Book XXI · Episode 2 of 6

The Suitors Fail

Antinoüs orders trials, suitors fail

Scenes

1. Order of the Contest — Antinoüs directs suitors’ attempts
   • Telemachus leans bow against the wall
   • Suitors move right to left around hall
   • Contest starts with the wine-pourer
2. Leiodes Fails and Warns — Leiodes warns of deaths, Antinoüs rebukes
   • Leiodes is the suitors’ own soothsayer
   • His soft hands cannot bend the bow
   • Urges suitors to seek wives elsewhere
   • Antinoüs says his mother bred no archer
   • Insists others have strength to succeed
3. Greasing the Bow — Bow warmed with grease, suitors fail
   • Melanthius told to kindle fire, fetch fat
   • Heat is meant to soften the bow
   • Suitors smear it but cannot draw string
   • Antinoüs, Eurymachus hold back untested