The Penelopiad Chapters ix–xi Summary & Analysis

Chapters ix–xi

Summary: Chapter ix. The Trusted Cackle-Hen

Penelope was sick for most of the voyage to Ithaca, and she wondered if her near-drowning as a child made her averse to the ocean or if Poseidon was punishing her for not dying. Penelope had brought only one elderly maid, Actoris, who died soon after their arrival, leaving Penelope feeling very lonely, though she tried to hide her sadness from Odysseus. Still, Odysseus was attentive to Penelope. He once told her he tried to find the hidden door to people’s hearts, which would allow him to control his own destiny. Life in Ithaca was difficult, made even more so by Eurycleia, who nursed Odysseus when he was a baby. Eurycleia bragged about how respected she was and showed Penelope how everything was done. Penelope was at least grateful that someone taught her how to conduct herself, as Odysseus’s mother, Anticleia, preferred to watch Penelope make a fool of herself. Eurycleia was possessive of Odysseus, telling Penelope that only she could be the one to tend to him. Still, Penelope valued Eurycleia’s presence when her son, Telemachus, was born. The birth of their son pleased Odysseus, who pointed out that Helen had not yet had a son. Penelope wondered why Odysseus ever thought of Helen.

Summary: Chapter x. The Chorus Line: The Birth of Telemachus, An Idyll

The Maids sing of how Telemachus spent nine months sailing the seas of his mother’s blood, exiting a dark cave on his own boat as the Fates measure his life along with the lives of women. The Maids made the same dangerous journey out of their mothers and were born at the same time as Telemachus, but under far less fortunate circumstances. His birth was wanted, and theirs were not. While Telemachus was born a prince, they were born like animals, and while he had a father, they simply appeared like something sprung up from the mud. The Maids and Telemachus were all children together, though he saw the Maids as belonging to him. The Maids were not aware, as they played together on the shores of Ithaca, who Telemachus would become, and they wonder if they would have drowned him if they’d known. He would have been outnumbered, and they could have blamed it on the waves. The Maids wonder if they could have done such a thing, though only the Fates will ever know.

Summary: Chapter xi. Helen Ruins My Life

Penelope recounts that she was bored and lonely much of the time in Ithaca. She spent time soothing herself by weaving or in her and Odysseus’s bedroom. Odysseus had made a bed with one post that was an olive tree with its roots still in the ground so that no one would be able to move it. Only Odysseus and Penelope knew about the bed. There, they enjoyed themselves while making love and then talking, Odysseus telling stories about his adventures. One story involved Theseus and Peirithous abducting Helen when she was a child. Helen’s brothers fought a war against Athens before winning Helen back. Penelope had heard this story from Helen, though in her version, Theseus and Peirithous fainted in the presence of Helen’s beauty. Helen took pleasure in recounting how many men died in the war. Penelope still wonders whether everyone would have been spared the suffering Helen brought on if she had not been so vain. However, Penelope knows Helen was too ambitious to live a normal life.

When Telemachus turned one, a man from Sparta came to deliver the news that Helen had run away with Paris, the handsome prince of Troy. That night, Odysseus told Penelope that he and several other men swore an oath to protect Menelaus’s right to Helen and would have to wage war against Troy to get her back. Penelope hid her unkind thoughts about Helen and worried about life in Ithaca without Odysseus. Odysseus attempted to get out of the oath by pretending to have gone mad. When Menelaus and his brother Agamemnon, along with a man named Palamedes, arrived in Ithaca, Odysseus dressed as a peasant and began plowing a field. Penelope, carrying Telemachus, showed the men her husband’s madness. However, Palamedes put Telemachus in the path of the plow, forcing Odysseus to stop, revealing that he was of sound mind. Odysseus then went to war after the other men told him of a prophecy that Troy could not be beaten without his help.

Analysis: Chapters ix–xi

The symbol of water appears in these chapters, both literally and figuratively. Penelope suffers from seasickness on the voyage from Sparta to Ithaca, which she instantly relates to her experience of nearly drowning by her father’s hand. Penelope revisits this story often, though she was a baby when it happened and does not remember it. She seems more disturbed by not knowing her father’s motivation for trying to drown her rather than the fact that she could have died. In this way, water represents to Penelope both the threat of death and the mistrust of others. As she is alone for much of her journey to Ithaca, her seasickness foreshadows her mistrust of Odysseus. The Maids compare being in the womb to riding dangerous seas. With birth comes the potential for suffering, from which no one is safe. Although everyone is born the same way, some have the power to inflict suffering, as Telemachus does, while others endure suffering, as the Maids do at Telemachus’s hand.

The characters of Penelope and Odysseus are revealed as they arrive in Ithaca and get better acquainted with one another. Though Penelope is the narrator, her description of the maid she brought with her to Ithaca does not put her in a sympathetic light. Penelope saw Actoris more as her companion than a person who may not have wanted to leave her home so close to the end of her life. This self-interest foreshadows Penelope’s relationship with the Twelve Maids, casting doubt on whether Penelope was a benevolent force for them. Meanwhile, Penelope begins to see more of Odysseus’s deception and inflated ego. Although both believed in destinies controlled by the Fates, Odysseus believed he could control his fate by manipulating people. While Penelope initially sees this trait as admirable, she will grow to resent it.

The theme of the oppression of women continues to be explored as Penelope finds herself surrounded by women yet feeling lonelier than ever. Although these women should be Penelope’s allies, they all seem to be working against each other, again reflecting how women are compelled to compete against one another. Penelope specifically chose Actoris to bring with her because she was elderly and therefore would not tempt Odysseus, so Penelope is not immune to the competition among women. The two women who should like to see Odysseus in a happy marriage, his mother and his nurse, both view Penelope and her relationship with Odysseus as a threat to them. Even after Penelope and Odysseus have been married for some time, Penelope cannot shake the competition she feels with Helen.

Even though Penelope has been away from Helen for many years, the jealousy she feels for Helen continues to haunt her. She even states her bitterness toward Helen in the title of Chapter xi, leading her to make the title of the chapter a reference to Helen ruining her life. Helen’s first abduction, a well-known story in Greek mythology, foreshadows the impending Trojan War. Although the abduction occurred when Helen was a child, Penelope still dismisses it as just another display of Helen’s vanity. Based on Helen’s version of the story, Helen accepts the idea that a woman’s value is in her beauty and revels in men dying in the name of her beauty. And although Helen’s beauty was not a choice of her own making, and the fact that it was Odysseus who proposed the oath to protect Helen that ultimately led to the war, Penelope still blames Helen for the trouble her beauty caused. Despite these facts, Penelope lets her jealousy of Helen overrule her better side.

During the buildup to the Trojan War, Penelope sees how deep her husband’s deception goes, as well as the pride that could be his downfall. Odysseus came up with the idea of an oath to go to war to protect Helen as Menelaus’s property—another example of the suppression of women—yet he attempts to get out of honoring his oath through deception. However, Palamedes was able to see through his deception, so Odysseus may not be as good a liar as he thinks he is. Odysseus’s pride is then put on display as the other men convince him that a prophecy claims the war cannot be won without him. In her narration, Penelope has already explained why prophecies delivered by the spirits may be questioned. However, Odysseus was far too prideful to miss an opportunity to be a hero, which foreshadows the struggles he will face, and the hurt he will inflict upon his wife.

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