But one of the suitors, Melanthius, climbed up a pillar through one of the lanterns of the hall and clambered over the roofs to the armoury unseen by Ulysses.
And while the deadly arrows sped with bitter mocking words towards the cowering throng, he gathered a great sheaf of spears and flung them down among his comrades.
They seized upon the spears with a fierce cry of joy, and Ulysses’ heart failed him where he stood for there were still many living.
They began to run up the hall towards the steps.
Then at last Athene saw that her time had come, and she lifted her terrible war shield which brings death to the sons of men.
And the flight of spears all went far wide of the mark, and some fell with a rattle upon the floor.
With one cry of triumph the king leapt like light among the crowd. Hither and there flashed the three swords like swooping vultures, and Athene took all power from the princes, and one by one they screamed and met their doom.
And soon the din of battle died away, and save for a faint moaning the hall was silent.
And the princes, the pride of the islands, lay fallen in dust and blood, heaped one on the other, like a great catch of fishes turned out from a fisherman’s nets upon the shore.
Eumæus went to the door of the hall and cut the lashings, and raised the bars so that the sunlight came slanting in great beams. The dust danced in the light rays like a powder of tiny lives.