Different Representations Of Oikos In The Odyssey

Penelope remains faithful to Odysseus even though he has been going for a very long time and the suitors who try to win her hand in marriage. In book two it states, “her ability to deceive the suitors is evident in her weaving and unweaving for the burial shroud for Laertes.” Penelope is known for her ability to take in the suitors while waiting for Odysseus' return. Penelope shows her loyalty and quick thinking throughout the

Penelope waited a long, lingering twenty years for her beloved Odysseus return to Ithaka and into her arms. Penelope proved her loyalty by ?wearing out [her] lifetime with desire/ and sorrow, mindful of [her] lord, good man/? (Homer 18:229-230). Even though the pestering suitors were like vulture swarming in on fresh meat Penelope was able to hold them at bay with her faithful devotion to her mighty Odysseus. In order to do this the cunning and wily Penelope lead them to believe that she would marry one of them only to later let them down. She used the weaving of the funeral shroud for Lord Laertes to keep them under control. ?So everyday she wove on the loom-/ but every night by torchlight she unwove it;? (Homer 1:110-111). Attestation of Penelope?s loyalty to Odysseus is the unweaving of the shroud because she did not want to marry one of the suitors and had full confidence in her beloved king?s return. The archery test that Penelope purposes is functioning to hold off the suitors, for none are a match for Odysseus, as well as prompting Odysseus to proving himself to her. ?Upon Penelope, most worn in love and thought, / Athena cast a glance like a gray sea/ lifting her. Now to bring the tough bow out and bring/ the iron blades. Now try those dogs at archery.? (Homer 21:1-4). Penelope tests Odysseus to make him prove that it is he before she will trust him. The test of the bedpost that she puts to Odysseus once again proves Penelope?s

She is also very brainy and is able to outsmart Odysseus. When Odysseus finally returns, he tries to hide his identity for as long as possible. He did such a good job that Penelope had a hard time believing that it was actually him. She comes up with a very smart plan to confirm that he was in fact Odysseus. She asks Eurycleia to move their bed into the hallway, to prove Odysseus’ identity, because only he would know that their bed is built around a tree that they built their house around.

Penelope acts as the damsel in distress. She is unable to keep the suitors away from her house because she is a woman, and that makes her vulnerable. She also provides Odysseus with a reason to return home because she is his wife. She has no choice but to pick one of the suitors, and soon. Penelope says she is “wasted with longing for Odysseus, while here they press for marriage”(1004). She still loves her husband, which gives him hope that he will be accepted once he makes his return, and gives him a reason to continue trying. She also cannot turn the suitors away, preventing her from being able to protect herself. This once again proves that, as the damsel in distress, Penelope needs Odysseus for protection.

Atwood’s take on the character of Penelope in The Penelopiad first describes her as an average and modest woman with a single defining trait of intelligence, whereas Odysseus is introduced to the story as a cheat and a thief. In due time, Odysseus leaves to fight in the war against Troy, and then starts his ten year voyage back to Ithaca. However, in the twenty years he was gone, Penelope has learned to independently manage the land, and use her wits to trick the Suitors and learn of their plans. When Odysseus finally returns home, Penelope knows to not reveal his true identity and doesn’t tell him of her deceptive ways. The two characters have flipped traits in this way, as now Penelope is the master of tricks and Odysseus follows her lead.

When the other Cyclopes asks “What ails you, / Polyphemus? Why do you cry so sore / in the starry night?” (IX, 437 - 439). He answers ”'Nobody, Nobody's tricked me, Nobody's ruined me!' / [Which] to this rough shout they made a sage reply: / 'Ah well, if nobody has played you foul / there in your lonely bed, we are no use in pain / given by the great Zeus. / Let it be your father, Poseidon Lord, to whom you pray’ / [and] so saying / they trailed away. And [Odysseus] was filled with laughter / to see how like a charm the name deceived them” (IX, 444 - 452). Penelope expresses this wit when she tells the suitors “‘My lord is dead, / let me finish my weaving before I marry, / or else my thread will have been spun in vain’, / … [and] every day she wove on the great loom- / but every night by torchlight she unwove it; / and so for three years she deceived the Achaeans” (II, 104 - 106, 112 - 114). After Penelope sees Odysseus, she tests to see if it is really him by telling Eurycleia to “‘Make up his bed for him… / Place it outside the bedchamber my lord / built with his own hands. Pile the big bed / with fleeces, rugs, and sheets of purest linen,” to which Odysseus replies “‘Woman, by heaven you’ve stung me now! / Who dared to move my bed? / No builder had the skill for that-unless / a god came down to turn the

