his time and people
with the greatest success, hence he is the greatest man. So we have the
test of bending the bow, which simply selects the best man for the time
and circumstances.

In recent interpretations of mythology, this employment of the bow and
arrows has been connected with the sun and its rays. Ulysses is
declared to be really a sun-god, a form of Apollo, deity of archery; he
shoots his arrows which are sunbeams and destroys the Suitors, who are
the clouds obstructing his light, and wooing his spouse, the day or the
sky. It is also noteworthy that on this very day of the slaughter of
the Suitors, there is a festival in Ithaca to Apollo, god of light and
archery. This is usually regarded as the New Moon (_Neomenios_)
festival. Antinous refers to it (l. 259) and proposes to defer the
contest on that account. But Ulysses is made to shoot on the festal day
of the sungod.

There is no doubt that mythology is closely connected with Nature, out
of which it develops. In the Vedic hymns we see this connection in the
most explicit manner, and threads of the old Aryan Mythus can often be
picked out in Homer. Still we must recollect that it was the archer man
who first projected the archer god out of himself, and it is no
explanation of Ulysses to say that he represents the sun-god; rather
the sun-god represents him. Moreover, the ethical purpose of Ulysses in
slaying the Suitors is the soul of the poem, which is to find its
adequate interpretation in that purpose and in that alone. The incident
of Bending the Bow is wrought into a grand scheme of indicating the
ethical order of the world.

The three divisions of the Book we shall briefly note, observing how
the bow rejects the unfit, and selects the right man.

I. It is Pallas (not Apollo, the archer) who started in the mind of
Penelope this scheme of testing the Suitors. Why a Goddess here? It is
first a chance thought of the woman, but then it becomes an important
link in the movement of divine nemesis; hence the poet, according to
this custom, traces the inspiration of the idea to a deity. The history
of the famous bow is given with an especial delight in details.
Penelope herself goes to the room where the armor of the house was
kept, gets the bow, and announces the contest to the Suitors.

The man who can bend the bow and send the arrow through the twelve
rings, is to bear her away as his bride. The trial is made, no Suitor
is able to bend the weapon. Inter