Summary
Penelope fetches the great bow from the storeroom — the bow of Iphitus, given to Odysseus in Messene long ago, which he never took to Troy. She weeps over it, then sets the terms: she will marry whoever strings it and shoots an arrow through the sockets of twelve axe-heads set in a row.
Telemachus sets up the axes and tries the bow himself; on the fourth attempt he would have strung it, but his father signals him to stop.
The suitors try in turn. Leiodes fails first. Antinous has the bow greased with fat and warmed at the fire. Eurymachus fails and takes it as a public disgrace.
Outside, Odysseus reveals himself to Eumaeus and Philoetius by the scar and instructs them to bar the doors. Against the suitors' objections, Telemachus orders the bow given to the beggar. Odysseus turns it over, checks it for worm, and strings it as easily as a singer fits a new string to a lyre. He plucks it, and the string sings like a swallow. Zeus thunders. He shoots through the axes without missing one, and tells Telemachus the hour has come.
Narrative function
Converts the contest for Penelope's hand into the mechanism by which Odysseus gets a weapon in a hall full of unarmed enemies.
Greek concepts in this book
- aethlos
- Contest, trial. The word covers athletic competition and imposed labour alike; the poem uses the ambiguity.
- mētis
- The contest is the last and best of Odysseus's tricks, and it is arranged by his wife.
Connections to other books
Book 19
The contest was announced by Penelope at the end of Book 19, immediately after the beggar told her Odysseus was near.
Book 22
The bow is strung at the end of 21 and fired at Antinous at the start of 22 without a break.
Source notes
What the feat with the axes physically involves is disputed: the arrow passes through the axes themselves, but whether through helve-sockets set in a line, or through rings, has been argued since antiquity without resolution.
Reading it responsibly
The lyre simile at 21.406-411 is the poem's masterstroke. The instrument of the massacre is compared to a musical instrument, handled by a professional, and the sound of the bowstring is compared to a swallow. The poem makes killing look like craft — which is exactly how its hero experiences it, and exactly what should trouble the reader.