Odysseus, now home, must keep his true identity under wraps until he gets rid of the suitors. He also wants to find out for himself how faithful Penelope has been to him. He enters his old palace under the disguise of a beggar; in fact, he gets help from Athena to help him change his physical appearance. Once in the palace, he sees how the suitors have totally overrun his home. He also finds that Penelope has been faithful to him, even using trickery to hold off the suitors for all this time. Odysseus gets his revenge near the end of the story by killing the suitors with his great bow. He also kills every maidservant who has gone to bed with a suitor. This is also a great example of how Zeus puts doom on someone (or in this case a whole group) who abuses the host-guest relationship. With this deed now

Penelope’s faithfulness, willpower, and loyalty exceeds the amount of any other character. She embodies the characteristic of the “ideal” woman. Penelope’s faithfulness, like Telemakhos, was out of love. While those who shamed the home of Odysseus were dealt with more harshly because their loyalty was expected from being the “property” of

After Odysseus becomes enraged when Penelope asks the maid to make his bed outside, she realizes that he knows the secret that only Odysseus and her share. She embraces him and praises his homecoming. Once again, Penelope is wise and patient in her decision-making. The suitors pursued her, overtook her home and aggressively pushed her to remarry as she was supposed to. If Penelope would have given in, The Odyssey would not have ended with Odysseus returning to a loyal home. Through cunning, independence and loyalty, Penelope is able to create a positive image as a woman. Chaucer’s Wife of Bath has similar independence and cunning, but she makes her name as a domineering lady that chooses who she wants, and when she wants them.

Penelope, just as Odysseus, portrayed the great human trait of patience. She did what it took to fend off the suitors with hope that her husband would come back for her. Penelope didn’t give up hope because she felt in heart that Odysseus would come

Homer 's epic, 'The Odyssey ', is a lengthy poem that recounts the Trojan war hero, Odysseus ' arduous and protracted journey home to Ithaca. In it, Homer accentuates the somewhat feudal nature of his world, a societal structure that far more resembles his own than that which actually existed in Mycenaean Greece, less to supplement the story, but rather to serve as the primary focus. Despite the feudal qualities of the world that Homer relates, the poem is almost entirely devoid of class conscious thinking. Instead, the primary source of structure comes from the household. The 'Odyssey ' serves as something of a champion for the oixos (Ancient Greek for the household

While traditional readers of Homer’s, The Odyssey, view Odysseus as a hero, they often reduce Penelope to Odysseus’s helpless wife, but Penelope is more than just a damsel-in-distress. Penelope proves to be Odysseus’s heroic equal, as through her resilient, witty and strategic actions she ensures Odysseus fighting advantages over the suitors.

Odysseus's wife, Penelope plays a crucial role in Homer's ‘The Odyssey’, with not only providing the motivation for Odysseus's return to Ithaca, but she is also the center of the plot involving the suitors and the fate of Telemakos and Ithaca itself.  Therefore the objective of this essay is to analyze the importance of Penelope’s role in ‘The Odyssey’.

To begin, Penelope thinks of Odysseus and immediately lets her emotions out: “Odysseus—if he could return to tend my life / the renown I had would only grow in glory. / Now my life is torment … / look at the griefs some god has loosed against me!” (The Odyssey, 18.285-288). Furthermore, Homer expresses Penelope’s sadness by making her sink “on her well-built chamber’s floor” and through her “sobbing uncontrollably” (The Odyssey, 4.810-813). Clearly in Penelope’s mind, Odysseus’ absence is not something she can easily forget. Homer introduces Penelope as a very caring and devoted wife.

Penelope and the maids have contradicting personalities, which is one of the highlights of the epic poem. Penelope’s nature is that she is strong, independent, and does not give in to their constant woo, whereas the maids bring dishonor to the royal family by prejudicing Odysseus in his beggar outfit, and sleeping with the suitors. Penelope is originally depicted as weak and frail, however, this is a ploy for her primary intentions. The suitors had approached Penelope, after years of Odysseus being away at war, and finding his way back home. Eventually, they decided that one should secure the king’s throne of Ithaca, and become Penelope’s husband. Her actions are shown as cunning and manipulative, “‘There she was all day long, working away at the great web; but at night she used to unravel it by