The Odyssey - Book 21 - Odysseus strings his bow

• 28 minutes

• Homer builds the suspense

• Penelope climbs to the room that holds the bow. She sees and contemplates it. We learn the story of how the bow was obtained by Odysseus when he was a young man sent to Messenia by his father to recover a debt of 300 sheep. On the way to get the sheep, Odysseus meets a young man, Iphitus, who gave him the bow but was soon killed by Heracles as Iphitus himself was trying to recover stolen horses. The circumstances surrounding the obtaining of the bow bears relevance on the present circumstances of Odysseus recovering once again what belongs to him.
• How the axes are arranged has puzzled commentators. Here is how one commentator envisions the scene: The wooden axe are separate from the iron axe heads. Each handle is stuck into the ground. Then the pointed iron tip of the axe head is rammed into the upright end of a handle so that you have a series of 12 pillars: the handle with the iron part stuck upright so that the eye (hole) of the iron head is now 3 or 4 feet off the ground. The 12 are lined up so you can look through a row of openings.
• Rather than show all 108 suitors attempting to string the bow, Homer compresses the test by having first the weakest and least offensive suitor, Leodes, try and then Eurymachus. When they both fail, the most obnoxious one, Antinous, decides to postpone his attempt till the morning.
• The build-up to the stringing of the bow has in some ways the predictability of a folktale or fairy tale. On the other hand, Homer breaks the inevitability with several twists and turns. Examine these breaks in the expected action and speculate what effect they have on the story.
  • Antinous does not try to string the bow. Why not?
  • Telemachus asserts himself against the suitors not directly but obliquely against his mother. Why? (380-395)
  • It is Eumaeus who takes the bow to Odysseus, not Telemachus. Why? (410-420)
  • Why do the suitors laugh? 420 [Discuss Ody Bk21 Q01]