The queen meanwhile has bethought her of a new device, to put off yet awhile the evil day in which she must at length make her choice amongst her importunate14 lovers. She unlocks an inner chamber15 where the treasures of the house are stored, and draws from its case Ulysses’ bow, the gift of his dead friend Iphitus, which he had not taken with him to Troy. Before she carries it down, she lays it fondly on her knees, and weeps as she thinks of its absent master. One cunning feat16 she remembers which her hero was wont17 to perform—to drive an arrow straight through the hollow rings of twelve axe-heads set up in a line. Whichsoever of her suitors can bend the strong bow, and send a shaft18 right through the whole row of twelve, like the lost Ulysses, that man she will follow, however reluctantly, as her future lord. She has more than a lingering hope, we may be sure, that one and all will fail in a trial so manifestly difficult. They would refuse the ordeal19, but for Antinous. Confident in his own powers, he hopes to succeed—he knows the rest will fail. They, out of shame, accept the test. Telemachus himself fixes the weapons firmly in the earth in a true and even line, a task in itself of no small difficulty, but which he performs with such skill as to win the admiration20 of the whole party. He claims the right to make trial first himself, in the hope to prove himself his father’s true son. Thrice he draws the bow-string, but not yet to its right extent. As he is making a fourth{v.ii-111} attempt, sanguine21 of success, he meets a look from his father which checks his hand. Ulysses foresees that should his son succeed where the others fail, and so claim what they are really seeking, the royal power of Ithaca, the whole band might suddenly unite against him, and so frustrate22 his present scheme of vengeance23. Reluctantly, at his father’s sign, the youth lays down the bow, and professes24 to lament25 the weakness of his degenerate26 hand. One after another the rival princes in turn strive to bend it, but in vain; even Antinous and Eurymachus, notably27 the best among them, fail to move the string, though the bow is warmed by the fire and rubbed well with melted fat to make it more pliable28. Antinous finds plausible29 excuse for the failure—they have profaned30 the festival of Apollo by this contest; it shall be renewed under better auspices31 on the morrow. Then the seeming beggar (who meanwhile has made himself known as their true lord to Eum?us and another faithful retainer, the herdsman Phil?tius) makes request that he may try his hand upon this wondrous32 bow. Loud and coarse is the abuse which Antinous and his fellows shower upon him for his audacity33; but Telemachus exerts the authority in his mother’s house which his uninvited guests seem never quite to make up their minds to dispute when it is firmly claimed, and the weapon is given into the hands of its true owner. He handles it gently and lovingly, turning it over and over to see whether it has in any way suffered by time or decay, and brings notes from the tight-strained bow-string, “shrill and sweet as the voice of the swallow.” At last he fits an arrow to the notch34, and, not{v.ii-112} deigning35 even to rise from his seat to make the effort, draws it to its full stretch, and sends the shaft right through the whole line of axe-heads. It is the immediate36 prelude37 to the bloody38 tragedy which follows—
“‘Behold, the mark is hit,
Upon me, and my bones are stourly knit—
Not as the suitors mock me in their scornful wit.
“‘Now is it time their evening meal to set
Before the Achaians, ere the sun go down.
And other entertainment shall come yet,
Dance and the song, which are the banquet’s crown.’
Seizing his sword and spear Telemachus came,
“Stript of his rags then leapt the godlike king
On the great threshold, in his hand the bow
And quiver, filled with arrows of mortal sting.
Loose at his feet, and spake among them so:
Now for another mark, that I may know
If I can hit what none hath hit before,
And if Apollo hear me in the prayer I pour!’”
The philosopher Plato, who did not spare the poet occasionally, in his criticisms, speaks of this passage as worthy48 of all admiration. We have here the primitive49 type, since worked out into countless50 shapes, of the “situations” and “discoveries” which abound51 in modern romance and drama.
