So they mocked, but Odysseus, mastermind in action,
once he’d handled the great bow and scanned every inch,
then, like an expert singer skilled at lyre and song –
who strains a string to a new peg with ease,
making the pliant sheep-gut fast at either end –
so with his virtuoso ease Odysseus strung his mighty bow.
Quickly his right hand plucked the string to test its pitch
and under his touch it sang out clear and sharp as a swallow’s cry.
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 21, lines 451-458. The suitors mock what they believe to be a poor beggar attempting the archery contest. They are deceived by the disguised Odysseus, who handles his own bow with consummate ease and skill. An epic simile compares him stringing his bow to shoot an arrow to a skilled musician tuning a stringed instrument. The string sings out like a swallow’s cry when he plucks it, we are told in another simile.