Match Made in Heaven.

The first 200 words of this essay...

Match Made in Heaven

Nan Ni

"There is nothing nobler or more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends."

Homer

That bard created such two people in The Odyssey, their contrasting roles concealing the similarities in their natures. Both Penelope and Odysseus dealt with "a world of pain", but in very different settings: she wastes away at home, while he faces a myriad of adventures and sufferings around the Greek world. Although Homer assigned them dissimilar parts in his epic, however, his story still reveals striking resemblances between Odysseus and Penelope: they possess positive qualities and several faults in common as well as one major dissimilarity, all of which are the secrets to their long and blissful marriage and help them to see "eye to eye."

One can easily see why Ithaca's king and queen remained happily united for so many years when looking at the shining characteristics they share. Both are wondrously loyal, even when faced with an abundance of temptations. Over the course of twenty years, Odysseus knew countless lovely women, from