Ulysses aims the first arrow at Antinous. It pierces him in the throat as he is raising a goblet52 to his lips, and{v.ii-113} he falls backward in the agonies of death, spilling the untasted wine upon the floor; thus giving occasion (so says Greek tradition) to that which has now become a common English proverb—“There’s many a slip ’twixt the cup and the lip.”[42] His comrades stand aghast for a moment, not certain whether the shot be deliberate or merely accidental. Ulysses sets them at rest on that point by declaring himself and his purpose. They look round the hall for the arms which usually hang upon the walls, but these have been secretly removed during the previous night by Ulysses and his son. Eurymachus, who has more plausible rhetoric54 at his command than the others, now endeavours to make terms. Antinous, he confesses, has well deserved his fate—he had plotted against the life of Telemachus; but for himself and the rest, now that the king has come to his own again, they will submit themselves, and pay such fine as shall amply satisfy him for the despoiling55 of his goods. Ulysses scornfully rejects all such compromise. Then, at Eurymachus’ call, the boldest of the party draw their knives and make a rush upon him. But a second arrow from the terrible bow strikes Eurymachus through the breast before he reaches him; Amphinomus falls by the spear of Telemachus as soon as he gets within range; and while the father, backed by his two retainers, holds the rest at bay—rather, we must suppose, by the terror of his presence than the actual use of his bow—the son rushes off to find arms for the little party. Ulysses plies56 his arrows till they are exhausted57, and then the four together continue the unequal combat with the{v.ii-114} spears now brought by Telemachus. The details of the work of retribution, like some of the long slaughter58-lists in the Iliad, sufficiently59 interesting to an audience for whom war was the great game of human life, are scarcely so to modern and more fastidious readers. The hero, like all heroes of romance, performs deeds which in a mere53 prosaic60 view would appear impossibilities. Suffice it to say, that with the Goddess of Wisdom as an ally (who appears once more under the form of Mentor), the combat ends in the slaughter of the whole band of intruders, even though they are partially61 supplied with arms by the treacherous62 goatherd, who brings them from the armoury which Telemachus has carelessly left open. A graze upon the wrist of Telemachus, and a slight flesh-wound where the spear of one of the enemy “wrote on the shoulder” of the good swineherd Eum?us, are the only hurts received by their party in the combat. The vengeance of the hero is implacable; otherwise it were not heroic, in the Homeric sense. Not content with the utter extermination63 of the men who have usurped64 his palace, harassed65 his wife, and insulted his son, he hangs up also their guilty paramours among the women-servants, who have joined them in defiling66 his household gods; first, however, making them swill67 and scour68 clean the blood-stained hall which has been the scene of the slaughter. The traitorous69 goatherd Melanthius is by the same stern orders miserably70 lopped of ears, and nose, and limbs, before death releases him. We find the same pitiless cruelty towards his enemies in the hero of the Odyssey71 as in the hero of the Iliad. Yet the poet would teach us that the vengeance of{v.ii-115} Ulysses is but the instrument of the divine justice. Like Moses or Joshua, he is but the passionless executor of the wrath72 of heaven; while, still to continue the parallel, the merciless character of the retribution takes its colour from the ferocity of the age. When the aged39 Eurycleia, who as yet alone of the women of the household knows the secret of his return, comes down and sees the floor strewn with the bloody corpses73, she is about to raise a shout of triumph. But the king checks her:—
“Nurse, with a mute heart this my vengeance hail!
These Heaven and their own crimes have brought to bale;
Since of all strangers, from earth’s every coast,
No man was honoured of this godless host,
Nor good nor evil, whosoe’er they knew—
And with their souls they pay the fatal cost.”
点击收听单词发音
1 riotous | |
adj.骚乱的;狂欢的 | |
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2 portents | |
n.预兆( portent的名词复数 );征兆;怪事;奇物 | |
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3 impending | |
a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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4 doom | |
n.厄运,劫数;v.注定,命定 | |
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5 gore | |
n.凝血,血污;v.(动物)用角撞伤,用牙刺破;缝以补裆;顶 | |
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6 unwilling | |
adj.不情愿的 | |
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7 enveloped | |
v.包围,笼罩,包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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8 misty | |
adj.雾蒙蒙的,有雾的 | |
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9 thronged | |
v.成群,挤满( throng的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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10 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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11 taunt | |
n.辱骂,嘲弄;v.嘲弄 | |
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12 prating | |
v.(古时用语)唠叨,啰唆( prate的现在分词 ) | |
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13 bides | |
v.等待,停留( bide的第三人称单数 );居住;(过去式用bided)等待;面临 | |
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14 importunate | |
adj.强求的;纠缠不休的 | |
