Penelope

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Penelope
Icarius (father)
Asterodia or Periboea
(mother)
Iphthime (sister)
NationalityGreek
Penelope. Drawing after Attic pottery figure.
Penelope encounters the returned Odysseus posing as a beggar. From a mural in the Macellum of Pompeii

Penelope (

Icarius and Asterodia.[1] Penelope is known for her fidelity to her husband Odysseus, despite the attention of more than a hundred suitors during his absence. In one source, Penelope's original name was Arnacia or Arnaea.[2]

Etymology

Pre-Greek and related to pēnelops (πηνέλοψ)[6]
or pēnelōps (πηνέλωψ).

Role in the Odyssey

Penelope by Franklin Simmons, marble, 1896.
Penelope by Franklin Simmons (1896), marble. On display at the De Young Museum in San Francisco.

Penelope is married to the main character, the king of

Antinous and including Agelaus, Amphinomus, Ctessippus, Demoptolemus, Elatus, Euryades, Eurymachus and Peisandros).[7][a]

Penelope and the Suitors by John William Waterhouse (1911-1912)

On Odysseus's return, disguised as an old beggar, he finds that Penelope has remained faithful. She has devised cunning tricks to delay the suitors, one of which is to pretend to be weaving a burial shroud for Odysseus's elderly father Laertes and claiming that she will choose a suitor when she has finished. Every night for three years, she undoes part of the shroud, until Melantho, a slave, discovers her chicanery and reveals it to the suitors.[8]

Emile-Antoine Bourdelle

Penelope's efforts to delay remarriage is often seen as a symbol of marital fidelity to her husband, Odysseus.[9] But because Athena wants her "to show herself to the wooers, that she might set their hearts a-flutter and win greater honor from her husband and her son than heretofore", Penelope does eventually appear before the suitors [9](xviii 160−162) Irene de Jong wrote

 As so often, it is Athena who takes the initiative in giving the story a new direction ... Usually the motives of mortal and god coincide, here they do not: Athena wants Penelope to fan the Suitors’ desire for her and (thereby) make her more esteemed by her husband and son; Penelope has no real motive ... she simply feels an unprecedented impulse to meet the men she so loathes ... adding that she might take this opportunity to talk to Telemachus (which she will indeed do).[10]

It is important to consider the alternate perspective of Penelope entertaining, and even enjoying the attention of, her suitors. Italian philosophy historian Giula Sissa offers a unique perspective which supports this idea. The Odyssey allows room for Penelope’s identity free of being Ulysses’ wife. As she awaits his return, she makes a plan to deal with her suitors while also responding to her desires. Sissa discusses how Penelope gives her suitors the opportunity to demonstrate themselves as the best candidate for her attention. Sissa writes,

"Penelope innovates. And she does so because she responds in the same register to the desires of the men who have been awaiting her verdict for three years. This is an erotic desire to which she reacts, first, with seductive wiles of messages and promises, and then by inviting them to demonstrate their excellence, not in terms of wealth and social prestige, but in terms of something extremely personal and physical. In order to please Penelope, they have to be on par with Ulysses in showing the might of their bodies."[11]

She is ambivalent, variously asking Artemis to kill her and apparently considering marrying one of the suitors. When the disguised Odysseus returns, she announces in her long interview with him that whoever can string Odysseus's rigid bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axe heads may have her hand. "For the plot of the Odyssey, of course, her decision is the turning point, the move that makes possible the long-predicted triumph of the returning hero".[12]

There is debate as to whether Penelope knows that it is Odysseus. Penelope and the suitors know that Odysseus (were he in fact present) would easily surpass them all in any test of masculine skill, so she may have started the contest as an opportunity for him to reveal his identity. On the other hand, because Odysseus seems to be the only person (except, perhaps, Telemachus) who can actually use the bow, she could just be further delaying her marriage to one of the suitors.[13]

Louvre Museum
)

When the contest of the bow begins, none of the suitors are able to string the bow, except Odysseus who wins the contest. Having done so, he proceeds to slaughter the suitors – beginning with Antinous whom he finds drinking from his cup – with help from Telemachus, Athena and the slaves

olive tree. Penelope finally accepts that he truly is Odysseus, a moment that highlights their homophrosýnē (ὁμοφροσύνη, "like-mindedness").[14] Homer implies that from then on Odysseus would live a long and happy life together with Penelope and Telemachus, wisely ruling his kingdom, and enjoying wide respect and much success.[15]

