Odyssey, Book 21: The Bow
Homer · Greek original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Book 21 turns a household object into a test of identity, authority, and controlled violence. Penelope brings out the bow under Athena’s prompting yet acts through her own household knowledge; Telemachus stages the axes and manages the room; Odysseus tests and recognizes two loyal herdsmen, encloses the hall through their labor, strings the bow, and signals the transition from contest to killing. Across the sequence, narrator knowledge, divine action, spoken inference, concealed intention, and partial perception remain deliberately unequal.
Narrative arc
- Athena’s prompting becomes Penelope’s retrieval and public contest.
- Telemachus and the suitors convert household succession into repeated bodily trials.
- Odysseus tests allegiance, reveals himself to Eumaeus and Philoetius, and assigns the closures.
- Penelope defends the guest before Telemachus sends her upstairs and Athena sleeps her.
- The bow passes through Eumaeus to Odysseus, whose stringing, shot, and signal convert sport into imminent violence.
Central themes
- household authority distributed among divine prompting, female stewardship, filial command, and the returning master’s concealed plan
- xenia tested through gift history, guest protection, table privilege, insult, coercion, and consumption of the oikos
- knowledge bounded by disguise, signs, memory, inference, recognition, and narrator disclosure
- status and labor made visible through attendants, enslaved herdsmen, ritual service, door control, and threats
- nostos, kleos, metis, thumos, noos, bodily force, ritual language, and violence converging in the bow
Athena moves Penelope to retrieve the bow and iron 21.1–10
1τῇ δʼ ἄρʼ ἐπὶ φρεσὶ θῆκε θεὰ γλαυκῶπις Ἀθήνη,
κούρῃ Ἰκαρίοιο, περίφρονι Πηνελοπείῃ,
τόξον μνηστήρεσσι θέμεν πολιόν τε σίδηρον
ἐν μεγάροις Ὀδυσῆος, ἀέθλια καὶ φόνου ἀρχήν.
5κλίμακα δʼ ὑψηλὴν προσεβήσετο οἷο δόμοιο,
εἵλετο δὲ κληῗδʼ εὐκαμπέα χειρὶ παχείῃ
καλὴν χαλκείην· κώπη δʼ ἐλέφαντος ἐπῆεν.
βῆ δʼ ἴμεναι θάλαμόνδε σὺν ἀμφιπόλοισι γυναιξὶν
ἔσχατον· ἔνθα δέ οἱ κειμήλια κεῖτο ἄνακτος,
10χαλκός τε χρυσός τε πολύκμητός τε σίδηρος.
1Then the bright-eyed goddess Athena set a purpose in the mind
of discerning Penelope, daughter of Icarius:
to lay before the suitors the bow and the gray iron
in Odysseus’ halls—as a contest, and the beginning of slaughter.
5She climbed the high staircase of her own house
and took the well-curved key in her sturdy hand,
a beautiful key of bronze, fitted with an ivory handle.
With her attendant women she went toward the chamber
at the farthest end, where the lord’s treasures were stored:
10bronze and gold and iron wrought with toil.
Commentary
Athena places the contest design in Penelope’s phrenes, but Penelope herself climbs, selects the key, and enters the treasury; the narrator alone marks the contest as the start of killing.
21.1–4 A familiar divine-prompting opening is redirected toward a contest whose lethal function the narrator names before any character can know it. The first two lines recur byte-for-byte from the earlier scene in which Athena places a design in Penelope’s phrenes, while the bow-and-iron wording returns inside this book with only punctuation-level difference. Here the formula does not merely begin a new domestic action: the narrator apposes contest and beginning of slaughter, giving the audience a horizon withheld from Penelope and the suitors.
21.5–10 Penelope’s access to the treasury is expressed through possession, skilled material vocabulary, and a key she physically handles. The house is called her own at the moment she climbs, while the bronze key is well-curved and ivory-handled; the innermost chamber contains the lord’s keimelia, including much-worked iron. The wording joins her practical command of the oikos to objects grammatically associated with its absent male head rather than making those forms of authority mutually exclusive.
The bow’s history binds Iphitus, Odysseus, and Heracles 21.11–41
11ἔνθα δὲ τόξον κεῖτο παλίντονον ἠδὲ φαρέτρη
ἰοδόκος, πολλοὶ δʼ ἔνεσαν στονόεντες ὀϊστοί,
δῶρα τά οἱ ξεῖνος Λακεδαίμονι δῶκε τυχήσας
Ἴφιτος Εὐρυτίδης, ἐπιείκελος ἀθανάτοισι.
15τὼ δʼ ἐν Μεσσήνῃ ξυμβλήτην ἀλλήλοιϊν
οἴκῳ ἐν Ὀρτιλόχοιο δαΐφρονος. ἦ τοι Ὀδυσσεὺς
ἦλθε μετὰ χρεῖος, τό ῥά οἱ πᾶς δῆμος ὄφελλε·
μῆλα γὰρ ἐξ Ἰθάκης Μεσσήνιοι ἄνδρες ἄειραν
νηυσὶ πολυκλήϊσι τριηκόσιʼ ἠδὲ νομῆας.
20τῶν ἕνεκʼ ἐξεσίην πολλὴν ὁδὸν ἦλθεν Ὀδυσσεὺς
παιδνὸς ἐών· πρὸ γὰρ ἧκε πατὴρ ἄλλοι τε γέροντες.
Ἴφιτος αὖθʼ ἵππους διζήμενος, αἵ οἱ ὄλοντο
δώδεκα θήλειαι, ὑπὸ δʼ ἡμίονοι ταλαεργοί·
αἳ δή οἱ καὶ ἔπειτα φόνος καὶ μοῖρα γένοντο,
25ἐπεὶ δὴ Διὸς υἱὸν ἀφίκετο καρτερόθυμον,
φῶθʼ Ἡρακλῆα, μεγάλων ἐπιίστορα ἔργων,
ὅς μιν ξεῖνον ἐόντα κατέκτανεν ᾧ ἐνὶ οἴκῳ,
σχέτλιος, οὐδὲ θεῶν ὄπιν ᾐδέσατʼ οὐδὲ τράπεζαν,
τὴν ἥν οἱ παρέθηκεν· ἔπειτα δὲ πέφνε καὶ αὐτόν,
30ἵππους δʼ αὐτὸς ἔχε κρατερώνυχας ἐν μεγάροισι.
τὰς ἐρέων Ὀδυσῆϊ συνήντετο, δῶκε δὲ τόξον,
τὸ πρὶν μέν ῥʼ ἐφόρει μέγας Εὔρυτος, αὐτὰρ ὁ παιδὶ
κάλλιπʼ ἀποθνῄσκων ἐν δώμασιν ὑψηλοῖσι.
τῷ δʼ Ὀδυσεὺς ξίφος ὀξὺ καὶ ἄλκιμον ἔγχος ἔδωκεν,
35ἀρχὴν ξεινοσύνης προσκηδέος· οὐδὲ τραπέζῃ
γνώτην ἀλλήλων· πρὶν γὰρ Διὸς υἱὸς ἔπεφνεν
Ἴφιτον Εὐρυτίδην, ἐπιείκελον ἀθανάτοισιν,
ὅς οἱ τόξον ἔδωκε. τὸ δʼ οὔ ποτε δῖος Ὀδυσσεὺς
ἐρχόμενος πόλεμόνδε μελαινάων ἐπὶ νηῶν
40ᾑρεῖτʼ, ἀλλʼ αὐτοῦ μνῆμα ξείνοιο φίλοιο
κέσκετʼ ἐνὶ μεγάροισι, φόρει δέ μιν ἧς ἐπὶ γαίης.
11There lay the recurved bow and the quiver
that held its arrows, with many shafts of pain inside—
gifts that her husband’s guest had given him when they met in Lacedaemon,
Iphitus, Eurytus’ son, a man like the immortals.
15The two had met each other in Messene,
in the house of discerning Ortilochus. Odysseus
had come to recover a debt the whole community owed him:
men of Messene had driven sheep away from Ithaca
on many-benched ships—three hundred sheep, together with their herdsmen.
20On their account Odysseus had come a long road as envoy,
though still young; his father and the other elders had dispatched him.
Iphitus had come in search of horses that were missing:
twelve mares, with hard-working mule foals under them at the teat.
In time those mares became his death and doom,
25when he came to the strong-hearted son of Zeus,
the man Heracles, master of mighty deeds.
Heracles killed him, though he was a guest, in his own house—
pitiless man! He respected neither the gods’ regard nor the table
he himself had set before Iphitus; then he killed the man himself
30and kept the strong-hoofed horses in his halls.
While searching for them Iphitus met Odysseus and gave him the bow
that great Eurytus had once carried, then left
to his son when he died in his lofty house.
Odysseus gave him a sharp sword and a strong spear,
35the beginning of an affectionate guest-friendship. But they never
came to know each other at table: before that, Zeus’ son had killed
Iphitus, Eurytus’ son, a man like the immortals,
Iphitus had given him that bow. Yet godlike Odysseus
did not choose to take it when he sailed to war
40in the black ships. It remained at home, a memorial to his dear guest,
lying in the halls, though he carried it when he traveled his own land.
Commentary
The bow enters through Iphitus’ horse search: he meets Odysseus and exchanges the bow for sword and spear, then Heracles later receives Iphitus as his guest, kills him in Heracles’ own house, and keeps the horses.
21.11–14 The bow first appears as a stored guest-gift accompanied by a quiver already charged with the prospect of pain. Its recurved form and arrow-holding case make it a compound object before its history is told. Naming Iphitus as xenos places reciprocity around the weapon, but the painful shafts anticipate that a bond-making gift will become the instrument that destroys the men abusing another household relationship.
21.15–21 Odysseus’ youthful journey to Messene presents him as an envoy pursuing a collective Ithacan debt rather than a solitary adventurer. The narrative specifies raided sheep and herdsmen, a community obligation, a long journey, and dispatch by his father and other elders. The episode therefore locates early Odyssean mobility inside household loss and communal representation, providing a civic background to the personal guest-friendship that follows.
21.22–30 Iphitus’ search for breeding stock becomes his doom when his host Heracles violates guest-protection and the table Heracles himself set before him. Heracles kills Iphitus as a guest in Heracles’ own house, disregards divine regard and the table he had provided for Iphitus, then keeps the horses. The sequence makes host-on-guest killing and appropriation part of the bow’s ethical genealogy without reversing the table’s giver and recipient.
21.31–41 The exchange of bow for sword and spear begins an affectionate guest-friendship that never reaches reciprocal table knowledge. Iphitus transmits his father’s bow; Odysseus answers with weapons, but Heracles kills Iphitus before the two men can know one another at table. Odysseus then leaves the bow at home as a mnēma of the dead xenos, carries it only within his own land, and excludes it from the Trojan expedition, so absence preserves rather than weakens its household force.
Penelope opens the storeroom and carries out the contest pieces 21.42–62
42ἡ δʼ ὅτε δὴ θάλαμον τὸν ἀφίκετο δῖα γυναικῶν
οὐδόν τε δρύϊνον προσεβήσετο, τόν ποτε τέκτων
ξέσσεν ἐπισταμένως καὶ ἐπὶ στάθμην ἴθυνεν,
45ἐν δὲ σταθμοὺς ἄρσε, θύρας δʼ ἐπέθηκε φαεινάς,
αὐτίκʼ ἄρʼ ἥ γʼ ἱμάντα θοῶς ἀπέλυσε κορώνης,
ἐν δὲ κληῗδʼ ἧκε, θυρέων δʼ ἀνέκοπτεν ὀχῆας
ἄντα τιτυσκομένη· τὰ δʼ ἀνέβραχεν ἠΰτε ταῦρος
βοσκόμενος λειμῶνι· τόσʼ ἔβραχε καλὰ θύρετρα
50πληγέντα κληΐδι, πετάσθησαν δέ οἱ ὦκα.
