Why Wait for Twenty Years? Penelope’s Loyalty and Patience By Sumana Gupta !1 Acknowledgements To Penelope, the character who deserved the world, but got Odysseus Thank you once again to Doctor Walsh for your endless guidance !2 Penelope’s Loyalty and Patience When considering the journey of the Odyssey, one would be remiss if they did not discuss the role of Penelope within the epic. Penelope is unique, for her stalwart loyalty to her husband was her defining characteristic, a coveted trait for women in antiquity. Why, however, is she mo- tivated to wait twenty years? Penelope’s motivations are intrinsically connected to her loyalty to Odysseus. Her loyalty is displayed by her capability to survive on her own in the absence of Odysseus, her complex motivations to protect Telemachus, and out of genuine love and loyalty to her husband. This paper will explore the possibility that Penelope benefits from waiting, and a part of her heroic arc is that she is able to remain loyal, not only for Odysseus and Telemachus but for the sake of her kleos. The word ‘heroic’ may seem out of place for Penelope, but the virtues that she exhibits throughout the Odyssey cast her in a similar light to Odysseus, where she is not his subordinate, but his equal, as we will demonstrate in Penelope’s analysis. Penelope in the Odyssey is a female character who was more than capable of surviving on her own. This is shown through a description of Penelope retrieving a key in 21.6: ‘She climbed the high stairway to her chamber, and took the bent key in her strong hand – a goodly key of bronze, and on it was a handle of ivory.’1 Homer often uses the phrase ‘strong hand’ to describe warriors, or scenes involving warfare, and Penelope’s description of having a ‘strong hand’ is the only instance that it is used to depict a mortal woman.2 Scholars have interpreted this unique description as Penelope unlocking a door like a Homeric warrior attacking an enemy.3 The key is her weapon, and in this metaphor, she has heroic virtues akin to her husband.4 Penelope further resembles Odysseus as the phrase that describes Penelope inserting the key is similar to an archer shooting a bow, foreshadowing the fruits of Penelope’s archery con- test: ‘hereon had he also fitted door-posts, and set on them bright doors—straightway she quickly loosed the thong from the handle and thrust in the key, and with sure aim shot back the bolts. And as a bull bellows when grazing in a meadow, even so bellowed the fair doors, smitten by the key…’5 1 Daniel Turkeltaub, "Penelope’s ‘Stout Hand’ and Odyssean Humour," The Journal of Hellenic Studies 134 (2014): 103; Penelope’s Fat Hand Reconsidered, 10, Homer describing Penelope as having a ‘strong hand’ is an anomaly among Homeric female descriptions 2 Duane W. Roller, Letitia K. Roller, “Penelope’s Thick Hand (“Odyssey” 21.6),” The Classical Journal 90, no. 1(1994): 11; Athanassios Vergados, "Penelope's Fat Hand Reconsidered (Odyssey 21, 6)," Wiener Studien 122 (2009): 13. 3 Turkeltaub, (2014): 109. 4 Turkeltaub, (2014): 109; Vergados (2009): 13. 5 Emily Katz Anhalt, "A Bull for Poseidon: The Bull"s Bellow in Odyssey 21.46–50," The Clas- sical Quarterly 47, no. 1 (1997): 18; Od. 21.42. !3 The bull simile described above is the next important indication of Penelope’s heroic virtue. Turkeltaub has interpreted this comparison to be a bull charging out of a locked room.6 The verb, ἀ$%&'()*, ‘clashed’, used in this simile often describes instances of warfare in Homeric litera- ture.7 Such instances include the clashing of armour, or a horse falling dead when it had been struck by a spear.8 Despite Penelope never involving herself in such a situation, the general fatal- ity that this simile communicates lends to the idea that Penelope herself is a bull.9 However, Turkeltaub emphasizes that this simile is a form of Odyssean humour that serves to elevate the mundane in supernatural situations.10 Descriptions of an ivory handle are mundane and superfi- cial embellishments that devalue the supernatural element in Penelope’s comparison to a bull.11 Unlike the river Scamander which roars ‘like a bull’12, Penelope expresses no such reaction, and thus reduces her comparison to a bull as one that does not display any glorious power, but one that simply grazes.13 A peaceful perception of Penelope matches how Odyssean humour is meant to elevate the mundane in any situation. The idea of Penelope being peaceful, but still a powerful entity in her own right reinforces the idea of Penelope exhibiting power in the domestic sphere, as it is where the contemporary gender-roles are