Penelope In The Odyssey

The Odyssey Essay The Odyssey is an epic of great proportions. The epic follows a man who calls himself Odysseus. Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, had to use her skills and be very clever to hold out for him while he was on his journey. It was a very different world back then, women were not as powerful as men, so even though Penelope was the queen of Ithaca, the suitors were still trying to marry Penelope. Penelope was a good match for Odysseus and very clever because she unwove the burial shroud every night, made the men string a bow and shoot an arrow through the ax heads, and tricked Odysseus to reveal that it really was him after twenty years. While Odysseus was on his twenty-year-long journey, Penelope was facing problems with the suitors. The suitors wanted to marry Penelope, so she started to come up with excuses that would hold off the men. Penelope said she was going to

Penelope is stubborn, so she creates a test for Odysseus. She tricks Odysseus to reveal himself in the only way possible. “Make up his bed for him, Eurycleia. Place it outside the bedchamber my lord built with his own hands. Pile the big bed with fleeces, rugs, and sheets of purest linen. With this, she tried him to the breaking point,” (Homer). Odysseus and Penelope are the only people who have ever been inside of the bedroom. She will know for sure that if this man knows the bed cannot be moved it has to be Odysseus. Odysseus built their bed around an olive tree trunk, which will never budge even with the greatest strength. Odysseus knew this, so Penelope knew it was her husband. “There is our pact and pledge, our secret sign, built into that bed--my handiwork and no one else’s!” (Homer). Penelope realized that the only person that would know the details of their room would be Odysseus.The immense scale of Penelope’s love for Odysseus after what he said showed that she believed