Then answer thus Ulysses wise return'd. 5'X)

Hush, and disturb her not. Go. Summon first



B. XXII. THE ODY88ET. 357

Those wantons, who have long deserved to die.
He ceased ; then issued forth the ancient dame
To summon those bad women, and, meantime,
Calling his son, Philcetius, and Eumseus, 505

Ulysses in wing'd accents thus began.
Bestir ye, and remove the dead ; command
Those women also to your help ; then cleanse
With bibulous sponges and with water all
The seats and tables , when ye shall have thus 510

Set all in order, lead those women. forth,
And in the centre of the spacious court,
Between the scullery and the outer-wall
Smite them with your broad faulchions till they lose
In death the memory of their secret loves 515

Indulged with wretches lawless as themselves.
He ended, and the damsels came at once
All forth, lamenting, and with tepid tears
Showering the ground ; with mutual labour, first,
Bearing the bodies forth into the court, 520

They lodged them in the portico ; meantime
Ulysses stern enjoin' d them haste, and urged
By sad necessity, they bore all out.
With sponges and with water next they cleansed
The thrones and tables, while Telemachus "25

Be8om'd the floor, Eumseus in that work
Aiding him and the keeper of the beeves,
And those twelve damsels bearing forth the soil.
Thus order given to all within, they next
Led forth the women, whom they shut between 530

The scullery and the outer-wall in close
Durance, from which no prisoner could escape,
And thus Telemachus discreet began.
An honourable death is not for these
By my advice, who have so often heap'd 535

Reproach on mine and on my mother's head,
And held lewd commerce with the suitor-train.