prescribed that she exercised her power. This pronounces her as a model female character and emphasizes her capability as a wife without Odysseus. Even though the previous point was focused on a comparison of Penelope to a peaceful bull, we should not only understand her power as being isolated to the domestic sphere, for Homer does not restrict her to this, as can be seen through his comparison of Penelope to a lion, and the suitors to a bull. When she is with the suitors, she is as a lion being encircled by her en- emies: ‘And even as a lion is seized with fear and broods amid a throng of men, when they draw their crafty ring about him, so was she pondering when sweet sleep came upon her.’14 The sub- dued and fearful nature of the lion shows the power of Penelope’s enemies, while also showing 6 Turkeltaub, (2014): 109; Vergados, (2009): 15. 7 Anhalt, (1997): 17; Vergados, (2009): 15; Od. 21.48. 8 Anhalt, (1997): 17. 9 Turkeltaub, (2014): 110. 10 Turkeltaub, (2014): 104. 11 Turkeltaub, (2014): 109 ! look at footnote 50 12 Il. 21.237. 13 Turkeltaub, (2014): 110. 14 Od. 4.787-94. !4 her own inherent power.15 Even a predator as fierce as the lion can feel closed in, and the suitors surrounding Penelope while she weaves perfectly illustrates this comparison. If Penelope is the predator, the fierce lion, then the suitors represent the prey, a bull about to be consumed by the lion. The sound of the doors creaking open resembles the roar of a bull: ‘as a bull bellows when grazing in a meadow, even so bellowed the fair doors.’16 The roar of the bull is the cry and protest of the suitors that are resisting their impending fate, being that of bulls killed by the lion for encroaching on its territory.17 Even though the Odyssey refers to Odysseus as the lion, it is Penelope’s equality to Odysseus that allows for the perception that she could be one as well.18 Through the use of the animal simile and language relating to a warfare setting, it is demonstrat- ed that Penelope was capable of surviving in the absence of her husband. Penelope’s capability of survival is further seen through her most commendable skill: weaving. Weaving was a coveted skill in the domestic sphere, a skill that Penelope aptly wields. There are many theories as to what weaving means to Penelope, but I contend that she utilizes it as an metaphorical weapon to defend the household and furthermore the kingdom of Ithaca.19 Penelope tricks the suitors by telling them that she will decide which one to marry once she fin- ishes weaving a funeral shroud for her father-in-law, Laertes.20 The trick in delaying the suitors is how she unravels the shroud each night, allowing her to never complete the shroud and never having to marry any of the suitors.21 Penelope weaving and unweaving a shroud for her father in law is symbolic of her commitment to Odysseus, as each day and night when she weaves and 15 Michelle M. Kundmueller, "On the Importance of Penelope," Polity 50, no. 1 (2018): 51; Heitman interprets that that Homer is describing her power to be a protective nature over Telemachus (36). Richard Heitman, Taking her seriously: Penelope & the plot of Homer's Odyssey, (University of Michigan Press, 2005), 36. 16 Od. 21.42. 17 Anhalt, (1997): 19. 18 Anhalt, (1997): 19. 19 Kundmueller, (2018): 45; Maria C. Pantelia, "Spinning and Weaving: Ideas of Domestic Order in Homer," The American Journal of Philology 114, no. 4 (1993): 497; Mueller (2007) 348-9 theorizes that weaving is a ‘physical expression of remembering’, where the physical act of weaving enables her to keep Odysseus’ memory alive. This is another form where Penelope’s weapon of weaving is manifested, as her weaving while she thinks of Odysseus’ presence is a constant reminder to hold on to hope that her husband will return. 20 Od. 2.99-2.103. 21 Od. 19.137. !5 unravels, she is burying but then reviving her commitment to him.22 The weaving is what allows her to remain loyal to Odysseus despite the pressure to remarry from the suitors.23 This, however, brings forth the question of why she entertains the possibility of marrying the suitors in the first place. Her simultaneous encouragement and denial of the suitors is her cunning trick, and just one in the many ways that illustrate how she is a match to Odysseus.24 Penelope’s loyalty to Odysseus is unquestionable, but everyone else believed him to be dead, rendering her public commitment to Odysseus null, and increasing the social pressure for her to remarry with each year that Odysseus does not return.25 Thus, Penelope needed to entertain the suitors to protect Odysseus and his interests.