And there Odysseus lay…
plotting within himself the suitors’ death –
awake, alert, as the women slipped from the house,
the maids who whored in the suitors’ beds each night,
tittering, linking arms and frisking as before.
The master’s anger rose inside his chest,
torn in thought, debating, head and heart –
should he up and rush them, kill them one and all
or let them rut with their lovers one last time?
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 20, lines 6-14. Odysseus plots his revenge on the suitors and the maids who are sleeping with them. He sees the maids sneaking out at night to sleep with the suitors and is outraged by their behavior. He debates whether to kill them all now or wait for a better time. He is equally furious with the maids, believing them to be just as bad as the suitors. This foreshadows that Odysseus will exact revenge not only on the suitors, but on the maids who are sleeping with them as well.