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“Though you should give me all that you have in the world both now and all that you ever shall have, I will not stay my hand till I have paid all of you in full. You must fight, or fly for your lives; and fly, not a man of you shall.”
Odyssey, Book 22; Samuel Butler translation
Book 22 Summary
Odysseus declares the contest over and shoots Antinous through the neck. The suitors believe the disguised Odysseus shot him on accident, but when he reveals his identity they are terrified. Eurymachus tries to reason with Odysseus but Odysseus kills him.
One by one, the suitors are killed by Odysseus, Telemachus, Eumaeus the swineherd, and Philoetius the stockman—with a bit of divine intervention by Athena. When the goatherd tries to help arm the suitors, he’s caught and strung up in another room.
After the slaughter is over, Odysseus has the twelve maidservants who were disloyal to him and his household rounded up. He forces them to help take out the corpses and clean up all the blood and gore. Once they’re finished, Telemachus takes them outside and has them hung. After that, the goatherd is painfully executed.
Odysseus then has his old nurse Euryclea go to Penelope to let her know everything that happened and to meet him.
The Brutal Fight Scenes Return
If you’ve read through the Iliad, or read my posts on them, you know there are plenty of brutal fight scenes throughout. On the one hand, they are sober reminders of the brutal realities of war. On the other hand, they are pretty epic to behold.
Book 22 recaptures that sentiment. The suitors are brutally executed by Odysseus and the others:
An arrow through the throat
An arrow through the liver
A spear through back and out the chest
Decapitation with a sword
Book 22 is easily the most exciting book in the Odyssey. On top of the brutality, it’s fast paced and we finally see the suitors get their comeuppance. It’s the very satisfying moment in other stories where the protagonist, no longer held back and having taken quite the abuse from the antagonist(s), displays his full capabilities and wrecks them.
Wisdom From the War?
After the suitors have been killed, Odysseus has his old nurse Euryclea called to him. When she sees all the suitors dead, she’s about to rejoice but Odysseus has her be still.
“Rejoice in silence; restrain yourself, and do not make any noise about it; it is an unholy thing to vaunt over dead men. Heaven’s doom and their own evil deeds have brought these men to destruction, for they respected no man in the whole world, neither rich nor poor, who came near them, and they have come to a bad end as a punishment for their wickedness and folly.” (Book 22)
Odyssey, Book 22; Samuel Butler translation
I have to wonder if this is Odysseus the war veteran talking here. I imagine if Odysseus knew nothing about the political corruption in Troy that kept Paris safe and able to keep Helen, nor about the animosity of Athena and Hera toward Troy, then he probably thought the Trojans and their allies brought doom upon themselves because they protected Paris and refused to give Helen back. As a result, many men on both sides died and Troy was sacked.
This is no happy thing. It didn’t have to happen like that, but it did. The suitors, just like the Trojans, paid for their bad deeds. It all could have been avoided if they had acted properly, if they had not ignored the warning signs that what they were doing was wrong. Instead, they became wasted potential.
Refusing to Take Accountability
Two suitors notably refused to take accountability for their actions right to the end.
The first was one of the ring leaders Eurymachus. After Odysseus kills Antinous and reveals his identity, Eurymachus is quick to try and negotiate with him. He puts all the blame on Antinous, saying that Antinous really just wanted to kill Telemachus and be the next ruler of Ithaca, and then offers Odysseus full compensation for everything they’ve consumed in his house.
Eurymachus not only pins all the blame for their actions on the dead, but he lies as well. We know from earlier that Eurymachus helped plot the murder of Telemachus and even lied to Penelope that he wouldn’t let Telemachus come to harm (see Book 16).
In the end, he was nothing more than a sweet talker and a slimeball. He would have made a great politician.
The other suitor was Leiodes, the sacrificial priest. He was only introduced in Book 21 and Homer comments that he hated the evil deeds of the suitors.
When the slaughter of the suitors began, he fell to Odysseus’ knees and begged for his life:
“I never wronged any of the women in your house either in word or deed, and I tried to stop the others. I saw them, but they would not listen, and now they are paying for their folly. I was their sacrificing priest; if you kill me, I shall die without having done anything to deserve it, and shall have got no thanks for all the good that I did."
Odyssey, Book 22; Samuel Butler translation
Odysseus responds:
"If you were their sacrificing priest, you must have prayed many a time that it might be long before I got home again, and that you might marry my wife and have children by her. Therefore you shall die."
Odyssey, Book 22; Samuel Butler translation
Odysseus then decapitates Leiodes.
The only reason I can think of for why Odysseus didn’t spare Leiodes’ life was because he participated in the contest to win Penelope’s hand in marriage. I have to wonder if things would have gone differently for him if he had told the suitors he refused to participate because he thought it was all wrong?
In any case, Leiodes is another example of how bad associations can drag you down, just like Amphinomus (who, in the end, charged at Odysseus and was killed by Telemachus). Leiodes hated what the other suitors were doing, and tried to stop them, but nonetheless was a suitor himself. It would have been better if he had walked away and stopped being a suitor rather than try to make the suitors behave better.
If you’re part of a group that is doing wrong, it’s better to cut ties with that group rather than be a part of them and try to change their minds or their behavior. In the end, while you may not be as bad as everyone else, you still have to participate in some way in order to stay with that group, and therefore you will suffer the negative consequences along with them.
That’s all for Book 22 of the Odyssey.
May your days be filled with grace.
-Andronikos
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Thumbnail: Odysseus Kills the Suitors by Bela Čikoš Sesija, before 1931.