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The suitors fail to string the bow, and Odysseus takes up the challenge:
So the suitors talked, but now resourceful Odysseus,
once he had taken up the great bow and looked it all over,
as when a man, who well understands the lyre and singing,
easily, holding it on either side, pulls the strongly twisted
cord of sheep's gut, so as to slip it over a new peg,
so, without any strain, Odysseus strung the great bow.
Then plucking it in his right hand he tested the bowstring,
and it gave him back an excellent sound like the voice of a swallow.
A great sorrow fell now upon the suitors, and all their colour
was changed, and Zeus showing forth his portents thundered mightily.
Hearing this, long-suffering Odysseus was happy
that the son of devious-devising Kronos had sent him a portent.
He chose out a swift arrow that lay beside him uncovered
on the table, but the others were still stored up inside the hollow
quiver, and presently the Achaians must learn their nature.
Taking the string and the head grooves he drew to the middle
grip, and from the very chair where he sat, bending the bow
before him, let the arrow fly, nor missed any axes
from the first handle on, but the bronze-weighted arrow passed through
all and out the other end. He spoke to Telemachos:
"Telemachos, your guest that sits in your halls does not then
fail you; I missed no part of the mark, nor have I made much
work of stringing the bow; the strength is still sound within me,
and not as the suitors said in their scorn, making little of me.
Now is the time for their dinner to be served the Achaians
in the daylight, then follow with other entertainment,
the dance and the lyre; for these things come at the end of the feasting." |
