I went around to some of my animal herds to see if they would help me in the final battle. Of course they were still loyal and agreed to help.
Telemachus tried to string the bow but with a nod of my head I signaled to him not to do it. Then all of the suitors took turns trying the task, but they could not even string the bow. When I asked to try my hand at it they all snapped at me. They said that if I succeeded in stringing the bow that they would be forever shamed. Telemachus brought me my bow anyway, and I strung that beautiful piece of work in a couple seconds, and then I shot straight through the axes with great ease! The suitors couldn't believe their eyes, the mocked me and said that I must have cheated and other bull like that. Then Telemachus and my other comrades stood by me.
Next I shot straight through Antinous' neck, and killed him. That began the slaughter. I exterminated all of the suitors with the help of my son, the cowherd, and Eumeaus. The hall was a bloody mess when a feebleminded prophet came up to me and pleaded for his life. My response was to slice his head off and let it roll in the dust. Then the herald Medon pleaded with me, but I spared him because Telemachus said that he was loyal to me.
I sent for Eurycleia so she could round up all of the suitors whores. I made them clean my hall then I had them hanged in the woods, along with other allies of the suitors. Then I had a wedding feast staged so that no one would suspect that the mutilation of the suitors had occurred. I also had the house purified before then.
Penelope would not acknowledge me as her husband, and when she threatened to move our bed out of our room I went into an uproar. I said that I built that room and bed with my own hands, and that I was the only one that would be able to move it. I said these words exactly:
"There was a branching olive tree inside our court, grown to its full prime, the bole like a column, thickset. Around it I built my bedroom, finished off the walls with good tight stone work, roofed it over soundly and added doors, hung well and snugly wedged. Then I lopped the leafy crown of the olive, clean cutting the stump bare from roots up, planning around it with a bronze smoothing adze-I had the skill-I shaped the plumb line to make my bedpost, bored holes and kneaded it with an auger. Working from there I built my bed start to finish, I gave it the ivory inlays, gold and silver fittings, wove the straps across it, oxhide gleaming red. There's our secret sign, I'll tell you, our life story!" Then the stubborn little thing finally believed me. We went up to our room, and I told her the real story of my journey home, leaving out parts as Agamemnon advised. Then she told me the story of how she waited for me for twenty years. We talked on and on into the seemingly endless night, then we fell asleep