The Test of the Bow

We have had to return to Ithaca due to the terrible outing we had with the sea monsters, Scylla and Charybdis. Scylla was a giant! With 6 heads each with 3 sets of fangs, she gobbled up our men so fast we did not realize how many we had lost until after it was all over. The boat we were on with Odysseus was the only one to make it. Luckily, we also made it past Charybdis as well. Our boat almost got swallowed up by her but at the last minute, we escaped her. We are actually quite excited to be returing to Ithaca. We are very weary after being at sea for so long. Odysseus seems happy to be going home as well. He told us today about how he defeated Penelope's suitors after coming back after 20 years away from home...

After waiting 20 years and still no sign of her husband, Penelope promised the suitors that she would be ready to marry after she finished the shroud she was knitting. Secretly, she never gave up hope that Odysseus would return to Ithaca and so every night she would take out the knitting she had done that day, thus she would never finish the shroud. After those long 2 decades, she finally decided that she would hold a contest. She would marry the one suitor who could string Odysseus's bow and shoot an arrow through 12 axe heads in a row. Odysseus had returned to Ithaca by this point and disguised himself as a beggar. He asked to take part in the contest in an effort to win back Penelope. The suitors are very proud and they all believe that they are up to the task. They are soon proved wrong, as all of them fail at the event. Still, they make fun of the beggar for asking to try his hand with the bow. They are truly the fools though as the beggar succeeds and ultimately wins Penelope's hand in marriage. The only men who know the beggar's true identity are two loyal servants and Telemachus, all three of which stand by him as a fight ensues...

Hopefully our homecoming will be as heroic as Odyssseus' previous return to Ithaca, although I could definitely do without the fighting. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.