ἡ δʼ ἄρʼ ἐφʼ ὑψηλῆς σανίδος βῆ· ἔνθα δὲ χηλοὶ
ἕστασαν, ἐν δʼ ἄρα τῇσι θυώδεα εἵματʼ ἔκειτο.
ἔνθεν ὀρεξαμένη ἀπὸ πασσάλου αἴνυτο τόξον
αὐτῷ γωρυτῷ, ὅς οἱ περίκειτο φαεινός.
55ἑζομένη δὲ κατʼ αὖθι, φίλοις ἐπὶ γούνασι θεῖσα,
κλαῖε μάλα λιγέως, ἐκ δʼ ᾕρεε τόξον ἄνακτος.
ἡ δʼ ἐπεὶ οὖν τάρφθη πολυδακρύτοιο γόοιο,
βῆ ῥʼ ἴμεναι μέγαρόνδε μετὰ μνηστῆρας ἀγαυοὺς
τόξον ἔχουσʼ ἐν χειρὶ παλίντονον ἠδὲ φαρέτρην
60ἰοδόκον· πολλοὶ δʼ ἔνεσαν στονόεντες ὀϊστοί.
τῇ δʼ ἄρʼ ἅμʼ ἀμφίπολοι φέρον ὄγκιον, ἔνθα σίδηρος
κεῖτο πολὺς καὶ χαλκός, ἀέθλια τοῖο ἄνακτος.
42When she, radiant among women, reached that chamber,
she stepped across its threshold of oak, which long ago a carpenter
had planed with skill and leveled true to the line;
45he set the doorposts in it and fitted gleaming doors.
At once she quickly loosened the strap from the door handle,
put in the key, and drove the door-bolts back
by aiming straight at them. The doors bellowed like a bull
grazing in a meadow—so loudly the beautiful leaves roared
50when struck by the key, then sprang open before her.
She stepped onto a high platform. There the chests
stood, and fragrant clothing lay inside them.
Reaching up, she took the bow down from its peg,
still in the shining case that wrapped it.
55She sat down there, laid it across her dear knees,
and wept in a clear, piercing voice as she drew out her husband’s bow.
When she had taken her fill of tearful lamentation,
she went to the hall and the lordly suitors,
holding the recurved bow in her hand and the quiver
60that held its arrows, with many shafts of pain inside.
Her attendants came with her, carrying a chest in which
lay much iron and bronze, the contest pieces of their lord.
Commentary
Penelope operates a carefully made locking system, removes the cased bow, laments with it across her knees, and carries the weapons and contest metal into the hall through coordinated female labor.
21.42–50 The approach to the chamber accumulates measured craft actions before the doors’ bull-like bellow releases the sequence acoustically. Threshold, carpenter, straight line, posts, strap, key, bolts, and aimed pressure proceed in tight succession; the simile then expands the door sound into a grazing bull before the leaves spring open. The contrast makes Penelope’s controlled competence audible without turning the crafted mechanism into magical automation.
21.51–57 Penelope’s retrieval pauses at the bow itself, converting access and motion into seated lament before movement resumes. She mounts the platform, reaches from the peg, keeps the bow in its case, lays it on her knees, and weeps before drawing it out. The narrator gives grief a completed interval—she takes her fill of lament—without giving her concealed knowledge of the weapon’s coming success.
21.58–62 The bow and quiver are reintroduced in a varied echo of their treasury description as Penelope reverses their direction from storage to public hall. Recurved bow, arrow-container, and painful arrows return with altered syntax and case, while attendants add a chest of iron and bronze. Formulaic restatement keeps the object recognizable but changes its social field: what was hidden memorial property becomes visible contest equipment.
Penelope announces the bow-and-axes contest 21.63–79
63ἡ δʼ ὅτε δὴ μνηστῆρας ἀφίκετο δῖα γυναικῶν,
στῆ ῥα παρὰ σταθμὸν τέγεος πύκα ποιητοῖο,
65ἄντα παρειάων σχομένη λιπαρὰ κρήδεμνα.
ἀμφίπολος δʼ ἄρα οἱ κεδνὴ ἑκάτερθε παρέστη.
αὐτίκα δὲ μνηστῆρσι μετηύδα καὶ φάτο μῦθον·
κέκλυτέ μευ, μνηστῆρες ἀγήνορες, οἳ τόδε δῶμα
ἐχράετʼ ἐσθιέμεν καὶ πινέμεν ἐμμενὲς αἰεὶ
70ἀνδρὸς ἀποιχομένοιο πολὺν χρόνον· οὐδέ τινʼ ἄλλην
μύθου ποιήσασθαι ἐπισχεσίην ἐδύνασθε,
ἀλλʼ ἐμὲ ἱέμενοι γῆμαι θέσθαι τε γυναῖκα.
ἀλλʼ ἄγετε, μνηστῆρες, ἐπεὶ τόδε φαίνετʼ ἄεθλον.
θήσω γὰρ μέγα τόξον Ὀδυσσῆος θείοιο·
75ὃς δέ κε ῥηΐτατʼ ἐντανύσῃ βιὸν ἐν παλάμῃσι
καὶ διοϊστεύσῃ πελέκεων δυοκαίδεκα πάντων,
τῷ κεν ἅμʼ ἑσποίμην, νοσφισσαμένη τόδε δῶμα
κουρίδιον, μάλα καλόν, ἐνίπλειον βιότοιο,
τοῦ ποτὲ μεμνήσεσθαι ὀΐομαι ἔν περ ὀνείρῳ.
63When she, radiant among women, reached the suitors,
she stood beside a pillar of the close-fitted roof,
65drawing her glossy veil across her cheeks.
A loyal attendant stood on either side of her.
At once she spoke among the suitors and addressed them:
“Hear me, overbearing suitors, you who have beset this house,
eating and drinking here without cease
70while its man has long been gone. You could devise
no other pretext for all your talk
but your desire to marry me and make me your wife.
Come then, suitors, since this contest now lies before you.
I will set out the great bow of godlike Odysseus.
75Whoever most easily strings the bow in his hands
and shoots an arrow through all twelve axes,
with him I will go, leaving this house of my marriage,
so beautiful and full of all that sustains life—
a house I think I shall remember even in my dreams.”
Commentary
Penelope indicts the suitors’ continuous consumption, states the contest, and makes departure from her marriage house its consequence while imagining the house as a future dream-memory.
21.63–67 Penelope’s formal entrance uses a recurrent stance-and-veil sequence that gives stable public shape to a radically altered intervention. Lines 63, 64, and 66 have byte-identical predecessors, and line 65 has normalized-only predecessors; the poised figure, architectural post, veil, and paired attendants therefore arrive as a recognizable speech frame. What changes is the object and decision she brings: the formula now stages the contest that will dissolve the gathering.
21.68–79 Penelope defines the suitors’ courtship as a pretext for continuous household consumption and herself states the test and its marital consequence. Her imperatives control the speech, and the relative clauses specify stringing and passage through twelve axes. Yet her final thought turns not to the winner but to the marriage house she would leave and remember in dream, keeping attachment to the oikos beside willingness to depart it under publicly announced terms.
The herdsmen weep as Antinous takes up the challenge 21.80–100
80ὣς φάτο, καί ῥʼ Εὔμαιον ἀνώγει, δῖον ὑφορβόν,
τόξον μνηστήρεσσι θέμεν πολιόν τε σίδηρον.
δακρύσας δʼ Εὔμαιος ἐδέξατο καὶ κατέθηκε·
κλαῖε δὲ βουκόλος ἄλλοθʼ, ἐπεὶ ἴδε τόξον ἄνακτος.
Ἀντίνοος δʼ ἐνένιπεν ἔπος τʼ ἔφατʼ ἔκ τʼ ὀνόμαζε·
85νήπιοι ἀγροιῶται, ἐφημέρια φρονέοντες,
ἆ δειλώ, τί νυ δάκρυ κατείβετον ἠδὲ γυναικὶ
θυμὸν ἐνὶ στήθεσσιν ὀρίνετον; ᾗ τε καὶ ἄλλως
κεῖται ἐν ἄλγεσι θυμός, ἐπεὶ φίλον ὤλεσʼ ἀκοίτην.
ἀλλʼ ἀκέων δαίνυσθε καθήμενοι, ἠὲ θύραζε
90κλαίετον ἐξελθόντε, κατʼ αὐτόθι τόξα λιπόντε,
μνηστήρεσσιν ἄεθλον ἀάατον· οὐ γὰρ ὀΐω
ῥηϊδίως τόδε τόξον ἐΰξοον ἐντανύεσθαι.
οὐ γάρ τις μέτα τοῖος ἀνὴρ ἐν τοίσδεσι πᾶσιν
οἷος Ὀδυσσεὺς ἔσκεν· ἐγὼ δέ μιν αὐτὸς ὄπωπα,
95καὶ γὰρ μνήμων εἰμί, πάϊς δʼ ἔτι νήπιος ἦα.
ὣς φάτο, τῷ δʼ ἄρα θυμὸς ἐνὶ στήθεσσιν ἐώλπει
νευρὴν ἐντανύσειν διοϊστεύσειν τε σιδήρου.
ἦ τοι ὀϊστοῦ γε πρῶτος γεύσεσθαι ἔμελλεν
ἐκ χειρῶν Ὀδυσῆος ἀμύμονος, ὃν τότʼ ἀτίμα
100ἥμενος ἐν μεγάροις, ἐπὶ δʼ ὤρνυε πάντας ἑταίρους.
80So she spoke, and ordered Eumaeus, the noble swineherd,
to set before the suitors the bow and the gray iron.
Weeping, Eumaeus received them and laid them down.
Across the hall the cowherd too began to weep when he saw his lord’s bow.
Antinous rebuked them, called them by name, and said:
85“You witless country fools, whose thoughts reach only through the day!
Poor wretches, why are you letting tears fall and stirring
the lady’s spirit in her breast? Her heart already
lies deep in grief because she has lost her dear husband.
Sit there and feast in silence—or go outside
90to weep, but leave the bow here where it is,
a hard contest for the suitors. I do not think
this well-polished bow will be strung with ease.
There is no man here among us all
such as Odysseus was. I saw him myself,
95and I remember him, though I was only a little child.”
So he spoke, but the spirit in his breast still hoped
to string the cord and shoot an arrow through the iron.
Yet he was destined to be the first to taste a shaft
from the hands of blameless Odysseus—the man he now dishonored
100as he sat in the hall and urged all his companions on.
Commentary
Eumaeus and Philoetius answer the bow with grief; Antinous treats their emotion as rustic stupidity even while admitting Odysseus’ unmatched stature, and the narrator separates his hope from his destined death.
21.80–83 The order to place bow and iron repeats the opening object phrase while the two herdsmen answer the lord’s bow with spatially separated tears. The normalized recurrence of line 81 with line 3 transfers the object from Athena’s plan to Eumaeus’ hands. Eumaeus accepts and sets it down; Philoetius weeps elsewhere on seeing it, so shared loyalty is rendered through parallel emotion without erasing distinct positions and actions.
21.84–95 Antinous combines status contempt with an unwilling tribute to Odysseus’ unmatched capacity. He reduces the herdsmen to day-bound rustic minds, polices their grief, and orders silence or exclusion from the feast. Yet he concedes that no present man equals Odysseus and supports the claim with childhood memory, revealing that his arrogance depends on remembered greatness even as he dishonors the absent master’s dependents.
21.96–100 The narrator cuts across Antinous’ inward hope with a precise forecast that turns the hoped-for bowshot back upon him. Thumos still expects stringing and shooting through iron, but the narrator substitutes tasting Odysseus’ arrow and identifies Antinous’ present dishonor and encouragement of his companions. Future death is thus attached to current agency without being reduced to his own conscious calculation.
