Jove's answer to Ulysses' prayer for a sign from heaven.
A sign from within: the exhausted servant's plea for justice.
A warning to the suitors that their plot against Telemachus will fail.
Theoclymenus sees the coming doom, though the suitors laugh.
Ulysses lies in the cloister, his heart "growling within him" like a bitch guarding her puppies. He is torn between immediate vengeance and the patience required for total victory.
While Ulysses seeks signs of life, Penelope prays for death. She asks Diana to slay her rather than force her to yield to a man inferior to Ulysses.
Diana's Arrow
The Whirlwind
In a final act of hubris, the suitor Ctesippus throws a heifer's foot at the disguised Ulysses. Ulysses avoids it with a "Sardinian smile," a grim precursor to the slaughter to come.