Penelope as the Ideal Woman in Homers The Odyssey - Essay Example

February 20, Penelope as the Ideal Woman in Homer’s The Odyssey Odysseus is a hero, but readers cannot overlook the powerful women around, if not also behind, him. Homer’s The Odyssey is a story about the greatness of one man, and many great women at his side. One of them is his wife, Penelope. Penelope is a perfect woman in her times because she performs her traditional roles and responsibilities extremely well. She is described, not only as a beautiful lady, but also a loyal wife and mother and a loving queen. Her role in the story is to demonstrate the ideals and behaviors of an ideal woman. Homer seems to use her as the female version of Odysseus in terms of virtues and wisdom. Penelope is an ideal woman in her times because is a generous Queen, she respects and follows the elders, influential men, and the gods, she is clever in keeping the suitors away and managing the household, and she remains virtuous as a wife. One of the greatest virtues of Penelope is her goodness as a Queen. When a beggar (who is actually Odysseus) brings her news about her husband, she treats him kindly and lavishly. She tells her maids to give him a good washing and a nice bed because tomorrow, “he can sit in the hall beside Telemachos and expect to dine there; and it will be the worse for any of those men who inflicts heart-wasting annoyance on him” (Homer 19.317-325). She is the kind of woman who dotes on a stranger, and a beggar at that. Her great love for her husband seems to spill over to other people too. Furthermore, during the arrow shooting context, his suitors make fun of the beggar. Penelope defends him and tells him to also try his hand in the contest (Homer 21). These actions manifest how good she is as a queen and as a person. She respects all people whatever their social status is. At the same time, she values the beggar enough to even let him participate in the contest. Her hand in marriage is the prize, but she gives equal chances to all. As a queen, Penelope is an ideal monarch with esteem for every person of every social class. Penelope is an ideal woman because she follows the counsel of the elderly and other men and fulfils her duties to the gods. After learning about Antinoös’ murderous plans against her son, Penelope weeps endlessly. Euryclea, an old nurse, advises her to pray to Athene who will protect Telemachos as she does for Odysseus: “Ascend your chamber with your ladies here,/And pray the seed of goat-nursd Jupiter,/Divine Athenia, to preserve your son,/And she will save him from confusion” (Homer 4.104-107). Penelope follows her advice and brings beautiful offerings to Athene. Her actions show that she knows how to respect and follow the elders. Homer might be telling the female audience about an ideal woman who has esteem for the elderly. Furthermore, Penelope follows the gods by putting her faith in them. After praying to Athene, she believes the message of Iphthime regarding the safety of her son: “Icarius daughter started from her sleep,/And Joys fresh humour her lovd breast did steep” (Homer 4.1139-1140). She loses all her anxieties because she has faith in her dream, which seems to have come from the goddess Athene herself since Iphthime mentions that she has Athene’s support. Moreover, Penelope asks for the gods’ intervention in her life, while also obeying the wishes of powerful men around her. After talking to Telemachos who asks her to take a bath and make an offering to the gods, she follows him: “And she washed her in water, and took to her fresh raiment, and vowed to/ all the gods an acceptable sacrifice of hecatombs, if haply Zeus/ might grant that deeds of requital should be made” (Homer 17.39-41). She also obeys her son when he asks her to go upstairs during the shooting context. She is proud that her son can assert himself to her mother (Homer 21). Homer seems to be saying that Penelope is an ideal woman because she knows her place in society. By staying mostly in bed or in her place in the palace, Homer shows to the readers than an ideal woman knows that her rightful place is under men and doing her household and family duties. Penelope is an ideal woman (in her time) because she follows the instructions of influential men, including her son, and fulfils her duty to the gods. Aside from being respectful of the elderly, her son, and devoted to the gods, Penelope is an ideal woman because she is a virtuous wife who thinks the highest of her husband. She loves her husband, in the sense that she admires his abilities and virtues. When Medon reveals to her about the plans of Antinoös and the suitors to murder Telemachos, Penelope grieves for her lost husband first. She talks about his distinct strengths as a person: “First, a lord so good,/That had such hardy spirits in his blood,/That all the virtues was adornd withal,/That all the Greeks did their superior call” (Homer 5.969-972). Her love for him emanates from her great admiration of his superior abilities and goodness. In addition, aside from admiring his unparalleled strengths, Penelope loves her husband so dearly that despite his long absence, she cannot bring herself to love again. Odysseus goes to the Underworld and meets his mother Antikleia, who died from loneliness of losing her son. Antikleia informs Odysseus that his wife remains devoted to him: “That affliction fed/ On her blood still at home, and that to grief/She all the days and darkness of her life/In tears had consecrate” (Homer 11.230-233). Penelope should have married, because tradition demands her to remarry immediately so that the kingdom would not go without a king for a long time. Instead, she grieves for her husband who is matchless in her eyes. Homer seems to be saying that the ideal woman is the ultimate fan of her husband. Penelope’s loyalty is based on her innermost belief that she is already married to the best man in the world. Aside from seeing her husband as the most ideal husband, Penelope is an ideal woman because of her virtuousness as a wife, as shown through her extreme faithfulness and loyalty to Odysseus that is known even in the world of the dead and the living. Odysseus meets Agamemnon in the Underworld, who narrates his sad story of being murdered by his own wife and her lover. Agamemon, however, underlines that Odysseus will not experience the