Telemachus praises Penelope and claims the first attempt 21.101–117
101τοῖσι δὲ καὶ μετέειφʼ ἱερὴ ἲς Τηλεμάχοιο·
ὢ πόποι, ἦ μάλα με Ζεὺς ἄφρονα θῆκε Κρονίων·
μήτηρ μέν μοί φησι φίλη, πινυτή περ ἐοῦσα,
ἄλλῳ ἅμʼ ἕψεσθαι νοσφισσαμένη τόδε δῶμα·
105αὐτὰρ ἐγὼ γελόω καὶ τέρπομαι ἄφρονι θυμῷ.
ἀλλʼ ἄγετε, μνηστῆρες, ἐπεὶ τόδε φαίνετʼ ἄεθλον,
οἵη νῦν οὐκ ἔστι γυνὴ κατʼ Ἀχαιΐδα γαῖαν,
οὔτε Πύλου ἱερῆς οὔτʼ Ἄργεος οὔτε Μυκήνης·
οὔτʼ αὐτῆς Ἰθάκης οὔτʼ ἠπείροιο μελαίνης·
110καὶ δʼ αὐτοὶ τόδε γʼ ἴστε· τί με χρὴ μητέρος αἴνου;
ἀλλʼ ἄγε μὴ μύνῃσι παρέλκετε μηδʼ ἔτι τόξου
δηρὸν ἀποτρωπᾶσθε τανυστύος, ὄφρα ἴδωμεν.
καὶ δέ κεν αὐτὸς ἐγὼ τοῦ τόξου πειρησαίμην·
εἰ δέ κεν ἐντανύσω διοϊστεύσω τε σιδήρου,
115οὔ κέ μοι ἀχνυμένῳ τάδε δώματα πότνια μήτηρ
λείποι ἅμʼ ἄλλῳ ἰοῦσʼ, ὅτʼ ἐγὼ κατόπισθε λιποίμην
οἷός τʼ ἤδη πατρὸς ἀέθλια κάλʼ ἀνελέσθαι.
101Then the sacred strength of Telemachus spoke among them:
“Oh, Zeus son of Cronus has surely made me a fool!
My own mother, sensible though she is, says
she will leave this house and follow another man,
105while I laugh and delight in my witless heart.
Come then, suitors, since this contest now lies before you.
No woman like her now lives throughout Achaean land,
neither in holy Pylos nor Argos nor Mycenae,
nor here in Ithaca nor on the dark mainland.
110You know that yourselves. Why should I praise my mother?
Come, do not delay with excuses or keep shrinking
so long from stringing the bow, and let us see.
I myself might even make trial of it.
If I string it and shoot through the iron,
115it would bring me no grief if my lady mother
left this house with another, since I would remain behind,
already capable of taking up my father’s splendid prizes.”
Commentary
Telemachus uses self-mockery, praise of Penelope, and a claim to test the paternal bow to make his mother’s prospective departure a measure of his own readiness.
21.101–105 Telemachus’ opening joins the formulaic hierē is with self-accusations of aphrosynē and an aphrona thumos. The elevated strength-title does not prevent him from calling himself foolish as he contrasts Penelope’s sensible standing with his own laughter. The faculty language supports a public irony in which delight looks irrational because it accompanies the threatened departure of his mother, while the audience can also perceive the concealed plan advancing.
21.106–110 Telemachus takes over Penelope’s contest summons almost verbatim before enlarging it into a geography of praise. Line 106 is a normalized-only internal recurrence of her line 73. The repeated invitation authorizes his management of the test, while the catalogue from Pylos and Argos to Ithaca and the mainland publicly magnifies the mother he is about to imagine losing.
21.111–117 Telemachus measures readiness to remain in the oikos by the ability to take up his father’s prizes. He rebukes delay, volunteers for the bow, and says that success would blunt grief at Penelope’s departure because he could stay behind capable of paternal achievements. The claim makes strength a filial and household credential, but it does not equate mastery of the bow with complete maturity.
Telemachus sets the axes and nearly strings the bow 21.118–139
118ἦ καὶ ἀπʼ ὤμοιϊν χλαῖναν θέτο φοινικόεσσαν
ὀρθὸς ἀναΐξας, ἀπὸ δὲ ξίφος ὀξὺ θέτʼ ὤμων.
120πρῶτον μὲν πελέκεας στῆσεν, διὰ τάφρον ὀρύξας
πᾶσι μίαν μακρήν, καὶ ἐπὶ στάθμην ἴθυνεν,
ἀμφὶ δὲ γαῖαν ἔναξε· τάφος δʼ ἕλε πάντας ἰδόντας,
ὡς εὐκόσμως στῆσε· πάρος δʼ οὐ πώ ποτʼ ὀπώπει.
στῆ δʼ ἄρʼ ἐπʼ οὐδὸν ἰὼν καὶ τόξου πειρήτιζε.
125τρὶς μέν μιν πελέμιξεν ἐρύσσεσθαι μενεαίνων,
τρὶς δὲ μεθῆκε βίης, ἐπιελπόμενος τό γε θυμῷ,
νευρὴν ἐντανύειν διοϊστεύσειν τε σιδήρου.
καί νύ κε δή ῥʼ ἐτάνυσσε βίῃ τὸ τέταρτον ἀνέλκων,
ἀλλʼ Ὀδυσεὺς ἀνένευε καὶ ἔσχεθεν ἱέμενόν περ.
130τοῖς δʼ αὖτις μετέειφʼ ἱερὴ ἲς Τηλεμάχοιο·
ὢ πόποι, ἦ καὶ ἔπειτα κακός τʼ ἔσομαι καὶ ἄκικυς,
ἠὲ νεώτερός εἰμι καὶ οὔ πω χερσὶ πέποιθα
ἄνδρʼ ἀπαμύνασθαι, ὅτε τις πρότερος χαλεπήνῃ.
ἀλλʼ ἄγεθʼ, οἵ περ ἐμεῖο βίῃ προφερέστεροί ἐστε,
135τόξου πειρήσασθε, καὶ ἐκτελέωμεν ἄεθλον.
ὣς εἰπὼν τόξον μὲν ἀπὸ ἕο θῆκε χαμᾶζε,
κλίνας κολλητῇσιν ἐϋξέστῃς σανίδεσσιν,
αὐτοῦ δʼ ὠκὺ βέλος καλῇ προσέκλινε κορώνῃ,
ἂψ δʼ αὖτις κατʼ ἄρʼ ἕζετʼ ἐπὶ θρόνου ἔνθεν ἀνέστη.
118He spoke, sprang upright, and threw the crimson cloak from his shoulders,
then took the sharp sword from across his back.
120First he set the axes, digging one long trench
for them all, aligning them to a builder’s line,
and tamping the earth around them. Wonder seized everyone who saw
how orderly he set them, though he had never seen it done before.
He went and stood upon the threshold, then tested the bow.
125Three times he made it quiver, straining hard to draw it;
three times he eased off his strength, though his heart still hoped
to string the cord and shoot an arrow through the iron.
And now he would indeed have strung it, pulling with force a fourth time,
but Odysseus shook his head and stopped him, eager though he was.
130Then the sacred strength of Telemachus spoke again:
“Oh, I suppose I shall prove worthless and weak hereafter—
or else I am too young and do not yet trust my hands
to beat a man back when he is first to turn hostile.
Come, all you who surpass me in strength:
135make trial of the bow, and let us finish the contest.”
With that he set the bow down on the ground beside him,
leaning it against the smooth, close-fitted planks,
and propped the swift arrow against the bow’s beautiful horn.
Then he sat down once more on the chair from which he had risen.
Commentary
Telemachus aligns the axes with unexpected competence, nearly strings the bow on a fourth pull, reads Odysseus’ silent check, and converts obedience into a public admission of youth and weakness.
21.118–123 Telemachus’ first achievement is not force but exact arrangement of the contest’s material conditions. He removes cloak and sword, digs one trench, aligns the axes to a straight line, and compacts the earth. Spectators marvel because the order is excellent although he has never watched the procedure, making unexpected competence visible before the bow trial exposes its limit.
21.124–130 Repeated trial diction is interrupted by a counterfactual near-success and a silent paternal veto. The threshold stance and testing language recur around successive handlers, but Telemachus receives three balanced failures followed by a fourth pull the narrator says would have succeeded. Odysseus’ head movement checks him, and the return of the Telemachus speaking formula converts secret coordination into public speech.
21.131–139 Telemachus publicly interprets the halted attempt as weakness or youth, disguising successful coordination inside apparent failure. He questions future worth, hand-confidence, and capacity to repel an aggressor, then yields the bow to stronger men. His careful placement of bow and arrow and return to the same seat restore the room’s expected order while preserving what passed between father and son.
Leodes fails and reads death in the bow 21.140–174
140τοῖσιν δʼ Ἀντίνοος μετέφη, Εὐπείθεος υἱός·
ὄρνυσθʼ ἑξείης ἐπιδέξια πάντες ἑταῖροι,
ἀρξάμενοι τοῦ χώρου ὅθεν τέ περ οἰνοχοεύει.
ὣς ἔφατʼ Ἀντίνοος, τοῖσιν δʼ ἐπιήνδανε μῦθος.
Λειώδης δὲ πρῶτος ἀνίστατο, Οἴνοπος υἱός,
145ὅ σφι θυοσκόος ἔσκε, παρὰ κρητῆρα δὲ καλὸν
ἷζε μυχοίτατος αἰέν· ἀτασθαλίαι δέ οἱ οἴῳ
ἐχθραὶ ἔσαν, πᾶσιν δὲ νεμέσσα μνηστήρεσσιν·
ὅς ῥα τότε πρῶτος τόξον λάβε καὶ βέλος ὠκύ.
στῆ δʼ ἄρʼ ἐπʼ οὐδὸν ἰὼν καὶ τόξου πειρήτιζεν,
150οὐδέ μιν ἐντάνυσε· πρὶν γὰρ κάμε χεῖρας ἀνέλκων
ἀτρίπτους ἁπαλάς· μετὰ δὲ μνηστῆρσιν ἔειπεν·
ὦ φίλοι, οὐ μὲν ἐγὼ τανύω, λαβέτω δὲ καὶ ἄλλος.
πολλοὺς γὰρ τόδε τόξον ἀριστῆας κεκαδήσει
θυμοῦ καὶ ψυχῆς, ἐπεὶ ἦ πολὺ φέρτερόν ἐστι
155τεθνάμεν ἢ ζώοντας ἁμαρτεῖν, οὗθʼ ἕνεκʼ αἰεὶ
ἐνθάδʼ ὁμιλέομεν, ποτιδέγμενοι ἤματα πάντα.
νῦν μέν τις καὶ ἔλπετʼ ἐνὶ φρεσὶν ἠδὲ μενοινᾷ
γῆμαι Πηνελόπειαν, Ὀδυσσῆος παράκοιτιν.
αὐτὰρ ἐπὴν τόξου πειρήσεται ἠδὲ ἴδηται,
160ἄλλην δή τινʼ ἔπειτα Ἀχαιϊάδων εὐπέπλων
μνάσθω ἐέδνοισιν διζήμενος· ἡ δέ κʼ ἔπειτα
γήμαιθʼ ὅς κε πλεῖστα πόροι καὶ μόρσιμος ἔλθοι.
ὣς ἄρʼ ἐφώνησεν καὶ ἀπὸ ἕο τόξον ἔθηκε,
κλίνας κολλητῇσιν ἐϋξέστῃς σανίδεσσιν,
165αὐτοῦ δʼ ὠκὺ βέλος καλῇ προσέκλινε κορώνῃ,
ἂψ δʼ αὖτις κατʼ ἄρ ἕζετʼ ἐπὶ θρόνου ἔνθεν ἀνέστη.
