Annotations
From D.B. Monro, Homer's Odyssey, books XIII-XXIV. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1901, pp. 176-177 (note on Odyssey 19. 574):
In what sense, then, could it be said that Ulysses ‘used to shoot an arrow through’ (“διαρρίπτασκεν ὀϊστόν”) all the twelve axes? In 21. 421-422 we are told that he ‘did not miss the foremost point of the haft’ of any of them (see the note there on the phrase “πρώτη στειλειή”). Evidently we must suppose that at the end of the haft, i.e. at or in the head of the axe, there was a hole or opening of some sort, and that the axes could be so placed that the twelve openings were in line, and formed a kind of tube, through which a very expert archer could send an arrow. Two forms of axe satisfying these conditions are given by Helbig. One of these is a double axe or bipennis, in which the two blades are separated by circular openings, above and below the end of the shaft (fig. A). This form is chiefly known from post-Alexandrian representations, but Helbig finds traces of it in early times. In the other, which is known from the figure of an Amazon on one of the metopes of Selinunte, the two sides are different. One side is a fragmentary blade (or, as Mr. Myres thinks, an adze seen edge-ways); the other is rounded, and perforated by a crescent-shaped opening (fig. B). To these alternatives—between which Helbig does not decide—a third has now been added by an axe found in the famous ‘Mycenean’ tomb at Vaphio (fig. C, from Tsountas and Manatt, p. 207). In this axe the blade is shaped like an arch, with two large holes instead of the single opening in the second form.
If we had merely to consider which of these forms answers best to the story as told in the Odyssey, it might be difficult to arrive at a conclusion. But as a question of archaeological evidence there is no doubt that the Vaphio axe has the advantage. We possess the actual implement (or weapon): and we know that it belongs, in time and in place, to the Homeric world.