Surely the difficulty of this passage has been overrated. I suppose the iron part of the axe to have been wedged into the handle, or bound securely to it—the handle being half buried in the ground. The axe would be placed edgeways towards the archer, and he would have to shoot his arrow through the hole into which the handle was fitted when the axe was in use. Twelve axes were placed in a row all at the same height, all exactly in front of one another, all edgeways to Ulysses whose arrow passed through all the holes from the first onward. I cannot see how the Greek can bear any other interpretation, the words being, {Greek} “He did not miss a single hole from the first onwards.” {Greek} according to Liddell and Scott being “the hole for the handle of an axe, etc.,” while {Greek} (“Od.” v. 236) is, according to the same authorities, the handle itself. The feat is absurdly impossible, but our authoress sometimes has a soul above impossibilities.] [166] [ The reader will note how the spoiling of good food distresses the writer even in such a supreme moment as this.] [167] [ Here we have it again. Waste of substance comes first.] [168] [ cf. “Il.” iii. 337 and three other places. It is strange that the author of the “Iliad” should find a little horse-hair so alarming. Possibly enough she was merely borrowing a common form line from some earlier poet—or poetess—for this is a woman’s line rather than a man’s.] [169] [ Or perhaps simply “window.” See plan in the appendix.] [170] [ i.e. the pavement on which Ulysses was standing.]