Ἀντίνοος δʼ ἐνένιπεν ἔπος τʼ ἔφατʼ ἔκ τʼ ὀνόμαζε·
Λειῶδες, ποῖόν σε ἔπος φύγεν ἕρκος ὀδόντων,
δεινόν τʼ ἀργαλέον τε, —νεμεσσῶμαι δέ τʼ ἀκούων—
170εἰ δὴ τοῦτό γε τόξον ἀριστῆας κεκαδήσει
θυμοῦ καὶ ψυχῆς, ἐπεὶ οὐ δύνασαι σὺ τανύσσαι.
οὐ γάρ τοί σέ γε τοῖον ἐγείνατο πότνια μήτηρ
οἷόν τε ῥυτῆρα βιοῦ τʼ ἔμεναι καὶ ὀϊστῶν·
ἀλλʼ ἄλλοι τανύουσι τάχα μνηστῆρες ἀγαυοί.
140Antinous, Eupeithes’ son, addressed them:
“Rise one after another, companions, moving to the right,
beginning from the place where the wine-pourer starts.”
So Antinous spoke, and his proposal pleased them.
Leodes, Oenops’ son, was first to rise.
145He was their diviner at sacrifice and always sat
farthest in, beside the handsome mixing bowl. He alone
hated their reckless acts and felt indignation at all the suitors.
He was the first then to take the bow and swift arrow.
He went and stood upon the threshold, then tested the bow,
150but could not string it; his uncalloused, tender hands
tired first from pulling. He spoke among the suitors:
“Friends, I will not string it. Let another take it.
This bow will still deprive many noble men
of spirit and of life, since it is far better
155to die than to live on and fail in what has brought us
together here, waiting in expectation day after day.
At present each man still hopes within his mind and longs
to marry Penelope, Odysseus’ wife.
But once he has tried the bow and seen the outcome,
160let him seek another among the well-robed Achaean women
and court her with bridal gifts. Penelope may then
marry the man who offers most and comes as her destined match.”
So he spoke and set the bow down beside him,
leaning it against the smooth, close-fitted planks,
165and propped the swift arrow against the bow’s beautiful horn.
Then he sat down once more on the chair from which he had risen.
Antinous rebuked him, called him by name, and said:
“Leodes, what a thing has escaped the barrier of your teeth—
a dreadful, grievous thing! I am indignant to hear it—
170that this bow will deprive noble men
of spirit and of life because you cannot string it.
Your lady mother did not bear you as the sort of man
who could draw a bow and shoot its arrows.
The other lordly suitors will string it soon enough.”
Commentary
Leodes, the suitors’ sacrificial diviner and internal critic, fails with tender hands and reads loss of thumos and psyche in the bow; Antinous makes that warning a defect of Leodes rather than a judgment on the group.
21.140–143 Antinous organizes the trial through recurrent address and approval formulas, making social order precede bodily competition. A byte-identical speaking line has several earlier counterparts; the prescribed movement begins at the wine-pourer’s place and proceeds rightward. Line 143 later returns exactly at 269, so collective approval frames both the opening order and Antinous’ postponement.
21.144–151 Leodes’ role beside the mixing bowl complicates the suitor group without removing him from it. He serves as thuoskoos, sits innermost, and alone hates their atasthaliai, yet he participates in the contest and is identified among those seeking Penelope. His first failure is attributed immediately to unworked, tender hands, a bodily fact that precedes his fatal interpretation.
21.152–162 Leodes distinguishes thumos and psyche in a death forecast without offering a systematic anatomy of the person. The bow will deprive many aristoi of both terms, and he values death over surviving failure in the long courtship. Hope is then located in phrenes before he redirects the men toward bride-gifts and a morsimos match, shifting from bodily defeat to marriage exchange and allotted outcome.
21.163–167 Leodes’ withdrawal reproduces Telemachus’ placement sequence, and Antinous’ rebuke reuses the formula first directed at the weeping herdsmen. Lines 164-65 repeat lines 137-38 byte-for-byte, while line 167 repeats line 84. Exact recurrence turns distinct agents into positions within the same contest choreography: bow down, arrow propped, speaker seated, rebuke launched.
21.168–174 Antinous converts Leodes’ warning about collective death into an accusation of individual inadequacy. He polices the escape of speech past the teeth, claims indignation, and makes inability to string the bow the sole cause of the warning. By invoking Leodes’ mother and a masculine identity as bow-drawer and archer, he replaces the group’s danger with competitive shame and confidently predicts another suitor’s success.
The suitors warm the bow while the loyal herdsmen leave 21.175–190
175ὣς φάτο, καί ῥʼ ἐκέλευσε Μελάνθιον, αἰπόλον αἰγῶν·
ἄγρει δή, πῦρ κῆον ἐνὶ μεγάροισι, Μελανθεῦ,
πὰρ δὲ τίθει δίφρον τε μέγαν καὶ κῶας ἐπʼ αὐτοῦ,
ἐκ δὲ στέατος ἔνεικε μέγαν τροχὸν ἔνδον ἐόντος,
ὄφρα νέοι θάλποντες, ἐπιχρίοντες ἀλοιφῇ,
180τόξου πειρώμεσθα καὶ ἐκτελέωμεν ἄεθλον.
ὣς φάθʼ, ὁ δʼ αἶψʼ ἀνέκαιε Μελάνθιος ἀκάματον πῦρ,
πὰρ δὲ φέρων δίφρον θῆκεν καὶ κῶας ἐπʼ αὐτοῦ,
ἐκ δὲ στέατος ἔνεικε μέγαν τροχὸν ἔνδον ἐόντος·
τῷ ῥα νέοι θάλποντες ἐπειρῶντʼ· οὐδʼ ἐδύναντο
185ἐντανύσαι, πολλὸν δὲ βίης ἐπιδευέες ἦσαν.
Ἀντίνοος δʼ ἔτʼ ἐπεῖχε καὶ Εὐρύμαχος θεοειδής,
ἀρχοὶ μνηστήρων· ἀρετῇ δʼ ἔσαν ἔξοχʼ ἄριστοι.
τὼ δʼ ἐξ οἴκου βῆσαν ὁμαρτήσαντες ἅμʼ ἄμφω
βουκόλος ἠδὲ συφορβὸς Ὀδυσσῆος θείοιο·
190ἐκ δʼ αὐτὸς μετὰ τοὺς δόμου ἤλυθε δῖος Ὀδυσσεύς.
175So he spoke, and ordered Melanthius, the goatherd:
“Come, Melanthius, light a fire here in the hall.
Set a broad stool beside it with a fleece upon it,
and bring out a large wheel of the fat stored within,
so that we young men can warm and grease the bow,
180then test it and finish the contest.”
He spoke, and Melanthius quickly kindled the tireless fire,
brought a stool beside it and laid a fleece upon it,
then carried out a large wheel of the fat stored within.
The young men warmed the bow and tried it, but could not
185string it: they fell far short of the strength required.
Antinous and godlike Eurymachus still held back,
the suitors’ leaders, by far the best of them in prowess.
Meanwhile the two men went out of the house together,
the cowherd and the swineherd of godlike Odysseus,
190and godlike Odysseus himself came out behind them.
Commentary
Melanthius promptly supplies fire, fleece, and stored fat, enabling the suitors to treat the bow as a material problem; their failure continues while Eumaeus and Philoetius leave together and Odysseus follows.
21.175–183 Melanthius’ prompt service makes household resources available to the suitors’ attempt. Antinous orders fire, stool, fleece, and a wheel of stored fat; Melanthius produces each item with speed. The sequence records skilled compliance and access to stores, while the beneficiaries’ collective first-person language absorbs his labor into their effort.
21.184–190 The warmed bow defeats the collective young men while the two leading suitors preserve a last hierarchy of expectation. Their material remedy does not close the strength deficit; Antinous and Eurymachus hold back as leaders and reputedly best in aretē. At the same moment, Eumaeus and Philoetius leave together and Odysseus follows, so public delay creates the interval for a concealed alliance.
Odysseus tests the herdsmen and reveals his scar 21.191–220
191ἀλλʼ ὅτε δή ῥʼ ἐκτὸς θυρέων ἔσαν ἠδὲ καὶ αὐλῆς,
φθεγξάμενός σφε ἔπεσσι προσηύδα μειλιχίοισι·
βουκόλε καὶ σύ, συφορβέ, ἔπος τί κε μυθησαίμην,
ἦ αὐτὸς κεύθω; φάσθαι δέ με θυμὸς ἀνώγει.
195ποῖοί κʼ εἶτʼ Ὀδυσῆϊ ἀμυνέμεν, εἴ ποθεν ἔλθοι
ὧδε μάλʼ ἐξαπίνης καί τις θεὸς αὐτὸν ἐνείκαι;
ἤ κε μνηστήρεσσιν ἀμύνοιτʼ ἦ Ὀδυσῆϊ;
εἴπαθʼ ὅπως ὑμέας κραδίη θυμός τε κελεύει.
τὸν δʼ αὖτε προσέειπε βοῶν ἐπιβουκόλος ἀνήρ·
200Ζεῦ πάτερ, αἲ γὰρ τοῦτο τελευτήσειας ἐέλδωρ,
ὡς ἔλθοι μὲν κεῖνος ἀνήρ, ἀγάγοι δέ ἑ δαίμων·
γνοίης χʼ οἵη ἐμὴ δύναμις καὶ χεῖρες ἕπονται.
ὣς δʼ αὔτως Εὔμαιος ἐπεύχετο πᾶσι θεοῖσι
νοστῆσαι Ὀδυσῆα πολύφρονα ὅνδε δόμονδε.
205αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ δὴ τῶν γε νόον νημερτέʼ ἀνέγνω,
ἐξαῦτίς σφε ἔπεσσιν ἀμειβόμενος προσέειπεν·
ἔνδον μὲν δὴ ὅδʼ αὐτὸς ἐγώ, κακὰ πολλὰ μογήσας
ἤλυθον εἰκοστῷ ἔτεϊ ἐς πατρίδα γαῖαν.
γιγνώσκω δʼ ὡς σφῶϊν ἐελδομένοισιν ἱκάνω
210οἴοισι δμώων· τῶν δʼ ἄλλων οὔ τευ ἄκουσα
εὐξαμένου ἐμὲ αὖτις ὑπότροπον οἴκαδʼ ἱκέσθαι.
σφῶϊν δʼ, ὡς ἔσεταί περ, ἀληθείην καταλέξω.
εἴ χʼ ὑπʼ ἐμοί γε θεὸς δαμάσῃ μνηστῆρας ἀγαυούς,
ἄξομαι ἀμφοτέροις ἀλόχους καὶ κτήματʼ ὀπάσσω
215οἰκία τʼ ἐγγὺς ἐμεῖο τετυγμένα· καί μοι ἔπειτα
Τηλεμάχου ἑτάρω τε κασιγνήτω τε ἔσεσθον.
εἰ δʼ ἄγε δή, καὶ σῆμα ἀριφραδὲς ἄλλο τι δείξω,
ὄφρα μʼ ἐῢ γνῶτον πιστωθῆτόν τʼ ἐνὶ θυμῷ,
οὐλήν, τήν ποτέ με σῦς ἤλασε λευκῷ ὀδόντι
220Παρνησόνδʼ ἐλθόντα σὺν υἱάσιν Αὐτολύκοιο.
191When they were outside the doors and the courtyard,
he raised his voice and addressed them with gentle words:
“Cowherd—and you, swineherd—should I tell you something,
or keep it hidden? My spirit urges me to speak.
195What kind of men would you be in defending Odysseus if he came
here suddenly from somewhere and some god brought him?
Would you fight for the suitors, or for Odysseus?
Tell me what your hearts and spirits command.”
The man who oversaw the cattle answered him:
200“Father Zeus, if only you would bring this wish to pass—
may that man come, and may a divinity lead him here!
Then you would know what strength I have, and what these hands can do.”
Eumaeus likewise prayed to all the gods
that Odysseus of many counsels might return to this house.
205Once Odysseus knew the truth of their intentions,
he answered them again and said:
“Here inside stands the man himself: I am Odysseus. After suffering much,
I have come in the twentieth year to my native land.
