![]() ![]() She yields political power and holds acumen for the same, establishing herself as an equal to her husband in brains, if not in brawn. So when Penelope finds her voice, even though it is long after her death, she clarifies that her role in the epic is not just to form the basis of an edifying legend. She feigns ignorance as she doesn’t want to come between her son and husband and their reflection of their own cleverness (Atwood 108-111). It wouldn’t be going too far to say that she is, in fact, able to recognize the disguised Odysseus from day one and sets up the archery contest knowing that the beggar is her husband- the only one who could succeed in the task. The multiple shades of her personality do not come through in a narrative which shows her as a flighty and excitable mother, who is hardly in control of things, and needs to be lulled or distracted by Athene at climactic moments. Therefore, faithfulness is not Penelope’s sole quality. Each hopes to win the prize yet, and she feeds them with hope, “sending private messages to each man ” thus she turns every one of them against the other. They have the power, they have the inclination they are held by one small thread in the weak hands of a woman, but with that thread she snares them all, to the last man. Were she to undertake to drive them away, they would pillage the house, kill her boy, and certainly carry her off. She has a hard problem on her hands she has to save her son, herself, and as much of the estate as she can, from a set of bandits who have all in their might. She is as much the cunning weaver as Snider makes her to be: No longer is she a pawn in the hands of Pallas Athene but takes responsibility for her actions, especially when it comes to entangling the Suitors in her web. She recounts her birth and childhood, and speaks in scathing terms about her cousin Helen, whom she blames with ruining her life. The reinterpretation serves as that cocoon where Penelope can metamorphose into the heroine of her story rather than wriggling her way as a damsel in distress through a narrative which is of and by a man. However, in The Penelopiad, Penelope dismisses all these as scandalous rumours and clears the air about many other events surrounding her life while speaking from the halls of Hades. ![]() And perhaps, as speculated by Ovid in Heroides, she must have wondered on the futility of her faithfulness when her beloved was in the arms of a foreign mistress, willfully choosing to stay away from home (Trzaskoma 306) and ultimately, she would have relented to the Suitors, albeit in secrecy, and procreated with all hundred and eight, to beget the fearsome god Pan (Graves 421). Surely, Penelope wouldn’t have just waited, weeped, and weaved for twenty long years! Many would have been the letters she would have written to Odysseus and handed to every sailor who dropped anchor on their shores. ![]() In the introduction to The Penelopiad, Atwood is troubled by two questions: “what led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to?” (xiv). Through this transformation, it makes a centuries-old myth relevant to contemporary readers, and at the same time calls for a metamorphosis of thought and action in their society. Such a reinterpretation effectively transforms the myth. It raises pertinent questions about sexism and classism in The Odyssey, and questions the validity of the storyteller. ![]() The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood gives Penelope the space to narrate her story in a manner suitable to contemporary readers. She is often kept in the dark about political matters, scolded by her son Telemachus, and lauded only for her faithfulness. However, despite her ingenuity, hers is a character which is little explored. She exhibits a degree of wile which would be characteristic of her husband in keeping the Suitors at bay. In his absence, his wife Penelope waits for him, instead of marrying one of the 108 Suitors courting her. He is a hero despite having lost his army at sea-a hero in homecoming as well as in war-and earns fame for his wit and valor. The Greek epic, The Odyssey, said to be composed by Homer, tells of the nostos of Odysseus, who returns to his kingdom in Ithaca after twenty years and saves it from being plundered by his wife’s suitors. ![]()
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