Penelope In Homer's The Odyssey

Odysseus' wife, Penelope, likewise demonstrates her loyalty in how she deals with Odysseus' absence. Finally, the goddess Athena plays a significant role in aiding both Telemachus and Odysseus on their complex journeys. Throughout The Odyssey, Athena, Telemachus, and Penelope individually demonstrate their loyalty towards Odysseus in their

Penelope demonstrates her faithfulness by waiting for Odysseus, resisting sexual temptation, and protecting Odysseus from his enemies. First, Penelope waits for Odysseus. She makes up her mind that she will not marry any other man, despite the pressure she had been receiving from her suitors. When one of her suitors tells her that she is to marry him, she tells him that she would like to weave a rug for their home before she marries him. But Penelope has a plan.

The Odyssey, written by Homer, tells the story of Odysseus after the Trojan War. It not only includes an insight on the adventures and return of Odysseus, but it also includes the stories of Telemakhos and Penelope. Telemakhos is the courageous son of Odysseus who goes on a quest in search for information about his father’s whereabouts. Penelope is an extremely clever woman who could match Odysseus in his wit. Penelope is able manipulate the suitors that have come to pursue her in Odysseus’s absence. Though Penelope often spends many nights weeping over the absence of her husband, it seems as if she never loses faith in her husband, and she truly believes that he will return to her and punish the suitors that have taken over their

Penelope acts as the damsel in distress. She is unable to keep the suitors away from her house because she is a woman, and that makes her vulnerable. She also provides Odysseus with a reason to return home because she is his wife. She has no choice but to pick one of the suitors, and soon. Penelope says she is “wasted with longing for Odysseus, while here they press for marriage”(1004). She still loves her husband, which gives him hope that he will be accepted once he makes his return, and gives him a reason to continue trying. She also cannot turn the suitors away, preventing her from being able to protect herself. This once again proves that, as the damsel in distress, Penelope needs Odysseus for protection.

Everyone thinks that Odysseus is dead and he will never come back and that is the cause for many suitors to go to Penelope’s home and try to convince her to become their wife. The two main things that make Penelope very clever are the two tests she decides to do on the suitors; the test of bow and the test of the bed. “Here is my lord Odysseus’ hunting bow. Bend and string it if you can. Who sends an arrow through iron axe-helve

            Penelope did not have any idea whether her husband was alive for most of the twenty-years he was gone.  She had promised Odysseus that she would not marry until their son, Telemakos, reached the age of adulthood.  Just

As the request is made of his own mother she simply abides to her son’s wishes, “She bathed now, put on some fresh clothes,” (Homer l 17.60). All throughout the Odyssey Penelope shows her strength to ward off suitors and she manages to live without her husband for years. Remaining faithful the entire time to her husband Odysseus she discloses to her maid, “Eurynome, don’t try to coax me, care for me as you do, to bathe myself, refresh my face with oils. Whatever glow I had died long ago… the gods of Olympus snuffed it out that day my husband sailed away in the hollow ships,” (Homer ll 18.201-206) presenting to the reader that she lost all desire for anyone else when Odysseus’ left for war. This further substantiates the Greek view of how women should remain loyal at all times forsaking others. Lastly Penelope is rewarded for her lasting devotion to her husband with his return. In these characters and their specific roles in the Odyssey the Greeks’ insisted upon their women to accept such roles in their culture of certain hypocrisy when compared to that of their female counterpart. Without Athena’s support Odysseus would have never reached Ithaca and Telemachus would not have been pushed into becoming a man. Without Penelope’s loyalty, devotion, and support Odysseus’ efforts in his journey home would have held little merit of reward. What is most important to note is the male character of Odysseus plays the most prominent role in the epic but

Penelope: In the opening chapters of The Odyssey Penelope is angry, frustrated, and helpless. She misses her husband, Odysseus. She worries about the safety of her son, Telemakhos. Her house is overrun with arrogant men who are making love to her servants and eating her out of house and home, all the while saying that they are courting her. She doesn't want to marry any of them, and their rude behavior can hardly be called proper courtship. She has wealth and position; she has beauty and intelligence; most of all she has loyalty to her husband. But against this corrupt horde who gather in her courtyard shooting dice, throwing the discus, killing her husband's cattle for their feasts, and drinking his wine, she is powerless.