I know that among all the enslaved men I have reached only you two
210who longed for me. Of all the rest I heard not one
pray that I would return and come home again.
I will tell you both the truth of what shall be.
If a god subdues the lordly suitors beneath my hand,
I will find wives for you both and give you property
215and houses built close beside my own. From that time
you will be Telemachus’ companions and his brothers.
Come now: I will show you another unmistakable sign,
so that you may know me fully and trust me in your hearts—
the scar a boar once struck me with its white tusk
220when I went to Parnassus with Autolycus’ sons.”
Commentary
Outside the secured social gaze of the hall, Odysseus tests the herdsmen with a hypothetical return, hears their declared allegiance and prayers, recognizes their intent, names himself, and offers the scar as proof.
21.191–198 Odysseus tests allegiance by asking what kradiē and thumos command, not by demanding an abstract declaration of identity. His gentle address first weighs speech against concealment, then poses the return as a divine-assisted hypothetical and gives only two sides in the coming defense. Heart and thumos mark the inward source from which the herdsmen must articulate a choice, but the paired terms do not require distinct modern faculties.
21.199–204 Philoetius and Eumaeus answer the test through distinct prayers whose desired return is attributed to divine action. Philoetius appeals to Zeus to fulfill a wish, imagines a daimon leading Odysseus, and offers his own strength as future proof. Eumaeus prays to all the gods for the many-minded man’s nostos. Their human utterances align, but neither is narrated as causing a return already achieved.
21.205–211 The phrase about recognizing their true noos marks Odysseus’ reading of intention before he changes the information available to them. He moves from testing to first-person disclosure, names suffering and the twentieth-year return, and distinguishes these two among the dmoes as the only ones whose longing and prayers he has heard. Noos here is evidenced by their answers, while nostos language binds their disposition to his homecoming.
21.212–220 Odysseus promises incorporation into the household through wives, property, neighboring houses, and fictive brotherhood with Telemachus. The rewards move from marriage and possessions to spatial proximity and kin-like status, but they remain a master’s future allocation conditional on divine victory. The scar then supplies bodily proof so that trust need not rest on the promise alone.
The herdsmen recognize Odysseus and receive their orders 21.221–244
221ὣς εἰπὼν ῥάκεα μεγάλης ἀποέργαθεν οὐλῆς.
τὼ δʼ ἐπεὶ εἰσιδέτην εὖ τʼ ἐφράσσαντο ἕκαστα,
κλαῖον ἄρʼ ἀμφʼ Ὀδυσῆϊ δαΐφρονι χεῖρε βαλόντε,
καὶ κύνεον ἀγαπαζόμενοι κεφαλήν τε καὶ ὤμους
225ὣς δʼ αὔτως Ὀδυσεὺς κεφαλὰς καὶ χεῖρας ἔκυσσε.
καί νύ κʼ ὀδυρομένοισιν ἔδυ φάος ἠελίοιο,
εἰ μὴ Ὀδυσσεὺς αὐτὸς ἐρύκακε φώνησέν τε·
παύεσθον κλαυθμοῖο γόοιό τε, μή τις ἴδηται
ἐξελθὼν μεγάροιο, ἀτὰρ εἴπῃσι καὶ εἴσω.
230ἀλλὰ προμνηστῖνοι ἐσέλθετε, μηδʼ ἅμα πάντες,
πρῶτος ἐγώ, μετὰ δʼ ὔμμες· ἀτὰρ τόδε σῆμα τετύχθω·
ἄλλοι μὲν γὰρ πάντες, ὅσοι μνηστῆρες ἀγαυοί,
οὐκ ἐάσουσιν ἐμοὶ δόμεναι βιὸν ἠδὲ φαρέτρην·
ἀλλὰ σύ, δῖʼ Εὔμαιε, φέρων ἀνὰ δώματα τόξον
235ἐν χείρεσσιν ἐμοὶ θέμεναι, εἰπεῖν τε γυναιξὶ
κληῗσαι μεγάροιο θύρας πυκινῶς ἀραρυίας,
ἢν δέ τις ἢ στοναχῆς ἠὲ κτύπου ἔνδον ἀκούσῃ
ἀνδρῶν ἡμετέροισιν ἐν ἕρκεσι, μή τι θύραζε
προβλώσκειν, ἀλλʼ αὐτοῦ ἀκὴν ἔμεναι παρὰ ἔργῳ.
240σοὶ δέ, Φιλοίτιε δῖε, θύρας ἐπιτέλλομαι αὐλῆς
κληῗσαι κληῗδι, θοῶς δʼ ἐπὶ δεσμὸν ἰῆλαι.
ὣς εἰπὼν εἰσῆλθε δόμους εὖ ναιετάοντας·
ἕζετʼ ἔπειτʼ ἐπὶ δίφρον ἰών, ἔνθεν περ ἀνέστη·
ἐς δʼ ἄρα καὶ τὼ δμῶε ἴτην θείου Ὀδυσῆος.
221With that he drew his rags away from the great scar.
When the two men saw it and recognized every detail,
they wept and threw their arms around discerning Odysseus,
welcoming him with kisses on his head and shoulders.
225Odysseus in turn kissed their heads and hands.
The sunlight would have gone down while they lamented
if Odysseus himself had not stopped them and said:
“End your weeping and lament, before someone comes
out of the hall, sees us, and carries the news inside.
230Go in one after another, not all together—
I first, and then you. And let this be our signal:
all the others, as many as are lordly suitors,
will refuse to let the bow and quiver be given to me.
But you, noble Eumaeus, carry the bow through the hall
235and place it in my hands. Tell the women
to lock the close-fitted doors of the hall;
if any hears the groaning or the clash of men
inside, within our walls, she must not rush
outside but remain there silently at her work.
240And you, noble Philoetius, I charge you to lock
the courtyard gate and quickly fasten its binding.”
With that he entered the well-inhabited house
and sat once more on the chair from which he had risen.
Then the two enslaved men of godlike Odysseus went inside as well.
Commentary
Recognition becomes reciprocal touch and lament, then Odysseus curtails it and assigns differentiated tasks: Eumaeus must deliver the bow and instruct the women, while Philoetius must bind the courtyard gate.
21.221–225 The scar converts verbal self-disclosure into shared embodied recognition and reciprocal touch. The herdsmen inspect it closely, embrace Odysseus, and kiss head and shoulders; Odysseus answers by kissing heads and hands. The differentiated body parts preserve the scene’s status texture even as tears and touch make recognition mutual.
21.226–231 A sunset counterfactual measures the force of reunion until Odysseus restores tactical time. The narrator imagines lament consuming the remaining day; Odysseus stops it to prevent discovery, orders staggered entry, and establishes a signal. Control of grief becomes part of metis, but it follows rather than cancels the recognition just enacted.
21.232–241 The enclosure plan distributes dangerous household labor by status, location, and access. Eumaeus must carry the bow and relay an order to the women to remain at work despite sounds of violence; Philoetius must lock and bind the courtyard. Odysseus anticipates the suitors’ refusal and uses subordinate expertise to control weapons, interior movement, and escape.
21.242–244 A recurrent return-to-seat sequence reinserts all three conspirators into their earlier places before the public contest resumes. Odysseus enters the well-inhabited house and sits where he had risen; line 242 has a punctuation-normalized non-byte match at 17.324, and line 243 later receives the normalized internal reprise 21.392←21.243. The two herdsmen follow under their narrated status label, making restored spatial order carry concealed change.
Eurymachus fails, and Antinous defers the contest 21.245–269
245Εὐρύμαχος δʼ ἤδη τόξον μετὰ χερσὶν ἐνώμα,
θάλπων ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα σέλᾳ πυρός· ἀλλά μιν οὐδʼ ὣς
ἐντανύσαι δύνατο, μέγα δʼ ἔστενε κυδάλιμον κῆρ·
ὀχθήσας δʼ ἄρα εἶπεν ἔπος τʼ ἔφατʼ ἔκ τʼ ὀνόμαζεν·
ὢ πόποι, ἧ μοι ἄχος περί τʼ αὐτοῦ καὶ περὶ πάντων·
250οὔ τι γάμου τοσσοῦτον ὀδύρομαι, ἀχνύμενός περ·
εἰσὶ καὶ ἄλλαι πολλαὶ Ἀχαιΐδες, αἱ μὲν ἐν αὐτῇ
ἀμφιάλῳ Ἰθάκῃ, αἱ δʼ ἄλλῃσιν πολίεσσιν·
ἀλλʼ εἰ δὴ τοσσόνδε βίης ἐπιδευέες εἰμὲν
ἀντιθέου Ὀδυσῆος, ὅ τʼ οὐ δυνάμεσθα τανύσσαι
255τόξον· ἐλεγχείη δὲ καὶ ἐσσομένοισι πυθέσθαι.
τὸν δʼ αὖτʼ Ἀντίνοος προσέφη, Εὐπείθεος υἱός·
Εὐρύμαχʼ, οὐχ οὕτως ἔσται· νοέεις δὲ καὶ αὐτός.
νῦν μὲν γὰρ κατὰ δῆμον ἑορτὴ τοῖο θεοῖο
ἁγνή· τίς δέ κε τόξα τιταίνοιτʼ; ἀλλὰ ἕκηλοι
260κάτθετʼ· ἀτὰρ πελέκεάς γε καὶ εἴ κʼ εἰῶμεν ἅπαντας
ἑστάμεν· οὐ μὲν γάρ τινʼ ἀναιρήσεσθαι ὀΐω,
ἐλθόντʼ ἐς μέγαρον Λαερτιάδεω Ὀδυσῆος.
ἀλλʼ ἄγετʼ, οἰνοχόος μὲν ἐπαρξάσθω δεπάεσσιν,
ὄφρα σπείσαντες καταθείομεν ἀγκύλα τόξα·
265ἠῶθεν δὲ κέλεσθε Μελάνθιον, αἰπόλον αἰγῶν,
αἶγας ἄγειν, αἳ πᾶσι μέγʼ ἔξοχοι αἰπολίοισιν,
ὄφρʼ ἐπὶ μηρία θέντες Ἀπόλλωνι κλυτοτόξῳ
τόξου πειρώμεσθα καὶ ἐκτελέωμεν ἄεθλον.
ὣς ἔφατʼ Ἀντίνοος, τοῖσιν δʼ ἐπιήνδανε μῦθος.
245Eurymachus was already turning the bow in his hands,
warming each part in the fire’s glow. Still,
he had no strength to string it, and his proud heart gave a heavy groan.
Deeply troubled, he called out and said:
“Oh, what grief I feel for myself and for us all!
250It is not so much the marriage I mourn, though I am distressed.
There are many other Achaean women, some here
on sea-girt Ithaca and some in other cities.
But if we fall so far short of godlike Odysseus
in strength that we cannot string his bow,
255it will be a shame for generations yet to come to hear of.”
Antinous, Eupeithes’ son, answered him:
“Eurymachus, that is not how it will be—you know it yourself.
Today throughout the community is this god’s
holy festival. Who would draw a bow? Set it down
260and be at ease. As for the axes, even if we leave them all
standing, I think no one will take one away
after entering the hall of Odysseus, Laertes’ son.
Come, let the wine-pourer begin with the cups,
so that after our libations we may put down the curved bow.
265At dawn tell Melanthius the goatherd
to bring goats, the finest in all his herds,
so that we may lay thigh-pieces on the altar for Apollo, famed for his bow,
then test this bow and finish the contest.”
So Antinous spoke, and his proposal pleased them.
Commentary
Eurymachus experiences failure as future public shame more than lost marriage; Antinous asserts an unnamed god’s present festival, proposes cups and libation, and defers renewed trial to a next-day sacrifice for Apollo.
