twelve axes

The twelve axes are the instrument of Penelope's final stratagem to delay remarriage and the weapon through which Odysseus reclaims his identity and his house. Set up in a row in the great hall, each axe has a hole for its handle, and the contest requires stringing Odysseus's great bow and shooting an arrow through all twelve holes in a single shot. No suitor can even bend the bow, but Odysseus, still disguised as a beggar, strings it effortlessly and sends the arrow through every ring, a feat that immediately precedes the killing of the suitors. The axes thus serve as both a test of worth and the signal for the massacre that restores order to Ithaca.

Origin and Description of the Axes

The axes are not ordinary tools but a set of twelve iron axe-heads, each with a socket for a handle, that Odysseus himself once used. They are stored in the treasure room along with the bow, kept as a keepsake from a valued friend. When Penelope retrieves the bow from its peg, she also brings out a chest containing much iron and bronze that her husband had won as prizes. The axes are described as being set up in a long groove that Telemachus digs in the earth floor of the court, making them straight by line, and he stamps the earth tight around them. The axes are placed edgeways toward the archer, and the arrow must pass through the handle-hole of each from the first onward.

The Contest and Its Outcome

Penelope announces that she will marry the man who can string Odysseus's bow and shoot an arrow through all twelve axes. The suitors try in turn, warming the bow and greasing it with lard, but none can string it. Leiodes, the sacrificial priest, fails and declares the bow will take the life of many chiefs. Antinous and Eurymachus, the ringleaders, also fail. When the beggar (Odysseus) asks to try, the suitors mock him, but Telemachus insists. Odysseus examines the bow for wormholes, then strings it as easily as a bard fits a new string to his lyre. He takes an arrow, draws the notch, and lets fly; the arrow pierces every handle-hole from the first onward and flies into the outer courtyard. At that moment Zeus thunders as a sign, and Odysseus makes a sign with his eyebrows to Telemachus, who immediately girds on his sword and stands armed beside his father.

The Axes as a Symbol of Recognition and Revenge

The axes function as a concrete proof of identity that only Odysseus can provide. The feat is so extraordinary that it instantly separates the true king from the pretenders. When Odysseus later reveals himself to his father Laertes, he uses the same kind of intimate knowledge—the number of trees in the vineyard—as proof, but the axes are the public demonstration that convinces the entire household. The axes also carry a deeper symbolic weight: they are the tools of legitimate authority, set up by the rightful heir Telemachus, and the arrow that passes through them is the first shot of the massacre. The axes thus mark the transition from passive endurance to active vengeance, from the disorder of the suitors' rule to the restoration of lawful kingship.

The Axes in the Context of Gift Exchange and Wealth

The axes are part of the vast treasure Odysseus has accumulated, which includes bronze, gold, and raiment given by the Phaeacians and stored in the cave of the Naiads. The axes themselves are iron, a valuable metal in the heroic age, and they are kept alongside other prizes of war. The suitors' inability to string the bow or shoot through the axes is not merely a physical failure but a moral one: they have wasted Odysseus's substance and dishonored his house, and the axes become the instrument of their punishment. The axes thus embody the principle of just return, where the wealth that the suitors have consumed is avenged by the very objects that testify to Odysseus's superior strength and cunning.