Countless suitors bombard Penelope with hopes of winning her hand in marriage. Determined to postpone these proposals, she tells them, “Young men, my suitors, now my lord is dead, / let me finish my weaving before I marry, / or else my thread will have been spun in vain” (II: 104-6). Penelope has to humor the suitors for the sake of Telemakhos, while in reality she has no intention of marrying any of them. She manages to deceive them for three years, “So every day she wove on the great loom— / but every night by torchlight she unwove it” (II: 112-13), until one of her maids reveals her secret in the fourth year. Penelope “had to finish then, although she hated it” (II: 118). Though her plan is discovered, Penelope manages to put off the suitors while Telemakhos’ coming of age draws nearer.
The loss of Odysseus grieves Penelope and saddens her to the point at which she wishes to die, but the love she feels for her son compels her to remain strong and protect him. Athena reminds Penelope of Odysseus’ hunting bow: “Now try those dogs at archery” (XXI: 4). With a heavy heart but a strong will, Penelope addresses the suitors with a challenge. She says to them:
You found no justification for yourselves—none
except your lust to marry me. Stand up, then:
Here is my lord Odysseus’ hunting bow.
Bend and string it if you can. Who sends an arrow
through iron axe-helve sockets, twelve in line?
I join my life with his… (XXI: 74-81)
Penelope knows that Odysseus alone possesses the ability to achieve this feat, and therefore presents this challenge to the suitors without fear of their success. She outwits the suitors once again while honoring Odysseus’ memory and protecting Telemakhos.
Penelope will neither accept nor reject marriage. Rejecting it would endanger her son’s life and property, while accepting it would end her hope of reunion with Odysseus. Penelope has learned to trust no one, and even when Odysseus returns she hesitates to accept the identity he claims to own. He proves himself by recalling their olive tree bed, “[Odysseus’] handiwork and no one else’s” (XXIII: 214-15), and only then does Penelope believe him. Penelope’s long-suffering comes to an end when she reunites with Odysseus and Telemakhos’ life and heritage remains secure. Penelope perseveres for the sake of her beloved son and she is rewarded in the end with her family becoming whole again.
Work Cited
Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.