21.245–255 Eurymachus experiences the bow as a measure of future reputation rather than chiefly a route to marriage. After warming and turning it, he groans in his kēr and says the marriage is not his main grief because other women exist. The feared elencheiē belongs to generations who would hear how far the suitors fell below Odysseus’ biē, making failed succession a negative kleos.
21.256–264 Antinous uses a holy-festival assertion and a proposed cups-and-libation sequence to suspend the test without admitting defeat. At 21.258-64 Antinous calls the present day sacred to an unnamed god, asks who would draw a bow, and proposes that the wine-pourer begin the cups so they may pour libations and put the bow away. These remain actions proposed in his speech; the narrator separately certifies handwashing, serving, libation, and drinking at 21.270-73, while Apollo appears in the proposed next-day sacrifice at 21.267.
21.265–269 Antinous shifts completion into a tomorrow organized through Melanthius’ goats and Apollo’s bow-title. He commands the goatherd to bring the best animals, proposes thigh-pieces for Apollo, and makes renewed trial follow sacrifice. The approved speech preserves his leadership while deferral protects him and Eurymachus from immediate exposure.
Odysseus asks for the bow, and Antinous threatens him 21.270–310
270τοῖσι δὲ κήρυκες μὲν ὕδωρ ἐπὶ χεῖρας ἔχευαν,
κοῦροι δὲ κρητῆρας ἐπεστέψαντο ποτοῖο,
νώμησαν δʼ ἄρα πᾶσιν ἐπαρξάμενοι δεπάεσσιν.
οἱ δʼ ἐπεὶ οὖν σπεῖσάν τʼ ἔπιόν θʼ ὅσον ἤθελε θυμός,
τοῖς δὲ δολοφρονέων μετέφη πολύμητις Ὀδυσσεύς·
275κέκλυτέ μευ, μνηστῆρες ἀγακλειτῆς βασιλείης·
ὄφρʼ εἴπω τά με θυμὸς ἐνὶ στήθεσσι κελεύει·
Εὐρύμαχον δὲ μάλιστα καὶ Ἀντίνοον θεοειδέα
λίσσομʼ, ἐπεὶ καὶ τοῦτο ἔπος κατὰ μοῖραν ἔειπε,
νῦν μὲν παῦσαι τόξον, ἐπιτρέψαι δὲ θεοῖσιν·
280ἠῶθεν δὲ θεὸς δώσει κράτος ᾧ κʼ ἐθέλῃσιν.
ἀλλʼ ἄγʼ ἐμοὶ δότε τόξον ἐΰξοον, ὄφρα μεθʼ ὑμῖν
χειρῶν καὶ σθένεος πειρήσομαι, ἤ μοι ἔτʼ ἐστὶν
ἴς, οἵη πάρος ἔσκεν ἐνὶ γναμπτοῖσι μέλεσσιν,
ἦ ἤδη μοι ὄλεσσεν ἄλη τʼ ἀκομιστίη τε.
285ὣς ἔφαθʼ, οἱ δʼ ἄρα πάντες ὑπερφιάλως νεμέσησαν,
δείσαντες μὴ τόξον ἐΰξοον ἐντανύσειεν.
Ἀντίνοος δʼ ἐνένιπεν ἔπος τʼ ἔφατʼ ἔκ τʼ ὀνόμαζεν·
ἆ δειλὲ ξείνων, ἔνι τοι φρένες οὐδʼ ἠβαιαί·
οὐκ ἀγαπᾷς ὃ ἕκηλος ὑπερφιάλοισι μεθʼ ἡμῖν
290δαίνυσαι, οὐδέ τι δαιτὸς ἀμέρδεαι, αὐτὰρ ἀκούεις
μύθων ἡμετέρων καὶ ῥήσιος; οὐδέ τις ἄλλος
ἡμετέρων μύθων ξεῖνος καὶ πτωχὸς ἀκούει.
οἶνός σε τρώει μελιηδής, ὅς τε καὶ ἄλλους
βλάπτει, ὃς ἄν μιν χανδὸν ἕλῃ μηδʼ αἴσιμα πίνῃ.
295οἶνος καὶ Κένταυρον, ἀγακλυτὸν Εὐρυτίωνα,
ἄασʼ ἐνὶ μεγάρῳ μεγαθύμου Πειριθόοιο,
ἐς Λαπίθας ἐλθόνθʼ· ὁ δʼ ἐπεὶ φρένας ἄασεν οἴνῳ,
μαινόμενος κάκʼ ἔρεξε δόμον κάτα Πειριθόοιο·
ἥρωας δʼ ἄχος εἷλε, διὲκ προθύρου δὲ θύραζε
300ἕλκον ἀναΐξαντες, ἀπʼ οὔατα νηλέϊ χαλκῷ
ῥῖνάς τʼ ἀμήσαντες· ὁ δὲ φρεσὶν ᾗσιν ἀασθεὶς
ἤϊεν ἣν ἄτην ὀχέων ἀεσίφρονι θυμῷ.
ἐξ οὗ Κενταύροισι καὶ ἀνδράσι νεῖκος ἐτύχθη,
οἷ δʼ αὐτῷ πρώτῳ κακὸν εὕρετο οἰνοβαρείων.
305ὣς καὶ σοὶ μέγα πῆμα πιφαύσκομαι, αἴ κε τὸ τόξον
ἐντανύσῃς· οὐ γάρ τευ ἐπητύος ἀντιβολήσεις
ἡμετέρῳ ἐνὶ δήμῳ, ἄφαρ δέ σε νηῒ μελαίνῃ
εἰς Ἔχετον βασιλῆα, βροτῶν δηλήμονα πάντων,
πέμψομεν· ἔνθεν δʼ οὔ τι σαώσεαι· ἀλλὰ ἕκηλος
310πῖνέ τε, μηδʼ ἐρίδαινε μετʼ ἀνδράσι κουροτέροισιν.
270Heralds poured water over their hands,
while young men filled the mixing bowls to the brim with drink
and served them all, first pouring a little into every cup.
When they had poured libations and drunk as much as their spirits wished,
resourceful Odysseus, concealing his purpose, spoke among them:
275“Hear me, suitors of the glorious queen,
so that I may say what the spirit in my breast commands.
I appeal especially to Eurymachus and godlike Antinous,
since he has just made this fitting proposal:
put the bow aside for now and leave the outcome to the gods;
280at dawn the god will give power to whomever he chooses.
Come now, hand me the well-polished bow, so that here among you
I may put my hands and strength to proof, and see whether I still possess
the force that once lived in my pliant limbs,
or whether wandering and neglect have now destroyed it.”
285So he spoke, and they all grew fiercely indignant,
afraid that he might string the well-polished bow.
Antinous rebuked him, called him by name, and said:
“Wretched stranger, have you no sense at all?
Are you not content to feast here untroubled among your betters,
290with no portion of the meal withheld, while you listen
to our talk and conversation? No other
stranger or beggar is admitted to hear us speak.
Honey-sweet wine has wounded you, as it harms anyone
who gulps it down and does not drink in proper measure.
295Wine also deluded the Centaur, renowned Eurytion,
in the hall of great-hearted Pirithous,
when he came among the Lapiths. Once wine had led his mind astray,
he went mad and did evil through Pirithous’ house.
Grief seized the heroes; they sprang up and dragged him
300outside through the forecourt, cutting off his ears
and nose with pitiless bronze. Deluded in his own mind,
he went away, carrying the ruin of his reckless spirit.
From that time strife arose between Centaurs and men,
but by his drunkenness he first brought disaster on himself.
305So I warn that great suffering awaits you too if you string
this bow. You will meet no kindness
anywhere in our land; we will send you at once in a black ship
to King Echetus, the bane of all mortals.
You will never escape him. Drink quietly, then,
310and do not contend with men younger than yourself.”
Commentary
After the libation, the disguised Odysseus adopts the suitors’ language of divine allotment and asks only to test his surviving hands and strength; their fear exposes the danger they perceive beneath his abject status.
21.270–274 A conventional handwashing, mixing-bowl, serving, libation, and drinking sequence creates the formal pause from which concealed speech emerges. Lines 270-71 have exact earlier counterparts, and the transition culminates in the byte-identical speech introduction at 274. The epithet and participle assign dolos to Odysseus’ thinking even while his words adopt the group’s ritual frame.
21.275–284 Odysseus turns bodily faculty vocabulary into a plausible disguised test while dolophroneōn marks the concealed purpose outside the speech. Within the appeal, thumos commands speech and the stranger asks to test cheires and sthenos, then asks whether is remains in bent limbs or has been destroyed by wandering and neglect. The narrator’s framing supplies metis; the first-person body inventory supplies social plausibility.
21.285–292 The suitors’ fear exposes the limit of the hospitality Antinous claims to extend. They resent the request because they fear success; Antinous then calls the speaker xenos and ptōchos while treating full portions and access to elite conversation as favors that should purchase passivity. Inclusion at table becomes a status weapon rather than protection from humiliation.
21.293–304 Antinous’ Centaur story is an internal myth used to diagnose the guest’s request as drunken self-ruin. Wine misleads Eurytion’s phrenes and produces madness, mutilation, and conflict between Centaurs and men; Antinous makes the victim carry his own atē in an unwise thumos. The analogy tries to convert Odysseus’ controlled metis into impaired faculty and to present suitor violence as heroic correction.
21.305–310 Antinous completes the analogy with a concrete threat of removal, transport, and irreversible harm. Stringing the bow will bring no kindness in the community; a black ship will take the guest to Echetus, and the command to drink quietly reduces safety to submission among younger men. The future verbs display coercive intention, not an action already carried out.
Penelope defends the guest’s trial of the bow 21.311–342
311τὸν δʼ αὖτε προσέειπε περίφρων Πηνελόπεια·
Ἀντίνοʼ, οὐ μὲν καλὸν ἀτέμβειν οὐδὲ δίκαιον
ξείνους Τηλεμάχου, ὅς κεν τάδε δώμαθʼ ἵκηται·
ἔλπεαι, αἴ χʼ ὁ ξεῖνος Ὀδυσσῆος μέγα τόξον
315ἐντανύσῃ χερσίν τε βίηφί τε ἧφι πιθήσας,
οἴκαδέ μʼ ἄξεσθαι καὶ ἑὴν θήσεσθαι ἄκοιτιν;
οὐδʼ αὐτός που τοῦτό γʼ ἐνὶ στήθεσσιν ἔολπε·
μηδέ τις ὑμείων τοῦ γʼ εἵνεκα θυμὸν ἀχεύων
ἐνθάδε δαινύσθω, ἐπεὶ οὐδὲ μὲν οὐδὲ ἔοικεν.
320τὴν δʼ αὖτʼ Εὐρύμαχος, Πολύβου πάϊς, ἀντίον ηὔδα·
κούρη Ἰκαρίοιο, περίφρον Πηνελόπεια,
οὔ τί σε τόνδʼ ἄξεσθαι ὀϊόμεθʼ· οὐδὲ ἔοικεν·
ἀλλʼ αἰσχυνόμενοι φάτιν ἀνδρῶν ἠδὲ γυναικῶν,
μή ποτέ τις εἴπῃσι κακώτερος ἄλλος Ἀχαιῶν
325ἦ πολὺ χείρονες ἄνδρες ἀμύμονος ἀνδρὸς ἄκοιτιν
μνῶνται, οὐδέ τι τόξον ἐΰξοον ἐντανύουσιν·
ἀλλʼ ἄλλος τις πτωχὸς ἀνὴρ ἀλαλήμενος ἐλθὼν
ῥηϊδίως ἐτάνυσσε βιόν, διὰ δʼ ἧκε σιδήρου.
ὣς ἐρέουσʼ, ἡμῖν δʼ ἂν ἐλέγχεα ταῦτα γένοιτο.
