The Slaying of the Suitors — Odysseus takes his vengeance

Book 22 of The Odyssey by Homer

Odysseus stripped off his rags and leapt upon the great threshold with the bow in his hand and the quiver full of arrows. He poured the swift shafts out at his feet and spoke to the suitors, saying this contest was now ended, and he would see whether he could hit another mark that no man had yet struck. Then he aimed a bitter arrow straight at Antinous.

Antinous was raising a fine two-handled golden cup to his lips, about to drink his wine, with no thought of death upon him. For who among men at a feast would think that one man alone, however strong, would dare to bring death upon him amid so many? The arrow struck him in the throat. The point passed clean through his soft neck, and the cup dropped from his hands. He lurched to one side, and a thick stream of blood gushed from his nostrils. His foot kicked the table and sent the food scattering — the bread and the roast meat rolled together in the dust upon the floor.

The suitors sprang from their seats in uproar when they saw Antinous fall. They looked wildly around the walls for armor and weapons, but there were no shields and no spears to be had — the walls were bare, for Telemachus had removed them all. They shouted at Odysseus, calling him a fool and threatening him with death, for they still believed the killing was an accident. They did not yet understand that the net of death had been drawn about them all.