"When all the rest in there, our lordly friends,
are dead against my having the bow and quiver,
good Eumaeus, carry the weapon down the hall
and put it in my hands. Then tell the serving-women
to lock the snugly fitted doors to their own rooms.
If anyone hears from there the jolting blows
and groans of men, caught in our huge net,
not one of them show her face –
sit tight, keep to her weaving, not a sound.
You, my good Philoetius, here are your orders.
Shoot the bolt of the courtyard’s outer gate,
lock it, lash it fast."
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 21, lines 259-270. Odysseus outlines his clever plan to trap the suitors and disloyal people in the palace. After the suitors try and fail to string his bow, Eumaeus is tasked to carry his bow to Odysseus. The swineherd is to tell the maids to lock the doors to their rooms. Odysseus instructs cowherd Philoetius to lock the courtyard gate so that no suitor can escape.