With that he trained a stabbing arrow on Antinous…
just lifting a gorgeous golden loving-cup in his hands,
just tilting the two-handled goblet back to his lips,
about to drain the wine – and slaughter the last thing
on the suitor’s mind: who could dream that one foe
in that crowd of feasters, however great his power,
would bring down death on himself, and black doom?
But Odysseus aimed and shot Antinous square in the throat
and the point went stabbing clean through the soft neck and out –
and off to the side he pitched, the cup dropped from his grasp
as the shaft sank home, and the man’s life-blood came spurting
from his nostrils.
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 22, lines 8-19. Antinous becomes the first of the suitors to die, as Odysseus shoots him in the throat with an arrow from his great bow. For Odysseus this is justice, Antinous being one of the most arrogant and disrespectful of the suitors, who riled up the others against Odysseus and Telemachus. This passage with its vivid imagery communicates the intensity of Odysseus’ battle with the suitors and the level of violence involved with no holds barred. It seems appropriate that Antinous dies as he drinks Odysseus’ wine and feasts on his food.