Penelope's fidelity is not something that we should take for granted any more than Odysseus does – and indeed, the unpredictability of a woman in Penelope's situation is very much the point of the entire second half of the poem. Thirdly, it is Penelope who finally allows Odysseus to re-establish himself as her husband after he has proved to her satisfaction that he is privy to their most intimate secrets. It is precisely because Penelope is so limited in the weapons which she has at her disposal that she is such a formidable opponent. Had she not practiced this deception, Odysseus' oikos would have been wiped out. For three years, she has succeeded in hoodwinking the suitors by pretending to weave a shroud for her father-in-law while unpicking the threads by night. The second point about Penelope is that she is capable by her intelligence and handicraft alone of waging single-handed war in defense of both the household and her chastity against suitors, who seek to capture the one and compromise the other. This does not make Penelope powerful in her own right, of course, but it makes her the source by which others might attain power. It is not entirely clear why this is so, but it is a fact. They do so not exclusively or even primarily because she is desirable (although she undeniably is desirable) but because whoever wins her hand in marriage will inherit Odysseus' oikos and assume power in Ithaca. In the belief that her husband is dead, the greatest men on Ithaca and on the neighbouring islands are besieging her palace in order to claim her hand in marriage – 108 in all. Number one: Penelope holds the key to sovereignty on Ithaca. We know at least three important facts about her. The eventual outcome depends as much if not more on the devising and intervention of women as it does on the devising and intervention of men. In the Odyssey, women's routine tasks are relegated to the background and obscured by their active involvement with the plot. But that isn't how the world of Odysseus is organised. Women were necessary for propagation, but there was little else they were permitted to do. Greek society was patrilineal and patriarchal. Men, by contrast, spent the day outside, conversing, deliberating, and decision-making. In Greek society, generally, a woman's place was in the home. Butler based this claim on the fact that the poem is full of strong-willed women who dictate the terms of Odysseus' return home – the goddess Athena, who supports him and his family, the nymph Calypso, who keeps him as her sex slave for seven years, the witch Circe, with whom he has a year-long dalliance, the princess Nausicaä, who welcomes him when he swims ashore, instead of running away screaming, Nausicaä's mother Arête, who receives him in the palace, and last but by no means least his wife Penelope, who holds things altogether during Odysseus' twenty-year absence by deceiving a whole army of suitors, 108 in total. Back in 1897, a Victorian writer called Samuel Butler wrote a book called The Authoress of the Odyssey.
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