Unlike Odysseus Penelope is confined by the gender roles of her time and cannot use physical strength against the suitors or even direct verbal rejection, instead Penelope resorts to her emotional resilience and wit in order to challenge the suitors. She wrongly reassures the suitors that once she finishes weaving a gift for Odysseus’s father, she will choose someone to marry her, “’Young men, my suitors, let me finish my weaving, before I marry’…every day she wove on the great loom but every night by torchlight she unwove it.” (II. 103-104, 112-113) Penelope’s actions are strategic and well calculated. Her main goal, like Odysseus, is to successfully overcome her situation. She understands that she may not be able to physically fight the suitors but she can trick them until Telemachus or Odysseus are able to. By crafting a lie that delays the suitors from marrying her immediately, Penelope restrains the suitors from seizing Ithaca, her household, and posing a threat to Telemachus or Odysseus. Her lie gives Odysseus a crucial advantage in the physical fight against the suitors as he comes back to a city and household where Penelope

Odysseus's wife, Penelope plays a crucial role in Homer's ‘The Odyssey’, with not only providing the motivation for Odysseus's return to Ithaca, but she is also the center of the plot involving the suitors and the fate of Telemakos and Ithaca itself.  Therefore the objective of this essay is to analyze the importance of Penelope’s role in ‘The Odyssey’.

We see that both Odysseus and Penelope share a liking toward cleverness that is very unusual in the story. Odysseus is one of the very few the Greek heroes to show that he has more brains than strength. Because Odysseus could have just stormed in to the kingdom and took his rightful place as the king and kick the suitors out but he doesn’t, he lets Athena disguise him as a beggar. However, what’s more impressive is Penelope, instead of letting the suitors take over and rape her and marry her, she told them once I am done with this quilt I will choose one of you to be my husband. But in reality, she was never going to finish the quilt because every stich that she would put in the quilt she would spend all night taking them out and starting over the next day just waiting for Odysseus to come

Penelope stayed singled for twenty years even though everyone including herself thought Odysseus was dead. A perfect wife should only have one husband in her entire life even if her husband is dead. It puts a lot of expectations for other women to live up in order to match Penelope. Penelope is the Queen in living in a beautiful home with maids while other ordinary women might be struggling to maintain her life. Penelope has the economic

With Penelope, a faithful and loving wife to Odysseus, Homer reveals to us how the Greeks believed wives should act. She was loyal to Odysseus the entire time he was away on his journey, and even when it appeared as if he had passed on she still had faith that he would return. She resisted the suitors on the sole basis that she loved Odysseus and could not see herself with another man when he could still be alive. She was smart, and cunning. She shows us this in Book II when we

Penelope is also shown to have been very sought after, by the band of suitors that inhabit Odysseus's palace in Ithaca while he is away. All the while Odysseus is away; suitors are constantly trying to force Penelope to choose one of them as her new husband.

"For my mother, against her will, is beset by suitors... (Odyssey 2.50)."  Assuming that Odysseus had died in the course of the war, they wish to marry her, although no news has yet been delivered as to Odysseus' true fate.  Meanwhile, the suitors are eating all her food, killing off all her livestock, and generally using up all the resources of the household (Odyssey 1.248-251).  Elders of the town suggest Penelope forget her pride and go home to her father and for him to arrange a new wedding for her.  "Let him urge his mother to go back to her father's, / and they shall appoint the marriage and arrange for the wedding presents... (Odyssey 2.195-196)"  Thus, the suitors pose multiple dangers for Penelope.  If the suitors ruin all the household's resources, or if one were to successfully persuade her to marry him, she would lose her power position.  Likewise, if the resources run out and she is forced to move back in with her father, she would lose both her power position and her autonomy.