密涅瓦现在让佩内洛普想让求婚者们在他们之间的比赛中试试用弓和铁斧的技巧，作为毁灭他们的一种手段。她上楼去拿了一把储藏室的钥匙，这把钥匙是青铜做的，钥匙柄是象牙做的。然后，她和她的侍女们走进房子尽头的储藏室，那里存放着她丈夫的黄金、青铜和熟铁财宝，还有他的弓和装满致命箭的箭袋，那是他在拉齐代门遇到的一个朋友——欧律都斯的儿子伊菲图斯送给他的。这两个人在墨西尼的奥尔提洛库斯家相遇了，尤利西斯当时正住在那里，以偿还欠全体人民的债务;因为麦塞尼亚人从伊萨卡带走了300只羊，并和他们的牧羊人一起乘船离开了。为了寻找这些东西，尤利西斯在还很年轻的时候就踏上了漫长的旅程，因为他的父亲和其他酋长派他去取回这些东西。伊菲图斯也去了那里，试图找回他丢失的十二匹母马和和它们一起奔跑的小骡子。这些母马最终导致了他的死亡，因为当他去朱庇特的儿子、骁武的大力神赫拉克勒斯的家里时，赫拉克勒斯羞愧地杀死了他，尽管他是他的客人，因为他不害怕天堂的报复，也不尊重他在伊菲图斯面前摆的桌子，但他不顾一切地杀死了他，自己留下了这些母马。正是在占领这些地方时，伊菲图斯遇到了尤利西斯，把强大的欧律都斯随身携带的弓交给了他，这把弓是他死后留给儿子的。尤利西斯给了他一把剑和一支长矛作为回报，这是一段快速友谊的开始，尽管他们从未拜访过对方的家，因为在他们拜访之前，朱庇特的儿子赫拉克勒斯杀死了伊菲图斯。 This bow, then, given him by Iphitus, had not been taken with him by Ulysses when he sailed for Troy; he had used it so long as he had been at home, but had left it behind as having been a keepsake from a valued friend. Penelope presently reached the oak threshold of the store room; the carpenter had planed this duly, and had drawn a line on it so as to get it quite straight; he had then set the door posts into it and hung the doors. She loosed the strap from the handle of the door, put in the key, and drove it straight home to shoot back the bolts that held the doors; these flew open with a noise like a bull bellowing in a meadow, and Penelope stepped upon the raised platform, where the chests stood in which the fair linen and clothes were laid by along with fragrant herbs: reaching thence, she took down the bow with its bow case from the peg on which it hung. She sat down with it on her knees, weeping bitterly as she took the bow out of its case, and when her tears had relieved her, she went to the cloister where the suitors were, carrying the bow and the quiver, with the many deadly arrows that were inside it. Along with her came her maidens, bearing a chest that contained much iron and bronze which her husband had won as prizes. When she reached the suitors, she stood by one of the bearing-posts supporting the roof of the cloister, holding a veil before her face, and with a maid on either side of her. Then she said: "Listen to me you suitors, who persist in abusing the hospitality of this house because its owner has been long absent, and without other pretext than that you want to marry me; this, then, being the prize that you are contending for, I will bring out the mighty bow of Ulysses, and whomsoever of you shall string it most easily and send his arrow through each one of twelve axes, him will I follow and quit this house of my lawful husband, so goodly, and so abounding in wealth. But even so I doubt not that I shall remember it in my dreams." As she spoke, she told Eumaeus to set the bow and the pieces of iron before the suitors, and Eumaeus wept as he took them to do as she had bidden him. Hard by, the stockman wept also when he saw his master's bow, but Antinous scolded them. "You country louts," said he, "silly simpletons; why should you add to the sorrows of your mistress by crying in this way? She has enough to grieve her in the loss of her husband; sit still, therefore, and eat your dinners in silence, or go outside if you want to cry, and leave the bow behind you. We suitors shall have to contend for it with might and main, for we shall find it no light matter to string such a bow as this is. There is not a man of us all who is such another as Ulysses; for I have seen him and remember him, though I was then only a child." This was what he said, but all the time he was expecting to