"For the moment,
give me the polished bow now, won’t you? So,
to amuse you all, I can try my hand, my strength…
is the old force still alive inside these gnarled limbs?
Or has a life of roaming, years of rough neglect,
destroyed it long ago?"
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 21, lines 313-318. Odysseus-the-beggar suggests to the suitors that they allow him try to string and use the blow. He is deceitfully but cunningly modest, as he speaks of his "gnarled limbs" and how his attempt at the bow might provide amusement for them all. Odysseus knows full well that he can master his own bow, but he is deliberately disarming his enemies so that he can launch a surprise attack on them.