Leodes is the first suitor to attempt to string Odysseus’s bow. The episode occurs in Odyssey Book 21, when Penelope announces that she will marry the man who can string the bow and shoot an arrow through twelve aligned axe heads.
Leodes is a suitor but also a diviner who disapproves of the other suitors’ violent and reckless behavior. He takes up the bow first, yet his inexperienced, unused hands cannot bend it far enough to attach the string. After failing, he warns the others that the bow will bring death, though they continue the contest.
The distinction between “first suitor” and “first person” matters: Telemachus handles the bow before the suitors and nearly succeeds after several attempts. Among Penelope’s suitors, however, Leodes is explicitly first. Eurymachus later tries and fails, while Antinous mainly directs the contest and proposes warming and greasing the bow. Disguised as a beggar, Odysseus then strings it and proves his identity.