In some early sources such as Pindar, Pan's parents are Apollo and Penelope.[16] Herodotus,[17] Cicero,[18] Apollodorus,[19] and Hyginus[20] all describe Hermes and Penelope as his parents. Pausanias[21] records the story that Penelope had in fact been unfaithful to Odysseus, who banished her to Mantineia upon his return. In the 5th century AD Nonnus[22] names Pan's mother as Penelope of Mantineia in Arcadia. Other sources[23] report that Penelope had slept with all 108 suitors in Odysseus' absence, and gave birth to Pan as a result.[24] This myth reflects the folk etymology that equates Pan's name (Πάν) with the Greek word for "all" (πᾶν).[b] The Odyssey carefully suppresses this variant tradition.[25]

Iconography

Drawing of a depiction on an Ancient Greek pottery vessel. Penelope sits before a tapestry on a warp-weighted loom

Penelope is recognizable in Greek and Roman works, from Attic vase-paintings—the Penelope Painter is recognized by his representations of her—to Roman sculptures copying or improvising upon classical Greek models, by her seated pose, by her reflective gesture of leaning her cheek on her hand, and by her protectively crossed knees, reflecting her long chastity in Odysseus' absence, an unusual pose in any other figure.[26]

Latin tradition

Latin references to Penelope revolved around her sexual loyalty to the absent Odysseus. It suited the marital aspect of Roman society representing the tranquility of the worthy family.

Saint Jerome
among pagan women famed for their chastity.

Notes

  1. ^ Odysseus spends ten years in the Trojan War, and ten years travelling home.
  2. ^ The Homeric Hymn to Pan is the earliest known example of such wordplay: It suggests that Pan’s name was based on the fact that he delighted “all” of the gods.

References

  1. ^ Dindorf, W. (1855). Scholia Graeca in Homeri Odysseam. Oxford Academic Press. 4.797.
  2. ^ Tzetzes on Lycophron, Alexandra 792
  3. ^ Γλῶσσαι.
  4. ^ Zeno.org lemma relating πηνέλωψ (gen. πηνέλοπος) and <χην(ά)λοπεςὄρνεα (predators) ποιά. ὅπερ ἔνιοι <χηναλώπεκες>.
  5. Weaving (mythology)
    .
  6. ^ R. S. P. Beekes (2009). Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Brill. p. 1186.
  7. .
  8. .
  9. ^ a b Mackail, J.W. (1916). Penelope in the Odyssey. Cambridge University Press.
  10. .
  11. ^ Sissa, Giulia (2008). Eros tiranno: sessualità e sensualità nel mondo antico [Sex and sensuality in the ancient world.] (in Italian). Translated by Staunton, George. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
  12. ^ Knox, B. (1996). "Introduction". The Odyssey. p. 55. translation by Robert Fagles
  13. S2CID 170743678
    .
  14. ^ Austin, Norman (1975). Archery at the Dark of the Moon: Poetic problems in Homer's Odyssey. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 231.
  15. The Odyssey. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. New York, NY / London, UK.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  16. ^ Pindar. Bowra, Maurice (ed.). Fragment 90.
  17. ^ Herodotus. Historíai̯. 2.145.
  18. ^ Cicero. De Natura Deorum. 3.22.56.
  19. ^ Pseudo-Apollodorus. Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus). 7.38.
  20. Fabulae
    . 224.
  21. ^ Pausanias. Description of Greece. 8.12.5.
  22. ^ Nonnus. Dionysiaca. 14.92.
  23. Vergil
    )
  24. ^ Pseudo-Apollodorus. "[footnote]". In Capps, E.; Page, T.E.; Rouse, W.H.D. (eds.). Bibliotheca [The Library]. Webster Collection of Social Anthropology. p. 305 – via Google Books.
  25. ISSN 2405-450X
    .
  26. ^ But compare, for an unusual exception, the seated aulos player on the "Ludovisi Throne.
  27. ^ Mactoux, Marie-Madeleine (1975). Pénélope: Légende et Mythe. Paris: Annales Litteraires de L'Universite de Basancon. pp. 129–30.
  28. ^ Nixon, Paul (1968). Plautus. London: William Heinemann Ltd. She is mentioned in the opening lines of the play Stychus
  29. ^ Propertius (2004). Complete Elegies of Propertius. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.see Elegies 2.6; 2.9 and 3.12. Propertius was one of the few Latin authors to mention Penelope's weaving ruse.

Primary sources

Secondary sources

External links