"Then here’s our plan,"
the master of tactics said. "I think it’s best.
First go and wash, and pull fresh tunics on
and tell the maids in the hall to dress well too.
And let the inspired bard take up his ringing lyre
and lead off for us all a dance so full of heart
that whoever hears the strains outside the gates –
a passerby on the road, a neighbor round about –
will think it’s a wedding-feast that’s under way."
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 23, lines 145-153. Odysseus comes up with a plan to trick the Ithacans into thinking that the noise from the suitors’ slaughter was from a wedding celebration. So he asks the bard to provide music and for everyone to dress up and dance to fool neighbors and anyone passing by. This allows time for Odysseus’ people to escape to the safety of their estates before news of the suitors’ deaths breaks in town. The wedding ruse is ironic, because Odysseus and his family have been trying to avoid a wedding – that of Penelope to a suitor.