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Chapters i–iv 

Summary: Chapter i. A Low Art

Penelope, telling this story from the Underworld, has learned a few things since dying, and some of them she would rather not know. Once someone arrives in the Underworld, they receive a sack full of words that they have spoken, have heard, or were spoken about them. Penelope’s sack mostly contains words involving her husband. She notes that many people believed Odysseus’s version of events, including her. Now, Penelope’s reputation is that of a loyal, faithful wife, used against other women who are not considered as pious. Penelope has longed to scream that no one should follow her example. For a long time, she has stayed silent. However, now that the other people have finally stopped talking, and she does not care about public opinion, Penelope feels it is time to tell her own story. However, as she has no body and therefore no mouth with which to tell her story, she will have no listeners. As ever, though, she is patient and determined to see the story through to the end. 

Summary: Chapter ii. The Chorus Line: A Rope-Jumping Rhyme

The Twelve Maids narrate a poem directed toward Odysseus about how he killed them despite their innocence and his bad behavior with other women during his travels. Odysseus was armed with both weapons and words, and he watched as the Maids cleaned the blood of the Suitors he killed before hanging the Maids, in which he took pleasure.

Summary: Chapter iii. My Childhood

Penelope was born in Sparta to King Icarius and a Naiad, a mythological water nymph. For reasons she still does not know, Icarius had Penelope thrown into the sea when she was a baby. Penelope believes her father heard a prophecy that Penelope would weave his funeral shroud and thought that if he killed her, he would not die. However, Penelope thinks he misheard the prophecy, as she ended up weaving her father-in-law’s funeral shroud, not her father’s. However, Penelope is not sure if her theory about the prophecy is true, or if she used it to make herself feel better. To this day she blames the incident for her mistrust of other people. When Penelope was thrown into the water, a group of ducks brought her to shore. Seeing this as an omen, Penelope’s father welcomed her back with affection and bestowed on her the nickname duck. However, Penelope was never able to trust her father again, and she never received any affection from her mother. Penelope became self-sufficient, knowing she had no one else to look out for her. 

Summary: Chapter iv. The Chorus Line: Kiddie Mourn, A Lament by the Maids

The Maids take over the narration, telling about their childhoods. Unlike Penelope, they were not born to royalty or godlike creatures, but to peasants and slaves. The Maids were made to work all day and abused by the people their parents sold them to. They were forced to have sex with visiting nobles and knew better than to protest. They helped prepare for wedding feasts, knowing they would never have such a feast of their own. As the Maids grew older, they learned how to attract attention from men and take advantage of their masters in what ways they could. 

Analysis: Chapters i–iv 

The nature of perspective confronts the reader in these first chapters, from the retelling by both Penelope and the Maids. Penelope’s reason for telling her version of events is to finally set the record straight, at least as she sees it. The story of the Odyssey has been told from the perspective of Odysseus for millennia, making it seem as though his version of events and his perception of Penelope are the absolute truth. However, Penelope turns this idea on its head. First and foremost, she rejects the notion of herself as an embodiment of patience and loyalty, qualities that have always been associated with her. Similarly, the Twelve Maids, as presented in the Odyssey, were disloyal, a crime for which Odysseus killed them. However, the Maids argue that they were innocent, and it was Odysseus who was disloyal to his wife. The Maids compare Odysseus’s words to weapons, showing how his perception of them is as damaging as his murder of them. The fact that this story will be told from the points of view of Penelope and the Maids shows that many things that have always been assumed as truth will be called into question. In this way, perspective alters reality. 

However, like her husband, Penelope tells the story from her unique perspective, which will not necessarily mirror objective reality. In telling the story of her father trying to drown her when she was a child, Penelope shows how limited her perspective can be. Though she does not know what her father’s motivations were, she attempts to think of a story that will make sense to her so she can feel better about her father’s attempt to murder her. Penelope shows how, as a rule, everyone has a limited perspective, as no one can truly know the thoughts or motivations of other people. Similarly, Penelope cannot know the Maids’ perspective, who contrast their childhoods with Penelope’s. While Penelope may have felt lonely as a child, her suffering paled in comparison to that of the Maids, who were raped and abused from a young age. 

Both Penelope’s tale and the Maids’ tale underscore the oppression of women, especially how it endures across time. By telling her story, Penelope is reclaiming some of the power that was taken away from her when her story was controlled by men. She long refrained from trying to tell her side, either hoping to not upset her husband or not wanting to sound defensive. With both of those motives, Penelope put her husband above herself, as she had been socialized to do. 

The narrative that most people know about Penelope is not only inaccurate, from her point of view, but is also used against other women, showing how society oppresses women. It is only once people no longer care that Penelope feels comfortable sharing her story. Even in death, then, and while speaking in the modern day, she is still as oppressed as ever. Similarly, the Maids can tell the story they never had the platform or means to tell while they were alive. Already subjected to the abuse and hard work of the slave class, the Maids also faced rape. Further, they knew there would never be anything better in store for them. Though Penelope and the Maids are of different classes and face different struggles, as women they understand the oppression they all face at the hands of men.

Next section Chapters v & vi

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