Penelope is the wife of the main character, the king of Ithaca, Odysseus, and daughter of Icarius and his wife Periboea. She only has one son by Odysseus, Telemachus, who was born just before Odysseus was called to fight in the Trojan War. She waits twenty years for the final return of her husband, during which she devises various strategies to delay marrying one of the 108 suitors.
On Odysseus's return, disguised as an old beggar, he finds that Penelope has remained faithful. She has devised tricks to delay her suitors, one of which is to pretend to be weaving a burial shroud for Odysseus's elderly father Laertes and claiming that she will choose a suitor when she has finished. Every night for three years, she undoes part of the shroud, until Melantho, one of twelve unfaithful serving women, discovers her chicanery and reveals it to the suitors.
Because of her efforts to put off remarriage, Penelope is often seen as a symbol of connubial fidelity and we are reminded several times of her fidelity. But due to Athena's meddling, who wants her "to show herself to the wooers, that she might set their hearts a-flutter and win greater honor from her husband and her son than heretofore", Penelope does appear before the suitors.
She is ambivalent, variously asking Artemis to kill her and, apparently, considering marrying one of the suitors. When the disguised Odysseus returns, she announces in her long interview with the disguised hero that whoever can string Odysseus's rigid bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axe heads may have her hand.
There are debate as to whether she is aware that Odysseus is behind the disguise. Penelope and the suitors know that Odysseus (were he in fact present) would easily surpass all in any test of masculine skill. Since Odysseus seems to be the only person (perhaps excepting Telemachus) who can actually use the bow, it could merely have been another delaying tactic of Penelope's.
When the contest of the bow begins, none of the suitors are able to string the bow, but Odysseus does, and wins the contest. Having done so, he proceeds to slaughter the suitors. Odysseus has now revealed himself in all his glory (with a little makeover by Athena); yet Penelope cannot believe that her husband has really returned—she fears that it is perhaps some god in disguise, and tests him by ordering her servant Euryclea to move the bed in their bridal-chamber. Odysseus protests that this cannot be done since he made the bed himself and knows that one of its legs is a living olive tree. Penelope finally accepts that he truly is her husband, a moment that highlights their homophrosýnē. Homer implies, that from then on, Odysseus would live a long and happy life together with Penelope and Telemachus, wisely ruling his kingdom and enjoying wide respect and much success.
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| Odysseus and Penelope |
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| Penelope's Weaving |
The Story of Argus and The peacock's tail
Zeus was married to Hera, however, he fell in love with Io. Zeus had turned Io into a beautiful white bovine to hide her true identity from Hera. Zeus feared the intensity of Hera's jealousy and tried to hide himself and the heifer he loved by wrapping the earth in a dense cloud, thick enough to create constant night.
With daylight suddenly missing from the earth, Hera knew that her obtuse husband was up to something. Searching the heavens to no avail, she descended to earth, ordering the cloud away. She found Zeus beside the white heifer, claiming he just discovered the newly born cow. Hera knew that Zeus was lying to her, but played his bluff and asked for the cow as a gift. Zeus felt terrible doing it, but he knew that Hera would suspect something if he didn't concede. He reluctantly turned Io over to his wife, and Hera knew exactly what to do to keep Io away from him.
Enter Argus. Hera recruited Argus to guard the heifer. He had a hundred eyes and could sleep while always leaving some eyes open, making him the perfect watchman. Zeus writhed as misery engulfed his love. Io had been turned into a cow, taken from her home, and now trapped under Hera's orders.
Hermes was extremely clever, shedding all his godly paraphernalia and went to Argus in the guise of a country fellow. Hermes decide to make a pipe of reeds his luring weapon of choice and played music close enough to draw Argus' attention. Argus found the music most pleasing and invited Hermes to sit beside him to play music for him. The music however did not cause repose as Hermes hoped. Soon, Hermes stopped playing and began to talk and talk monotonously. This was nowhere near as enjoyable to Argus and he soon found himself bored as Hermes droned on and on with his mundane stories. The tale of Pan and Syrinx would finally lull Argus to sleep. Once the hundredth eye had shut, Hermes struck, killing Argus in his slumber.
Io was set free, until Hera would turn on her again, plaguing her with gad-flies that stung her into madness. In tribute to her trusted watchman, Hera took the eyes of Argus and set them to the tail of her favorite bird, the peacock.
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| Hermes & Argus |
the Oresteia (The House of Atreus)
After a stormy voyage, Agamemnon and Cassandra either landed in Argolis, or were blown off course and landed in Aegisthus' country. Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's wife, had taken Aegisthus, son of Thyestes, as a lover. When Agamemnon came home, Agamemnon was slain in a bath by his wife alone, a blanket of cloth or a net having first been thrown over him to prevent resistance. Clytemnestra also killed Cassandra. Her jealousy of Cassandra, and her wrath at the sacrifice of Iphigenia and at Agamemnon's having gone to war over Helen of Troy, are said to have been the motives for her crime. Aegisthus and Clytemnestra then ruled Agamemnon's kingdom for a time, Aegisthus claiming his right of revenge for Agamemnon's father Atreus having fed Thyestes his own children (Thyestes then crying out "So perish all the race of Pleisthenes!", thus explaining Aegisthus' action as justified by his father's curse).
Agamemnon's son Orestes later avenged his father's murder, with the help or encouragement of his sister Electra, by murdering Aegisthus and Clytemnestra (his own mother), thereby inciting the wrath of the Erinyes , winged goddesses who tracked down egregiously impious wrongdoers with their hounds' noses and drove them to insanity.
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