same misfortune because he is married to a loyal and wise woman: “But thou by thy wifes wiles shalt lose no blood,/Exceeding wise she is, and wise in good./ Icarius daughter, chaste Penelope” (Homer 11.581-583). Even in the Underworld, Penelope’s virtues are widely known. She is perceived as an ideal woman who has no lover and no desire for power over her husband. Homer is showing that an ideal woman is wise and good, chaste in mind, body, and spirit. The impact of Agamemnon’s claims is the understanding that Penelope is the perfect wife and woman- loyal until the end, while also being intelligent and upright. The world of the living is also aware of Penelope’s admirable loyalty for her husband. When Odysseus arrives at his kingdom, he pretends to be a beggar. A pack of dogs almost killed him, until he receives help from a swineherd Eumaios. Eumaios invites Odysseus to his home, where he narrates what is happening in the kingdom, from the time Odysseus left up to the present, where Penelope struggles to both feed the suitors who are parasites in the palace and to fight them off because of their insistence in marrying one of them: “Penelope’s actions are driven by her loyalty for/ her husband – perhaps this loyalty is the very/ reason she refuses to accept the common…belief that he is dead” (Homer 14.18-20). Odysseus is assured that his wife remains chaste despite his long absence. The story is telling the audience the kind of woman that Penelope is- her husband might be dead but she cannot imagine marrying another man. Homer suggests that an ideal woman is someone like Penelope, whose loyalty to her husband, the king, goes beyond death. While being renowned for her loyalty and faithfulness in the worlds of the living and the dead, Penelope also shows her wisdom in keeping off her suitors. Penelope has devised a plan to delay her decision of marrying someone among her suitors. She tells her suitors that she would not marry until she has finished weaving a funeral shroud for Laertes, Odysseus’ father. Penelope deceives the suitors by weaving all day and then unraveling her work by night. Antinoös marvels at Penelope’s wisdom, despite her deception: “Of all the old world, in which Greece hath shown/Her rarest pieces, that could equal her:/Tyro, Alcmena, and Mycena, were/To hold comparison in no degree,/For solid brain, with wise Penelope” (Homer 2.184-188). He further reveals how Penelope delays the weaving of the shroud and gives an ultimatum to Telemachos to command his mother to choose a new king. Antinoös compares Penelope to other famous women, but none of them compares to Penelope who has used her wits to deceive them. He is angry at her for her delaying tactics, but nevertheless, he admires her wisdom that not many women have. In terms of intelligence and wit, Penelope is the ideal woman to have it all. Homer suggests that an ideal woman is not witless, but someone who can match the wits of her husband. Furthermore, Penelope has done her best in keeping the palace afloat despite the wasteful living of her suitors on their limited resources. Eumaios has told Odysseus (in beggar’s form) how extravagant the suitors are in their living: “For every day and every night that comes from Zeus, they make/ sacrifice not of one victim only, nor of two, and wine they draw and waste it riotously” (Homer 14.66-67). As the queen, Penelope is in charge of handling the resources and needs of the family and the guests. Readers can only imagine how difficult it must have been to be both delaying the marriage decision and managing the domestic affairs of the palace. Penelope is an ideal woman because Homer shows that she is a diligent and wise multi-tasker that is quite difficult for other women to follow, given the stressful conditions she is in. Whereas she balances her household duties and loyalty to her husband, Penelope is also virtuous because her loyalty and fidelity have no bounds. The night before the arrow shooting contest, Penelope weeps out her fears and desires: “So I wish that they who have their homes on Olympos would make me vanish, or sweet-haired Artemis strike me, so that I could meet the Odysseus I long for even under the hateful earth, and not have to please the mind of an inferior husband” (Homer 20.79-81). She prays for death than being married to someone else inferior to her husband. Her desire for death manifests that that her marriage vows go beyond the grave of her husband where Homer shows that women who have married in high ranks should not marry anyone beneath them. Moreover, Penelope is not the kind of woman who is easily deceived. After the slaughter of the suitors and the unfaithful maids, Penelope does not immediately believe that the hero is Odysseus. She pretends that their marriage bed has been removed from inside their bedroom. When Odysseus is angered that someone has moved the bed that he made entirely from an olive tree in order for it to not be transferred anywhere, Penelope finally believes that the hero is also her husband (Homer 23). Homer indicates that an ideal woman uses her brain carefully to protect her virtues. Finally, Penelope is virtuous for being the ideal hope for Odysseus. After she and Odysseus made love, they shared stories to one another. Odysseus recounts how Penelope serves as his beacon of hope: “He spoke, and still more roused in him the passion for weeping. He wept as he held his lovely wife, whose thoughts were virtuous…so welcome was her husband to her as she looked upon him…” (Homer 23.231-240). Odysseus sees Penelope as the anchor to his dreams. Homer shows that an ideal woman knows how to inspire her husband too. Her virtues reflect the virtues of her husband. From these characteristics, Homer uses Penelope as an example of an ideal woman who performs her traditional roles and responsibilities as a wife, mother, queen, and devoted believer of the gods. Homer shows other women in his times that Penelope is the perfect model. She is obedient, but not stupid and naïve. She is a queen, but not afraid to work for her family. She is virtuous, but uses her wit when needed to deceive those who are evil. In other words, Homer describes Penelope as the perfect wife to the perfect hero, Odysseus, for together, their beauty, wisdom, and virtues are matchless as a couple. Work Cited Homer. Odyssey. Trans. George Chapman. 1559-1634. Read More