1.325–364

He is one of two such palace bards we will meet in the poem. The other is Demodocus, the singer for the royal house of the Phaeacians, who will perform three songs, the most elaborate featuring the adulterous liaison of Ares and Aphrodite, which the poet uses to foreshadow the coming triumph of Odysseus in Ithaka (8.266–369) (see essays on 8.250–294, 8.295–342, and 8.343–384).  Though Phemius makes two more brief appearances (17.262–63; 22.330–60), the content of his repertoire gets no further mention. With his performance here, Homer returns the focus to Odysseus’s absence and its ruinous impact on the king’s household.

Penelope hears the bard’s “inspired song” (θέσπιν ἀοιδὴν, 328) and comes downstairs.

We have heard Telemachus complain of her inability to make up her mind about remarriage, a paralysis which becomes yet another symptom of the malaise that has fallen over the royal household (1.249–51). Her first appearance is freighted with important symbolism, establishing a paradigm for portraits of properly modest women in the poem:

τοῦ δ᾽ ὑπερωιόθεν φρεσὶ σύνθετο θέσπιν ἀοιδὴν
κούρη Ἰκαρίοιο, περίφρων Πηνελόπεια:
κλίμακα δ᾽ ὑψηλὴν κατεβήσετο οἷο δόμοιο,
οὐκ οἴη, ἅμα τῇ γε καὶ ἀμφίπολοι δύ᾽ ἕποντο.
ἡ δ᾽ ὅτε δὴ μνηστῆρας ἀφίκετο δῖα γυναικῶν,
στῆ ῥα παρὰ σταθμὸν τέγεος πύκα ποιητοῖο,
ἄντα παρειάων σχομένη λιπαρὰ κρήδεμνα:
ἀμφίπολος δ᾽ ἄρα οἱ κεδνὴ ἑκάτερθε παρέστη.

From her bedchamber, up above, wise Penelope, 
daughter of Ikarios, heard the wondrous song. 
She came down the high staircase of her home, 
not alone, for two handmaidens followed her, 
and when she, shining among women, came near the suitors, 
she stood beside the pillar that held up the roof, 
holding a shining veil across her face, 
and a devoted attendant stood on either side of her.

Odyssey 1.328–35

The language in verses 330–35 recurs, with minor variations to fit the context but often verbatim, in other descriptions of Penelope when she meets the suitors (16.409–16; 18.207–11; 21.363–66). As a married woman in the Homeric poems, she stays upstairs in the private quarters, avoiding the company of men other than her husband unless attended by handmaidens and wearing a veil. When she does appear, she usually takes up a position next to the σταθμὸν τέγεος πύκα ποιητοῖο (333 = 16.415; 18.209; 21.64), the pillar supporting the roof, a symbol of her husband’s role as “pillar” of the household.” The veil serves as a portable screen, preserving her modesty in public.

In her first appearance, Penelope embodies the perfectly modest, prudent wife of Odysseus. Having established this conventional portrait, the poet will proceed to complicate it as the story continues, revealing the queen as a formidable force in the household, using her intelligence and courage to orchestrate her husband’s eventual triumph over the suitors. In Penelope, Homer creates a character whose depth and subtlety are matched only by those of her husband. The symbols that appear here become foils for a much more complex understanding of how a woman might find leverage in a patriarchal society.  

Penelope is not happy to hear the bard’s song, which reminds her—and us—of her husband’s struggle to return home from Troy. Sing some other bewitching song (θελκτήρια, 337), she says. The request earns her an immediate rebuke from Telemachus. It isn’t the bard’s fault that the song upsets her, and Odysseus is not the only hero who died at Troy. She should attend to her wifely duties:

ἀλλ᾽ εἰς οἶκον ἰοῦσα τὰ σ᾽ αὐτῆς ἔργα κόμιζε,
ἱστόν τ᾽ ἠλακάτην τε, καὶ ἀμφιπόλοισι κέλευε
ἔργον ἐποίχεσθαι: μῦθος δ᾽ ἄνδρεσσι μελήσει
πᾶσι, μάλιστα δ᾽ ἐμοί: τοῦ γὰρ κράτος ἔστ᾽ ἐνὶ οἴκῳ.

But go to the house and attend to your duties, 
the loom and spindle, and order your handmaidens 
to get to work. Men must see to business, 
all men, but I especially, for mine is the power in the household.

Odyssey 1.356–59

The queen is startled by her son’s assertiveness and climbs back up silently to her bedroom. This exchange underscores the growing self-confidence of Telemachus, as he emerges from his adolescent indecision and moves toward adulthood under Athena’s prodding. He now seems ready to step in as head male of the household. The power he claims for himself threatens the suitors’ plans and will be tested soon.

Penelope’s own attempt to assert herself fails for now. In our last glimpse of her, she returns to the role of submissive wife, weeping inconsolably for Odysseus, and Athena intervenes to put her to sleep. Her slumber here signals a release for now from her pain, but also symbolizes the state of frozen grief that characterizes her throughout the poem until her awakening in Book 18. There, Athena puts into her mind the impulse to go downstairs and appear before the suitors. She finds the urge upsetting but decides to go anyway. Her maid urges her to put on makeup, sensing that the queen may finally be ready to move on to remarriage. Penelope demurs, saying that since Odysseus has left, her beauty has faded. While the maid goes to fetch her attendants, Athena again puts the queen to sleep and makes her more beautiful. She then descends and the suitors are overcome with lust, sending their servants to bring gifts for the queen (18.158–214). This appearance begins the thawing of Penelope’s emotions, as she engages the suitors directly and begins the complex chain of events which will lead to Odysseus defeating the suitors. The process continues in the powerful exchange between the queen and Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, in Book 19 (104–599). In both encounters and later in Books 20–23, Penelope’s struggle to overcome her inertia and despair is characterized by a desire to sleep, to give herself over to oblivion rather than feel the emotions that accompany that struggle (20.54–90; 21.354–58; 23.1–24). Her eventual choice to be awake, to move forward and act on her intuitions about the beggar, is a different kind of heroism from her husband’s but no less courageous.

Further Reading

Felson, N. 1997. Regarding Penelope, 21–22; 52–53; 82–83. 2^nd ed. Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press.

Van Nortwick, T. 1979. “Penelope and Nausicaa.” Transactions of the American Philological Association 109: 269–276.

———. 2008. The Unknown Odysseus: Alternate Worlds in Homer’s Odyssey, 105–110. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Wohl, V. 1993. “Standing by the Stathmos: The Creation of Sexual Ideology in the Odyssey. Arethusa 26: 38–40.