Further supporting the assumption that Penelope is aware of the beggar's identity is that, following the bath, she confides in him to a remarkable degree. She shares a dream with him, in which an eagle kills her flock of geese and then takes on a human voice to tell her that he, the eagle, is her husband and the geese are the suitors. Penelope wonders if this is a dream from the gate of ivory (meaning that it is insignificant) or the gate of horn (indicating that the dream is true or prophetic).
Most interesting is the contest that Penelope decides will choose her husband. The test, the next day, will be to see who can properly string Odysseus' great bow and shoot a single arrow cleanly through a dozen axes set in a row. Surely it is no accident that only one man, Odysseus himself, has ever been able to perform this feat.