330τὸν δʼ αὖτε προσέειπε περίφρων Πηνελόπεια·
Εὐρύμαχʼ, οὔ πως ἔστιν ἐϋκλεῖας κατὰ δῆμον
ἔμμεναι οἳ δὴ οἶκον ἀτιμάζοντες ἔδουσιν
ἀνδρὸς ἀριστῆος· τί δʼ ἐλέγχεα ταῦτα τίθεσθε;
οὗτος δὲ ξεῖνος μάλα μὲν μέγας ἠδʼ εὐπηγής,
335πατρὸς δʼ ἐξ ἀγαθοῦ γένος εὔχεται ἔμμεναι υἱός.
ἀλλʼ ἄγε οἱ δότε τόξον ἐΰξοον, ὄφρα ἴδωμεν.
ὧδε γὰρ ἐξερέω, τὸ δὲ καὶ τετελεσμένον ἔσται·
εἴ κέ μιν ἐντανύσῃ, δώῃ δέ οἱ εὖχος Ἀπόλλων,
ἕσσω μιν χλαῖνάν τε χιτῶνά τε, εἵματα καλά,
340δώσω δʼ ὀξὺν ἄκοντα, κυνῶν ἀλκτῆρα καὶ ἀνδρῶν,
καὶ ξίφος ἄμφηκες· δώσω δʼ ὑπὸ ποσσὶ πέδιλα,
πέμψω δʼ ὅππη μιν κραδίη θυμός τε κελεύει.
311Discerning Penelope answered him:
“Antinous, it is neither honorable nor just to mistreat
any guest of Telemachus who comes beneath this roof.
Do you expect that if the stranger strings Odysseus’ great bow,
315trusting in the strength of his own hands,
he will take me home and make me his wife?
Even he cannot harbor such a hope within his breast.
Let none of you grieve in spirit over that
while feasting here, for such a thing is not even fitting.”
320Eurymachus, Polybus’ son, answered her:
“Daughter of Icarius, discerning Penelope,
we do not think this man will take you. That would not be fitting.
But we dread the talk of men and women,
for fear that some meaner Achaean may one day say:
325‘Men far weaker than the blameless man are courting his wife,
yet cannot string his well-polished bow.
But some other beggar came wandering in,
easily strung the bow, and sent an arrow through the iron.’
That is what they will say, and it would bring us shame.”
330Discerning Penelope answered him:
“Eurymachus, men can win no good name among the people
when they dishonor a noble man’s house and consume it.
Why make this an added disgrace?
This stranger is very tall and strongly built,
335and he declares that he is the son of a good father.
Give the stranger the polished bow now, and we shall see.
I will tell you what I intend, and it shall be done:
if he strings it and Apollo grants him the glory,
I will clothe him in a cloak and tunic, fine garments,
340and give him a sharp spear to ward off dogs and men,
a double-edged sword, and sandals for his feet.
Then I will send him wherever his heart and spirit direct.”
Commentary
Penelope grounds the guest’s right to try the bow in honor and justice, rejects Antinous’ marriage inference, and answers Eurymachus’ reputation anxiety by locating disgrace in the suitors’ consumption of the oikos.
21.311–319 Penelope defends the stranger as Telemachus’ guest and separates a trial of strength from any claim on her person. She calls mistreatment neither kalon nor dikaion, then exposes the false inference that stringing automatically makes the guest her husband. Her confidence concerns the social terms she has announced, not the stranger’s hidden identity.
21.320–329 Eurymachus answers with an imagined future quotation in which the stranger’s success would memorialize suitor inferiority. He denies fearing marriage and instead voices what a socially inferior Achaean might say: weaker men court the excellent man’s wife while a wandering beggar succeeds easily. Reported public speech thus governs his present resistance and converts the bow into a kleos test.
21.330–342 Penelope relocates shame from possible future gossip to the suitors’ present destruction of an excellent man’s house. Their consumption has already made good public fame impossible. She then evaluates the stranger’s visible body and claimed descent, commands that he receive the bow, and promises clothing, defensive weapons, sandals, and onward travel if Apollo grants success—hospitality rewards without marriage.
Telemachus claims household authority, and Athena sends Penelope sleep 21.343–358
343τὴν δʼ αὖ Τηλέμαχος πεπνυμένος ἀντίον ηὔδα·
μῆτερ ἐμή, τόξον μὲν Ἀχαιῶν οὔ τις ἐμεῖο
345κρείσσων, ᾧ κʼ ἐθέλω, δόμεναί τε καὶ ἀρνήσασθαι,
οὔθʼ ὅσσοι κραναὴν Ἰθάκην κάτα κοιρανέουσιν,
οὔθʼ ὅσσοι νήσοισι πρὸς Ἤλιδος ἱπποβότοιο·
τῶν οὔ τίς μʼ ἀέκοντα βιήσεται, αἴ κʼ ἐθέλωμι
καὶ καθάπαξ ξείνῳ δόμεναι τάδε τόξα φέρεσθαι.
350ἀλλʼ εἰς οἶκον ἰοῦσα τὰ σʼ αὐτῆς ἔργα κόμιζε,
ἱστόν τʼ ἠλακάτην τε, καὶ ἀμφιπόλοισι κέλευε
ἔργον ἐποίχεσθαι· τόξον δʼ ἄνδρεσσι μελήσει
πᾶσι, μάλιστα δʼ ἐμοί· τοῦ γὰρ κράτος ἔστʼ ἐνὶ οἴκῳ.
ἡ μὲν θαμβήσασα πάλιν οἶκόνδε βεβήκει·
355παιδὸς γὰρ μῦθον πεπνυμένον ἔνθετο θυμῷ.
ἐς δʼ ὑπερῷʼ ἀναβᾶσα σὺν ἀμφιπόλοισι γυναιξὶ
κλαῖεν ἔπειτʼ Ὀδυσῆα, φίλον πόσιν, ὄφρα οἱ ὕπνον
ἡδὺν ἐπὶ βλεφάροισι βάλε γλαυκῶπις Ἀθήνη.
343Discerning Telemachus answered her:
“Mother, no Achaean has more authority than I
345to give or refuse the bow to anyone I choose—
neither those who rule throughout rugged Ithaca
nor those on the islands facing horse-pasturing Elis.
None of them can force me against my will, even if I choose
to give this bow outright to the stranger to carry away.
350Go back into the house and tend to your own work,
the loom and distaff, and order your attendants
to get on with theirs. The bow will be the concern of all
the men, and mine above all: authority in this house is mine.”
Amazed, she went back into the house,
355for she took her son’s discerning words to heart.
She climbed to the upper room with her attendant women
and wept then for Odysseus, her dear husband, until
bright-eyed Athena laid sweet sleep upon her eyelids.
Commentary
Telemachus claims exclusive household authority over giving the bow, dismisses Penelope to gendered work, and succeeds in moving her upstairs; Athena, not Telemachus, ends her wakefulness with sleep.
21.343–353 Telemachus grounds control of the bow in a comparative household authority that rejects coercion from Ithacan and neighboring rulers. He claims power to give or refuse the object and even to alienate it outright, then sends Penelope to loom, distaff, and supervision of attendants while declaring the bow men’s concern and chiefly his. The speech joins resistance to external force with an internal gender hierarchy.
21.354–358 Penelope’s departure preserves a strict knowledge boundary at the moment the trap closes. She is amazed, takes her son’s words into thumos, goes upstairs, and weeps for the husband she still names as absent. Athena then places sleep on her eyelids. The narrator assigns the emotional response to Penelope and the sleep to the goddess without narrating recognition.
Eumaeus carries the bow through the suitors’ threats 21.359–379
359αὐτὰρ ὁ τόξα λαβὼν φέρε καμπύλα δῖος ὑφορβός·
360μνηστῆρες δʼ ἄρα πάντες ὁμόκλεον ἐν μεγάροισιν·
ὧδε δέ τις εἴπεσκε νέων ὑπερηνορεόντων·
πῆ δὴ καμπύλα τόξα φέρεις, ἀμέγαρτε συβῶτα,
πλαγκτέ; τάχʼ αὖ σʼ ἐφʼ ὕεσσι κύνες ταχέες κατέδονται
οἶον ἀπʼ ἀνθρώπων, οὓς ἔτρεφες, εἴ κεν Ἀπόλλων
365ἡμῖν ἱλήκῃσι καὶ ἀθάνατοι θεοὶ ἄλλοι.
ὣς φάσαν, αὐτὰρ, ὁ θῆκε φέρων αὐτῇ ἐνὶ χώρῃ,
δείσας, οὕνεκα πολλοὶ ὁμόκλεον ἐν μεγάροισιν.
Τηλέμαχος δʼ ἑτέρωθεν ἀπειλήσας ἐγεγώνει·
ἄττα, πρόσω φέρε τόξα· τάχʼ οὐκ εὖ πᾶσι πιθήσεις
370μή σε καὶ ὁπλότερός περ ἐὼν ἀγρόνδε δίωμαι,
βάλλων χερμαδίοισι· βίηφι δὲ φέρτερός εἰμι.
αἲ γὰρ πάντων τόσσον, ὅσοι κατὰ δώματʼ ἔασι,
μνηστήρων χερσίν τε βίηφί τε φέρτερος εἴην·
τῷ κε τάχα στυγερῶς τινʼ ἐγὼ πέμψαιμι νέεσθαι
375ἡμετέρου ἐξ οἴκου, ἐπεὶ κακὰ μηχανόωνται.
ὣς ἔφαθʼ, οἱ δʼ ἄρα πάντες ἐπʼ αὐτῷ ἡδὺ γέλασσαν
μνηστῆρες, καὶ δὴ μέθιεν χαλεποῖο χόλοιο
Τηλεμάχῳ· τὰ δὲ τόξα φέρων ἀνὰ δῶμα συβώτης
ἐν χείρεσσʼ Ὀδυσῆϊ δαΐφρονι θῆκε παραστάς.
359The noble swineherd took up the curved bow and carried it;
360all the suitors shouted at him through the hall.
One of the overbearing young men would say:
“Where are you carrying the curved bow, you miserable swineherd,
you vagabond? Soon the swift dogs you raised will eat you
all alone, far from men, out among your pigs—if Apollo
365and the other immortal gods are gracious to us.”
So they spoke, and he set the bow down where he stood,
afraid because so many men were shouting through the hall.
But from across the room Telemachus called out a threat:
“Father, carry the bow on. You will soon regret obeying everyone.
370Young as I am, I may chase you to the farm
with a hail of stones, for I am stronger than you.
If only I surpassed every one of the suitors in this house
by so much in the force of my hands and body!
Then I would soon send some man on a bitter journey home
375from our house, since they devise such evil here.”
So he spoke. All the suitors laughed pleasantly at him
and relaxed the anger they had held
against Telemachus. The swineherd carried the bow through the hall,
stood beside discerning Odysseus, and placed it in his hands.
Commentary
Eumaeus carries the bow through collective threats, briefly yields to fear, and resumes when Telemachus combines an intimate address with a violent command; the suitors’ laughter relaxes their anger as the bow reaches Odysseus.
21.359–367 Eumaeus’ delivery of the bow proceeds under threats that weaponize his occupation and social isolation. The suitors call him a miserable wandering swineherd and imagine his own dogs consuming him among the pigs if the gods favor them. He sets the bow down because many shout, a narrated fear response under collective pressure rather than a retraction of allegiance.
21.368–379 Telemachus makes Eumaeus move again through a mixture of quasi-kin address, violent threat, and admitted weakness against the whole group. Calling him atta, Telemachus threatens stones and asserts superior force, then wishes that the same advantage extended over every suitor. The suitors laugh and relax their anger; inside that release Eumaeus completes the delivery to Odysseus.
Eurycleia and Philoetius secure the house and courtyard 21.380–395
380ἐκ δὲ καλεσσάμενος προσέφη τροφὸν Εὐρύκλειαν·
Τηλέμαχος κέλεταί σε, περίφρων Εὐρύκλεια,
κληῗσαι μεγάροιο θύρας πυκινῶς ἀραρυίας.
ἢν δέ τις ἤ στοναχῆς ἠὲ κτύπου ἔνδον ἀκούσῃ
ἀνδρῶν ἡμετέροισιν ἐν ἕρκεσι, μή τι θύραζε
385προβλώσκειν, ἀλλʼ αὐτοῦ ἀκὴν ἔμεναι παρὰ ἔργῳ.
ὣς ἄρʼ ἐφώνησεν, τῇ δʼ ἄπτερος ἔπλετο μῦθος,
κλήϊσεν δὲ θύρας μεγάρων εὖ ναιεταόντων.
σιγῇ δʼ ἐξ οἴκοιο Φιλοίτιος ἆλτο θύραζε,
κλήϊσεν δʼ ἄρʼ ἔπειτα θύρας εὐερκέος αὐλῆς.
390κεῖτο δʼ ὑπʼ αἰθούσῃ ὅπλον νεὸς ἀμφιελίσσης
βύβλινον, ᾧ ῥʼ ἐπέδησε θύρας, ἐς δʼ ἤϊεν αὐτός·
ἕζετʼ ἔπειτʼ ἐπὶ δίφρον ἰών, ἔνθεν περ ἀνέστη,
εἰσορόων Ὀδυσῆα. ὁ δʼ ἤδη τόξον ἐνώμα
πάντη ἀναστρωφῶν, πειρώμενος ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα,
395μὴ κέρα ἶπες ἔδοιεν ἀποιχομένοιο ἄνακτος.
380Then he called the nurse Eurycleia aside and told her:
“Discerning Eurycleia, Telemachus orders you
to lock the close-fitted doors of the hall.
If any woman hears the groaning or the clash of men
inside, within our walls, she must not rush
385outside but remain there silently at her work.”
So he spoke, and no answering word took wing from her.
She locked the doors of the well-inhabited hall.
In silence Philoetius sprang outside the house
and then locked the gate of the well-fenced courtyard.
390Beneath the portico lay a cable from a curved-prowed ship,
made of papyrus fiber; with it he bound the gates, then went inside.
He returned to the stool from which he had risen
and sat watching Odysseus, who was already handling the bow,
turning it over and over, testing it here and there
395to see whether worms had eaten the horns while its lord was away.
Commentary
Eumaeus recasts Odysseus’ instructions as Telemachus’ order to Eurycleia; she locks the inner doors without reply, while Philoetius silently binds the courtyard with available ship’s cable and returns to watch.
21.380–387 Eumaeus transmits the closure order under Telemachus’ name through a near-verbatim reprise of Odysseus’ instructions. Line 382 is a normalized-only match to 236, and lines 384-85 repeat 238-39 byte-for-byte. The change in attributed commander makes the order plausible within the household; Eurycleia gives no spoken reply and converts repeated diction into completed action.
21.388–395 Philoetius converts available maritime equipment into a gate binding, resumes his prior seat, and watches Odysseus inspect the bow for absence damage. Silence governs his exit; papyrus ship cable secures the courtyard, after which he returns to the stool and fixes his gaze on Odysseus. The master turns the bow through every direction to test whether worms have eaten its horn during his absence, combining household recovery with technical caution.
Odysseus examines and strings the bow as Zeus thunders 21.396–415
396ὧδε τις εἴπεσκεν ἰδὼν ἐς πλησίον ἄλλον·
ἦ τις θηητὴρ καὶ ἐπίκλοπος ἔπλετο τόξων·
ἤ ῥά νύ που τοιαῦτα καὶ αὐτῷ οἴκοθι κεῖται
ἢ ὅ γʼ ἐφορμᾶται ποιησέμεν, ὡς ἐνὶ χερσὶ
400νωμᾷ ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα κακῶν ἔμπαιος ἀλήτης.
ἄλλος δʼ αὖ εἴπεσκε νέων ὑπερηνορεόντων·
αἲ γὰρ δὴ τοσσοῦτον ὀνήσιος ἀντιάσειεν
ὡς οὗτός ποτε τοῦτο δυνήσεται ἐντανύσασθαι.
ὣς ἄρʼ ἔφαν μνηστῆρες· ἀτὰρ πολύμητις Ὀδυσσεύς,
405αὐτίκʼ ἐπεὶ μέγα τόξον ἐβάστασε καὶ ἴδε πάντη,
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.
410δεξιτερῇ ἄρα χειρὶ λαβὼν πειρήσατο νευρῆς·
ἡ δʼ ὑπὸ καλὸν ἄεισε, χελιδόνι εἰκέλη αὐδήν.
μνηστῆρσιν δʼ ἄρʼ ἄχος γένετο μέγα, πᾶσι δʼ ἄρα χρὼς
ἐτράπετο· Ζεὺς δὲ μεγάλʼ ἔκτυπε σήματα φαίνων·
γήθησέν τʼ ἄρʼ ἔπειτα πολύτλας δῖος Ὀδυσσεύς.
415ὅττι ῥά οἱ τέρας ἧκε Κρόνου πάϊς ἀγκυλομήτεω·
396One man would look at his neighbor and say:
“He must be a bow-connoisseur, a stealthy expert.
Perhaps he has bows like this lying at home,
or else he is eager to make one himself, the way
400the vagabond, versed in mischief, turns it over in his hands.”
Another of the overbearing young men would say:
“May he gain as much profit in life
as he will ever have the strength to string that bow.”
So the suitors spoke. But resourceful Odysseus,
405when he had handled the great bow and examined it throughout—
as a man skilled in the lyre and in song
easily stretches a string around a new tuning peg,
fastening at either end the well-twisted gut of a sheep—
so Odysseus strung the great bow without effort.
410He took the cord in his right hand and plucked it;
beneath his touch it sang beautifully, in a voice like a swallow’s.
Great anguish seized the suitors, and every man’s skin
changed. Zeus thundered loudly, displaying his signs,
and then much-enduring, noble Odysseus rejoiced
415that the son of crooked-counseling Cronus had sent him a portent.
Commentary
The suitors observe genuine technical expertise but interpret it through the disguise as connoisseurship, wily or stealthy skill, ownership, manufacture, or trickery; Odysseus then strings the bow with a musician’s ease, and its voice changes mockery into bodily fear.
21.396–403 The suitors perceive expertise accurately but misclassify its bearer through the disguise. One calls the stranger a connoisseur and stealthy bow expert, imagines ownership or manufacture, and labels him a mischief-skilled wanderer; another turns possible success into a curse on lifetime profit. Their remarks recognize practiced handling while status assumptions prevent recognition.
21.404–411 The lyre simile changes the dominant measure of strength from strain to practiced tuning. A man skilled in lyre and song fastens gut around a peg with ease; so Odysseus strings the great bow without spoudē, then plucks it and elicits a swallow-like voice. The comparison’s extended craft syntax delays the completed action and makes sound certify mastery before the shot.
21.412–415 Bodily fear, divine thunder, and Odysseus’ interpretation are narrated as related but distinct events. Anguish seizes the suitors and their skin changes; Zeus thunders and displays sēmata; Odysseus rejoices because he takes the event as a teras sent by Cronus’ son. The narrator grants the thunder divine agency while still presenting reception through Odysseus’ joy.
Odysseus shoots cleanly through the axes 21.416–423
416εἵλετο δʼ ὠκὺν ὀϊστόν, ὅ οἱ παρέκειτο τραπέζῃ
γυμνός· τοὶ δʼ ἄλλοι κοίλης ἔντοσθε φαρέτρης
κείατο, τῶν τάχʼ ἔμελλον Ἀχαιοὶ πειρήσεσθαι.
τόν ῥʼ ἐπὶ πήχει ἑλὼν ἕλκεν νευρὴν γλυφίδας τε,
420αὐτόθεν ἐκ δίφροιο καθήμενος, ἧκε δʼ ὀϊστὸν
ἄντα τιτυσκόμενος, πελέκεων δʼ οὐκ ἤμβροτε πάντων
πρώτης στειλειῆς, διὰ δʼ ἀμπερὲς ἦλθε θύραζε
ἰὸς χαλκοβαρής· ὁ δὲ Τηλέμαχον προσέειπε·
416He chose the swift arrow lying bare
beside him on the table; the others rested inside
the hollow quiver, shafts the Achaeans would soon come to know.
He set it against the bow’s centerpiece and drew back the string and the arrow’s notched end
420from where he sat upon the stool, then sent the shaft
straight toward the mark. He missed none of the axes,
beginning with the first haft: straight through and out
flew the bronze-weighted arrow. He said to Telemachus:
Commentary
Still seated, Odysseus sends the exposed arrow through the aligned iron apparatus without a miss; the starting reference πρώτη στειλειή may indicate the first haft or handle extremity, but a handle-hole or socket remains possible and the exact geometry is unrecoverable.
21.416–423 The shot is carried by an unbroken sequence from arrow selection through draw, aim, axe passage, and speech transition. The exposed arrow is distinguished from those inside the quiver, whose future use the narrator forecasts. Participial and finite actions accumulate while Odysseus remains seated; the arrow misses no part of the aligned apparatus and passes outward from the πρώτη στειλειή before the final clause hands the cadence directly to his address of Telemachus. The feminine apparatus term can support a haft or handle extremity, while a handle-hole or socket remains a defensible alternative.
Odysseus signals, and Telemachus takes up his weapons 21.424–434
424Τηλέμαχʼ, οὔ σʼ ὁ ξεῖνος ἐνὶ μεγάροισιν ἐλέγχει
425ἥμενος, οὐδέ τι τοῦ σκοποῦ ἤμβροτον οὐδέ τι τόξον
δὴν ἔκαμον τανύων· ἔτι μοι μένος ἔμπεδόν ἐστιν,
οὐχ ὥς με μνηστῆρες ἀτιμάζοντες ὄνονται.
νῦν δʼ ὥρη καὶ δόρπον Ἀχαιοῖσιν τετυκέσθαι
ἐν φάει, αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα καὶ ἄλλως ἑψιάασθαι
430μολπῇ καὶ φόρμιγγι· τὰ γάρ τʼ ἀναθήματα δαιτός.
ἦ καὶ ἐπʼ ὀφρύσι νεῦσεν· ὁ δʼ ἀμφέθετο ξίφος ὀξὺ
Τηλέμαχος, φίλος υἱὸς Ὀδυσσῆος θείοιο,
ἀμφὶ δὲ χεῖρα φίλην βάλεν ἔγχεϊ, ἄγχι δʼ ἄρʼ αὐτοῦ
πὰρ θρόνον ἑστήκει κεκορυθμένος αἴθοπι χαλκῷ.
424“Telemachus, the stranger sitting in your hall brings you no shame.
425I did not miss the mark or labor long
to string the bow. My strength is still secure,
not as the suitors claim when they heap contempt upon me.
Now it is time to prepare the Achaeans’ supper
while daylight remains, and afterward to entertain ourselves in other ways—
430with song and lyre, the ornaments that crown a feast.”
He spoke and nodded with his brows. Telemachus
the dear son of godlike Odysseus strapped on his sharp sword,
closed his dear hand around his spear, and stood beside him
near the chair, helmeted in flashing bronze.
Commentary
Odysseus speaks as the guest, turns the feast’s vocabulary toward another entertainment, and gives Telemachus an eyebrow signal; the son answers without speech by arming and standing beside him.
21.424–430 Odysseus recodes contest, feast, and entertainment vocabulary so that an apparently boastful guest speech carries a lethal second horizon. He denies elenchos for Telemachus, asserts that his menos remains firm, and calls for the Achaeans’ dorpon before daylight ends. Molpē and phorminx are named as feast adornments, but after the bowshot their conventional pleasure language becomes calculated concealment of the next action.
21.431–434 A minimal eyebrow signal converts Telemachus from contest manager into an armed partner without spoken explanation. Odysseus nods; Telemachus straps on sword, grips spear, and stands beside the chair in bronze armor. The book closes on coordinated posture rather than attack, preserving the final interval between concealed intention and open violence.