Penelope is the faithful wife of Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey, waiting for his return for 20 years while dealing with suitors. She uses a cunning ruse to delay choosing a suitor, but is eventually discovered. When Odysseus returns, he wins the challenge and is restored to his throne. Recent readings suggest Penelope may have considered marrying a suitor and Margaret Atwood’s book The Penelopiad explores her complex character.
In the Odyssey of the ancient bard Homer, Penelope is the wife of Odysseus, the main character of the epic tale. In the Odyssey, Penelope waits twenty years for her husband to return from the Trojan War. Together, Penelope and Ulysses are the parents of a son, Telemachus. Odysseus’ many detours on his homeward route make up most of the action in the epic. While he’s away on these adventures, many of which are quite dangerous, Penelope deals with her problems at home.
While Penelope is left to rule the roost, she must contend with the amorous advances of many eager suitors. Though she has no way of proving it, she Penelope believes that Ulysses is still alive and that she will one day return home. Her suitors think differently. They are interested in marrying Penelope and conquering Odysseus’ kingdom of Ithaca. Penelope, however, remains faithful through a cunning ruse. She agrees that she will choose a suitor for her husband when she has finished weaving a burial shroud for Laertes, Odysseus’ aged father. She works on her loom every day. But she every night she takes out a part of the shroud so that it’s never over.
Unfortunately, one of Penelope’s twelve maids discovers her deception and reveals it to her suitors. She then decides to challenge the suitors to choose one of them as a husband. When it’s time for the challenge, however, Ulysses is back. Since he wasn’t sure of the state Ithaca would be in when he returned, he disguised himself as a beggar. But when he wins the challenge, his true identity is revealed and he is restored to his throne.
While Penelope is traditionally seen as a figure of fidelity, recent readings of the Odyssey have shown that she is more complex. It is possible that Penelope considered marrying one of the suitors and at times she even enjoyed their advances. In 2005, Margaret Atwood released the book The Penelopiad, which is a retelling of Penelope’s life. It also focuses on an event at the end of the Odyssey in which Odysseus hangs twelve of the handmaids who had lived with Penelope in her absence. The Penelopiad asks fascinating questions about Penelope. What was it like living in a house surrounded by suitors while her husband was away for decades? Was it difficult being a cousin of Helen of Troy, who was of unsurpassed beauty? And what really happened in those twenty years she lived single?
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