One And All

'Throwing off his rags, the resourceful Odysseus leaped on to the great threshold with his bow and full quiver and poured out the swift arrows at his feet. 'The match that was to seal your fate is over,' he called out to the Suitors. 'Now for another target which no man has yet hit - If I can hit it and Apollo grants my prayer.' And with that he levelled a deadly shaft at Antinous.'
                                                                                 Book 22; The Battle in the Hall

Odysseus is back in Ithaca and all this can mean is bad news for the Suitors. They've eaten him out of house and home, abused him whilst he was disguised as a beggar, plotted to kill his son and courted his wife. And some say his revenge was not justified! ;)



This song, 'One and All' takes place immediately after the archery contest which Odysseus wins (no surprise there!) but upon his victory, he throws off his rags, blood thirsty and boiling with anger and aims his first arrow at Antinous, the 'ring-leader' of the Suitors. He knows he will not miss. When they see what he has done, the Suitors look to Eurymachus to save them from their inevitable death. Eurymachus pleads with him saying, the man who did him wrong, Antinous, is already dead and asking him not to kill his own people. Odysseus bears down on him, telling him he can either stand and fight or run but either way, they will not survive. Together with his son Telemachus and his Swineherd Eumaeus he overpowers the Suitors and wins the Battle in the Hall.

'[Eurycleia] found Odysseus among the corpses of the dead, spattered with blood and gore, like a lion when he comes from feeding on some farmer's bullock, with the blood dripping from his breast and jaws on either side, a fearsome spectacle.'