What It Is
The bow of Odysseus is the recurved bow, with its quiver of arrows, that Iphitus, son of Eurytus, gave to the hero in Lacedaemon, at the start of a guest friendship. Odysseus never took it to war: he left it at home, as a memento of his friend, and used it only in his own land. Kept in the treasure room of the palace in Ithaca, together with the bronze, the gold, and the worked iron, it is the bow that Penelope proposes as a trial to the suitors: whoever strings it most easily and shoots an arrow through the twelve axes, the ones Odysseus used to line up and shoot through from afar, she will follow, leaving the house.
Where It Appears
The bow is mentioned before it is shown. In Book VIII, among the Phaeacians, Odysseus boasts of being good with the bow: he says only Philoctetes surpassed him at Troy, and that he does not want to compete with Heracles or with Eurytus, who was killed by Apollo for challenging him. It is the same Eurytus from whom the bow comes, according to Book XXI.
In Book XIX, Penelope tells the beggar, without knowing who he is, what she will do in the morning. The beggar answers that Odysseus will come before the suitors string the bow.
νῦν δὲ μνηστήρεσσιν ἄεθλον τοῦτον ἐφήσω· / ὃς δέ κε ῥηΐτατʼ ἐντανύσῃ βιὸν ἐν παλάμῃσι / καὶ διοϊστεύσῃ πελέκεων δυοκαίδεκα πάντων, / τῷ κεν ἅμʼ ἑσποίμην, νοσφισσαμένη τόδε δῶμα(19.576-579), now I will set this trial before the suitors: whoever strings the bow most easily in his hands and shoots an arrow through all twelve axes, I will follow him, leaving this house.
In Book XXI, it is Athena who puts the idea into Penelope's mind, and the narrator already calls the trial the beginning of the slaughter. Penelope goes up to the treasure room, takes the bow from its peg, sits with it on her knees, and weeps aloud before going down to the hall. The poem pauses to tell where the bow came from:
τὸ δʼ οὔ ποτε δῖος Ὀδυσσεὺς / ἐρχόμενος πόλεμόνδε μελαινάων ἐπὶ νηῶν / ᾑρεῖτʼ, ἀλλʼ αὐτοῦ μνῆμα ξείνοιο φίλοιο / κέσκετʼ ἐνὶ μεγάροισι, φόρει δέ μιν ἧς ἐπὶ γαίης.(21.38-41), this bow the divine Odysseus never took when he went to war in the black ships; it stayed at home, a memento of a dear guest, and he carried it only in his own land.
Iphitus was killed by Heracles in his own house, despite being a guest, without respect for the gods or for the table he had offered. Then come the attempts. Telemachus shakes the bow three times, and on the fourth he would have strung it:
καί νύ κε δή ῥʼ ἐτάνυσσε βίῃ τὸ τέταρτον ἀνέλκων, / ἀλλʼ Ὀδυσεὺς ἀνένευε καὶ ἔσχεθεν ἱέμενόν περ.(21.128-129), and on the fourth time, pulling with force, he would have strung it; but Odysseus shook his head and held him back, though he was eager.
Leodes fails, Eurymachus fails, and Antinous proposes postponing the trial to the next day, since it is the feast of Apollo. Odysseus, still disguised as a beggar, asks for the bow to test his strength, the suitors are indignant, and Eumaeus carries it across the hall and places it in his hands. Then:
ὡς ὅτʼ ἀνὴρ φόρμιγγος ἐπιστάμενος καὶ ἀοιδῆς / ῥηϊδίως ἐτάνυσσε νέῳ περὶ κόλλοπι χορδήν, / ἅψας ἀμφοτέρωθεν ἐϋστρεφὲς ἔντερον οἰός, / ὣς ἄρʼ ἄτερ σπουδῆς τάνυσεν μέγα τόξον Ὀδυσσεύς.(21.406-409), as when a man who knows the lyre and the song easily stretches a cord around a new peg, tying the well-twisted sheep gut at both ends, so without effort Odysseus stretched the great bow.
αὐτόθεν ἐκ δίφροιο καθήμενος, ἧκε δʼ ὀϊστὸν / ἄντα τιτυσκόμενος, πελέκεων δʼ οὐκ ἤμβροτε πάντων / πρώτης στειλειῆς, διὰ δʼ ἀμπερὲς ἦλθε θύραζε / ἰὸς χαλκοβαρής(21.420-423), sitting right there on the bench, he shot the arrow, aiming straight ahead, and he did not miss any of the axes, from the very first socket; and the arrow, heavy with bronze, went clean through and out.
In Book XXII, the next shot is no longer a trial. Odysseus pours out the arrows at his feet, says the trial is done, and aims at another target:
ὄφρα πίοι οἴνοιο· φόνος δέ οἱ οὐκ ἐνὶ θυμῷ / μέμβλετο· τίς κʼ οἴοιτο μετʼ ἀνδράσι δαιτυμόνεσσι / μοῦνον ἐνὶ πλεόνεσσι, καὶ εἰ μάλα καρτερὸς εἴη, / οἷ τεύξειν θάνατόν τε κακὸν καὶ κῆρα μέλαιναν;(22.11-14), to drink wine; murder was not in his mind. Who would imagine that a single man among so many guests, however strong he was, would bring on him an evil death and black doom?
As long as he has arrows, he strikes one suitor at a time, and when they run out he leans the bow against the doorpost and takes a shield, a helmet, and two spears. In Book XXIV, in Hades, Amphimedon tells Agamemnon that no suitor could string the bow, that all shouted not to give it to the beggar, and that only Telemachus ordered it handed over.
What It Means
The bow is a measure, and each man who takes it shows what he is. Telemachus fails by a narrow margin and is held back by his father; Leodes fails with delicate hands and says he would rather die than keep failing; Eurymachus fails and fears the shame that will reach those who come later; Antinous postpones the trial with the god's feast. Only Odysseus strings it without effort, and the poem says how a lyre is strung: with the ease of one who knows the instrument, and the cord sings like a swallow.
Penelope puts herself up as the prize, and the text supports two readings: she keeps her word to whoever strings her husband's bow, or she bets that no one will string it. In both, the one who decides what the bow is worth in the hall is she, after Athena, and the one who decides who touches it is Telemachus, who sends his mother back to her room, saying the bow is a matter for men (Book XXI).
The bow comes from a guest friendship and from a violated hospitality, since Iphitus died at the table of the man who received him. The object that comes out of that bond is the one that later serves to punish those who dishonored guests in the house of Odysseus: the suitors eat without paying, strike the beggar with a stool, and throw a cow's foot at him. The poem does not say the bow was chosen for this reason, but it places the story of Iphitus exactly at the moment Penelope takes it from its peg.
The bow changes hands without changing place. It reaches the hall in the hands of Penelope, who weeps as she takes it from its peg, passes through the hands of the young men who despise it, and is placed by Eumaeus in the hands of a beggar, and only then becomes again what it was. The trial the queen proposes to choose a husband is the one that reveals the husband.
Relationships
- Standard themes: Vengeance, Identity, Loyalty and betrayal.
- Characters: Odysseus, Penelope, Telemachus, Antinous, Eumaeus.
- Neighboring symbols: the scar of Odysseus, which Odysseus shows to Eumaeus and to Philoetius in the same book in which he strings the bow, and the bed of olive wood, the other trial Penelope chooses.