Database: A Question of Axes

After 20 years of absence, Odysseus reached his homeland of Ithaca and participated in an archery contest which was organised by the suitors of his wife, the queen Penelope. Whoever managed to string Odysseus' bow and then shoot an arrow through twelve axes in a row would marry the queen and thus become king. The suitors tried to stretch the bow by heating it and greasing it, but they failed to string it. In fact, no one could do it except Odysseus himself. After he successfully shot the arrow, Odysseus murdered all the pretenders to his throne.