air.

Soon fled the soul impure, and left behind

The empty corse to waver with the wind.


Then forth they led Melanthius, and began

Their bloody work; they lopp’d away the man,

Morsel for dogs! then trimm’d with brazen shears

The wretch, and shorten’d of his nose and ears;

His hands and feet last felt the cruel steel:

He roar’d, and torments gave his soul to hell.

They wash, and to Ulysses take their way:

So ends the bloody business of the day.


To Euryclea then address’d the king: