The Penelopiad Chapters xii & xiii Summary & Analysis

Chapters xii & xiii

Summary: Chapter xii. Waiting

For the next ten years, Penelope remained in Ithaca. She finally heard of the fall of Troy, a victory due to Odysseus’s idea of filling a wooden horse with soldiers to sneak them into the city. However, Penelope still had no news of Odysseus’s return. She heard rumors of Odysseus and his crew losing their memories, of Odysseus fighting a Cyclops, and of Odysseus on an island with a goddess who had turned his men into pigs. The minstrels made sure to present only the noblest version of Odysseus’s journey to Penelope, suggesting that his delay was caused by some sort of divine power. After Anticleia died and Laertes became senile, Penelope took charge of the court. Her goal was to increase the wealth of Odysseus’s estates, imagining he would praise her upon his return and tell her she was worth a thousand of Helen. Though she was busy, Penelope was lonely in Odysseus’s absence. As time went on, people became curious about what Penelope would do if Odysseus was found to have died. However, the rumors Penelope heard of Odysseus kept up her hope that he was alive until the rumors stopped.

Summary: Chapter xiii. The Chorus Line: The Wily Sea Captain, A Sea Shanty

The Maids sing a song, dressed in sailor costumes, telling of Odysseus’s travels on the way home from Troy. He first stopped in Lotus, where the sailors forgot about the war and their return home until Odysseus dragged them back onto the ships. They then encountered the Cyclops, whom Odysseus tricked and whose eye he poked out. The Maids claim Poseidon had cursed Odysseus, making his journey more difficult. In each chorus, they toast Odysseus’s health. The Maids next sing of Odysseus meeting the Laestrygonians, who ate his men, and then of Odysseus spending a year on the island of the goddess Circe. Continuing his journey, Odysseus went to the Isle of the Dead, where he met with the seer Teiresias. Next, he evaded the song of the Sirens as well as the whirlpool, Charybdis, and the snake-headed monster Scylla. His men turned against him, but they died after eating the sun god Helios’s cattle. Odysseus then landed on the island of the goddess Calypso, where he spent seven years having an affair with her. He then escaped on a raft and ended up on a beach, discovered by Nausicaa’s maids while doing laundry, to whom he told the story of his journey.

Analysis: Chapters xii & xiii

Different versions of Odysseus’s journey are told from different perspectives. Readers may wonder which version they should believe. The nature of perspective is explored in these chapters both as Penelope recalls hearing the stories of Odysseus, and the Maids tell the versions of the stories as they are recorded in the Odyssey. Although the minstrels attempt to present Odysseus only in the noblest of terms to Penelope, she knew the less favorable versions of the stories must have had some truth to them. Because the stories were meant to be not simply informative but also entertaining, readers can see how, over time, stories morph into different versions that are then passed down. One version, then, rarely captures the entire truth.

Part of Odysseus’s story that has been passed down is how desperately he wanted to get home to Penelope, but he faced obstacles put in his path by divine forces. This version is the story reported by the minstrels, who hope to gain Penelope’s favor. However, the Maids recount the journey of Odysseus as told in the Odyssey, and they suggest that his leisurely time having affairs with goddesses showed he was not desperately trying to get back to Ithaca and Penelope. Just as Penelope was traditionally presented as a faithful and devoted wife, Odysseus was presented as a heroic husband, trying to return to his family by any means necessary. However, both the Maids and Penelope call this depiction of his character into question. It seems that the stories traditionally told about Penelope and Odysseus were meant to portray each of them as a certain archetype for the benefit of others, rather than to be the actual truth.

Even as Penelope grows older with Odysseus away, she finds herself still beholden to him, showing how women are commanded by men even in their absence. Penelope still longs for Odysseus’s approval. She knows she is intelligent and values that quality. Yet Penelope hopes to run Ithaca well so that Odysseus will praise her and, specifically, so that he will tell her he prefers her to Helen. Although Penelope has heard the stories of Odysseus’s affairs with Circe and Calypso, she is not jealous of them. Rather, she still clings to her childhood jealousy of Helen. This again shows how women are oppressed by being forced to compete with one another from a young age. Penelope’s indifferent attitude toward the rumors of Circe and Calypso shows that she is not concerned with her husband’s infidelity, but with the lifelong rivalry she has engaged in with Helen.

Previous section Chapters ix–xi Next section Chapters xiv & xv