and Telemachus, until Penelope brought forth the bow which Iphitus,
the son of Eurytus, had given to Odysseus. Then she stood before the
chiefs and said, "Whoever of you can bend this bow, that man shall be
my husband, and with him I will leave the home which I have loved, and
which I shall still see in my dreams." But when Antinous saw it, his
heart failed him, for he knew that none had ever bent the bow save
Odysseus only, and he warned the suitors that it would sorely tax
their strength. Then Telemachus would have made trial of the bow, but
his father suffered him not. So Leiodes took it in his hand, and tried
in vain to stretch it, till at last he threw it down in a rage, and
said, "Penelope must find some other husband; for I am not the man."
But Antinous reviled him for his faintheartedness, and made Melanthius
bring fat to anoint the bow and make it supple; yet even thus they
strove in vain to stretch it.

Then Odysseus went out into the courtyard, whither the cowherd and the
swineherd had gone before him, and he said to them, "Friends, are ye
minded to aid Odysseus if he should suddenly come to his home, or will
ye take part with the men who devour his substance?" And they sware
both of them that they would fight for their master to the death. Then
Odysseus said, "I am that man, who after grievous woes has come back
in the twentieth year to his own land; and if ye doubt, see here is
the scar of the wound where the boar's tusk pierced my flesh, when I
went to Parnassus in the days of my youth." When they saw the scar,
they threw their arms round Odysseus, and they kissed him on his head
and his shoulders and wept, until he said, "Stay, friends, lest any
see us and tell the suitors in the house. And now hearken to me. These
men will not let me take the bow; so do thou, Eumaius, place it in my
hands, and let Philoitius bar the gates of the court-yard." But within
the hall Eurymachus groaned with vexation because he could not stretch
the bow; and he said, "It is not that I care for Penelope, for there
are many Achaian women as fair as she; but that we are all so weak in
comparison of Odysseus." Then the beggar besought them that he, too,
might try, and see whether the strength of his youth still remained to
him, or whether his long wanderings had taken away the force of his
arm. But Antinous said, "Old man, wine hath done thee harm; still it
is well to drink yet more than to strive with men who are thy
betters." T