"Listen to me, my overbearing friends!
You who plague this palace night and day,
drinking, eating us out of house and home
with the lord and master absent, gone so long –
the only excuse that you can offer is your zest
to win me as your bride. So, to arms, my gallants!
Here is the prize at issue, right before you, look –
I set before you the great bow of King Odysseus now!
The hand that can string this bow with greatest ease,
that shoots an arrow clean through all twelve axes –
he is the man I follow."
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 21, lines 78-88. Nothing illustrates Penelope’s guile more than the contest of the bow and axes. She challenges the greedy men who have been eating and drinking her out of house and home to take part. She offers herself as a prize to the one who can string Odysseus’ bow and shoot an arrow through the axes. She knows that only one man has ever been capable of doing this – Odysseus.