THE TRIAL OF THE BOW.
The next day many things cheered Ulysses for that which he had to do;
for first Athené had told him that she would stand at his side, and
next he heard the thunder of Zeus in a clear sky, and last it chanced
that a woman who sat at the mill grinding corn, being sore weary of her
task, and hating the suitors, said, “Grant, Father Zeus, that this be
the last meal which these men shall eat in the house of Ulysses!”
And after a while the suitors came and sat down, as was their wont, to
the feast. And the servants bare to Ulysses, as Telemachus had bidden,
a full share with the others. And when Ctesippus, a prince of Samos,
saw this (he was a man heedless of right and of the gods), he said, “Is
it well that this fellow should fare even as we? Look now at the gift
that I shall give him.” Whereupon he took a bullock’s foot out of a
basket wherein it lay, and cast it at Ulysses.
But he moved his head to the left and shunned it, and it flew on,
marking the wall. And Telemachus cried in great wrath,--
“It is well for thee, Ctesippus, that thou didst not strike this
stranger. For surely, hadst thou done this thing, my spear had pierced
thee through, and thy father had made good cheer, not for thy marriage,
but for thy burial.”
Then said Agelaüs, “This is well said. Telemachus should not be
wronged, no, nor this stranger. But, on the other hand, he must bid
his mother choose out of the suitors whom she will, and marry him, nor
waste our time any more.”
And Telemachus said, “It is well. She shall marry whom she will. But
from my house I will never send her against her will.”
And the suitors laughed; but their laughter was not of mirth, and the
flesh which they ate dripped with blood, and their eyes were full
of tears. And the eyes of the seer Theoclymenus were opened, and he
cried,--
“What ails you, miserable ones? For your heads and your faces and
your knees are covered with darkness, and the voice of groaning comes
from you, and your cheeks are wet with tears. Also the walls and the
pillars are sprinkled with blood, and the porch and the hall are full
of shadows that move towards hell, and the sun has perished from the
heaven, and an evil mist is over all.”
But they laughed to hear him; and Eurymachus said, “This stranger is
mad; let us send him out of doors into the market-place, for it seems
that here it is dark.”
Also they scoffed at Telemachus, but he heeded them not, but sat
waiting till his father should give the sign.
After this Penelopé went to fetch the great bow of Ulysses which
Iphitus had given to him. From the peg on which it hung she took it
with its sheath, and sitting down, she laid it on her knees and wept
over it, and after this rose up and went to where the suitors sat
feasting in the hall. The bow she brought, and also the quiver full of
arrows, and standing by the pillar of the dome, spake thus,--
“Ye suitors who devour this house, making pretence that ye wish to wed
me, lo! here is a proof of your skill. Here is the bow of the great
Ulysses. Whoso shall bend it easiest in his hands, and shoot an arrow
most easily through the helve-holes of the twelve axes that Telemachus
shall set up, him will I follow, leaving this house, which I shall
remember only in my dreams.”
Then she bade Eumæus bear the bow and the arrows to the suitors. And
the good swineherd wept to see his master’s bow, and Philætius, the
herdsman of the kine, wept also, for he was a good man, and loved the
house of Ulysses.
Then Telemachus planted in due order the axes wherein were the
helve-holes, and was minded himself to draw the bow; and indeed would
have done the thing, but Ulysses signed to him that he should not.
Wherefore he said, “Methinks I am too weak and young; ye that are elder
should try the first.”
Then first Leiodes, the priest, who alone among the suitors hated their
evil ways, made trial of the bow. But he moved it not, but wearied his
hands with it, for they were tender, and unwont to toil. And he said,
“I cannot bend this bow; let some other try; but it shall be grief and
pain to many this day, I trow.”
And Antinoüs was wroth to hear such words, and bade Melanthius bring
forth from the stores a roll of fat, that they might anoint the string
and soften it withal. So they softened the string with fat, but not
for that the more could they bend it, for they tried all of them in
vain, till only Antinoüs and Eurymachus were left, who indeed were the
bravest and the strongest of them all.
Now the swineherd and the herdsman of the kine had gone forth out of
the yard, and Ulysses came behind them and said, “What would ye do if
Ulysses were to come back to his home? Would ye fight for him, or for
the suitors?”
And both said they would fight for him.
And Ulysses said, “It is even I who am come back in the twentieth year,
and ye, I know, are glad at heart that I am come; nor know I of any
one besides. And if ye will help me as brave men to-day, wives shall
ye have, and possessions and houses near to mine own. And ye shall be
brothers and comrades to Telemachus. And for a sign, behold this scar,
which the wild boar made when I hunted with Autolycus.”
Then they wept for joy and kissed Ulysses, and he also kissed them.
And he said to Eumæus that he should bring the bow to him when the
suitors had tried their fortune therewith; also that he should bid the
women keep within doors, nor stir out if they should hear the noise of
battle. And Philætius he bade lock the doors of the hall, and fasten
them with a rope.
After this he came back to the hall, and Eurymachus had the bow in his
hands, and sought to warm it at the fire. Then he essayed to draw it,
but could not. And he groaned aloud, saying, “Woe is me! not for loss
of this marriage only, for there are other women to be wooed in Greece,
but that we are so much weaker than the great Ulysses. This is indeed
shame to tell.”
Then said Antinoüs, “Not so; to-day is a holy day of the God of
Archers; therefore we could not draw the bow. But to-morrow will we try
once more, after due sacrifice to Apollo.”
And this saying pleased them all; but Ulysses said, “Let me try this
bow, for I would fain know whether I have such strength as I had in
former days.”
At this all the suitors were wroth, and chiefly Antinoüs, but Penelopé
said that it should be so, and promised the man great gifts if he could
draw this bow.
But Telemachus spake thus, “Mother, the bow is mine to give or to
refuse. And no man shall say me nay, if I will that this stranger make
trial of it. But do thou go to thy chamber with thy maidens, and let
men take thought for these things.”
And this he said, for that he would have her depart from the hall
forthwith, knowing what should happen therein. But she marvelled to
hear him speak with such authority, and answered not, but departed. And
when Eumæus would have carried the bow to Ulysses, the suitors spake
roughly to him, but Telemachus constrained him to go. Therefore he
took the bow and gave it to his master. Then went he to Euryclea, and
bade her shut the door of the women’s chambers and keep them within,
whatsoever they might hear. Also Philætius shut the doors of the hall,
and fastened them with a rope.
Then Ulysses handled the great bow, trying it, whether it had taken
any hurt; but the suitors thought scorn of him. Then when he had found
it to be without flaw, just as a minstrel fastens a string upon his
harp, and strains it to the pitch, so he strung the bow without toil;
and holding the string in his right hand, he tried its tone, and the
tone was sweet as the voice of a swallow. Then he took an arrow from
the quiver, and laid the notch upon the string and drew it, sitting as
he was, and the arrow passed through every ring, and stood in the wall
beyond. Then he said to Telemachus,--
“There is yet a feast to be held before the sun go down.”
And he nodded the sign to Telemachus. And forthwith the young man stood
by him, armed with spear and helmet and shield.