Bow of Odysseus
The great bow of Odysseus, which no other man could string and which he alone could drive an arrow through all twelve axe heads, stands at the centre of the final test of the Odyssey. Penelope sets the contest of the bow for her suitors at Ithaca, and when the strongest of them fail even to bend it, the disguised Odysseus takes the weapon, strings it effortlessly, shoots through the axes, and then turns it on the suitors, slaughtering them with the help of his son and his faithful servants. The poem relates that the bow was a gift from Iphitus, a token of their friendship given in youth, and i