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15 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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16 feat | |
n.功绩;武艺,技艺;adj.灵巧的,漂亮的,合适的 | |
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17 wont | |
adj.习惯于;v.习惯;n.习惯 | |
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18 shaft | |
n.(工具的)柄,杆状物 | |
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19 ordeal | |
n.苦难经历,(尤指对品格、耐力的)严峻考验 | |
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20 admiration | |
n.钦佩,赞美,羡慕 | |
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21 sanguine | |
adj.充满希望的,乐观的,血红色的 | |
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22 frustrate | |
v.使失望;使沮丧;使厌烦 | |
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23 vengeance | |
n.报复,报仇,复仇 | |
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24 professes | |
声称( profess的第三人称单数 ); 宣称; 公开表明; 信奉 | |
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25 lament | |
n.悲叹,悔恨,恸哭;v.哀悼,悔恨,悲叹 | |
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26 degenerate | |
v.退步,堕落;adj.退步的,堕落的;n.堕落者 | |
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27 notably | |
adv.值得注意地,显著地,尤其地,特别地 | |
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28 pliable | |
adj.易受影响的;易弯的;柔顺的,易驾驭的 | |
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29 plausible | |
adj.似真实的,似乎有理的,似乎可信的 | |
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30 profaned | |
v.不敬( profane的过去式和过去分词 );亵渎,玷污 | |
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31 auspices | |
n.资助,赞助 | |
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32 wondrous | |
adj.令人惊奇的,奇妙的;adv.惊人地;异乎寻常地;令人惊叹地 | |
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33 audacity | |
n.大胆,卤莽,无礼 | |
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34 notch | |
n.(V字形)槽口,缺口,等级 | |
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35 deigning | |
v.屈尊,俯就( deign的现在分词 ) | |
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36 immediate | |
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的 | |
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37 prelude | |
n.序言,前兆,序曲 | |
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38 bloody | |
adj.非常的的;流血的;残忍的;adv.很;vt.血染 | |
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39 aged | |
adj.年老的,陈年的 | |
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40 cleaves | |
v.劈开,剁开,割开( cleave的第三人称单数 ) | |
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41 eyebrows | |
眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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42 renown | |
n.声誉,名望 | |
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43 brass | |
n.黄铜;黄铜器,铜管乐器 | |
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44 fiery | |
adj.燃烧着的,火红的;暴躁的;激烈的 | |
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45 dire | |
adj.可怕的,悲惨的,阴惨的,极端的 | |
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46 rattle | |
v.飞奔,碰响;激怒;n.碰撞声;拨浪鼓 | |
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47 bout | |
n.侵袭,发作;一次(阵,回);拳击等比赛 | |
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48 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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49 primitive | |
adj.原始的;简单的;n.原(始)人,原始事物 | |
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50 countless | |
adj.无数的,多得不计其数的 | |
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51 abound | |
vi.大量存在;(in,with)充满,富于 | |
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52 goblet | |
n.高脚酒杯 | |
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53 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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54 rhetoric | |
n.修辞学,浮夸之言语 | |
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55 despoiling | |
v.掠夺,抢劫( despoil的现在分词 ) | |
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56 plies | |
v.使用(工具)( ply的第三人称单数 );经常供应(食物、饮料);固定往来;经营生意 | |
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57 exhausted | |
adj.极其疲惫的,精疲力尽的 | |
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58 slaughter | |
n.屠杀,屠宰;vt.屠杀,宰杀 | |
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59 sufficiently | |
adv.足够地,充分地 | |
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60 prosaic | |
adj.单调的,无趣的 | |
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61 partially | |
adv.部分地,从某些方面讲 | |
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62 treacherous | |
adj.不可靠的,有暗藏的危险的;adj.背叛的,背信弃义的 | |
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63 extermination | |
n.消灭,根绝 | |
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64 usurped | |
篡夺,霸占( usurp的过去式和过去分词 ); 盗用; 篡夺,篡权 | |
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65 harassed | |
adj. 疲倦的,厌烦的 动词harass的过去式和过去分词 | |
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66 defiling | |
v.玷污( defile的现在分词 );污染;弄脏;纵列行进 | |
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67 swill | |
v.冲洗;痛饮;n.泔脚饲料;猪食;(谈话或写作中的)无意义的话 | |
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68 scour | |
v.搜索;擦,洗,腹泻,冲刷 | |
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69 traitorous | |
adj. 叛国的, 不忠的, 背信弃义的 | |
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70 miserably | |
adv.痛苦地;悲惨地;糟糕地;极度地 | |
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71 odyssey | |
n.长途冒险旅行;一连串的冒险 | |
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72 wrath | |
n.愤怒,愤慨,暴怒 | |
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73 corpses | |
n.死尸,尸体( corpse的名词复数 ) | |
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74 slain | |
杀死,宰杀,杀戮( slay的过去分词 ); (slay的过去分词) | |
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