Why doesn’t Penelope just marry one of the suitors?

She still loves Odysseus and hopes he is alive. She also does not trust the suitors, who are greedy and rude and are eating up her family’s wealth.

What is Penelope’s weaving trick?

She says she will choose a husband once she finishes weaving a burial cloth for Laertes, then secretly unpicks each day’s work at night. The trick works for three years.

How does Penelope know the stranger is really Odysseus?

She asks for their bed to be moved. Odysseus is upset, because he built the bed from a living olive tree and it cannot be moved. Only the two of them know that secret.

From The Odyssey

Penelope

Queen of Ithaca • Patient and wise

Odysseus’s wise and loyal wife, who uses a clever weaving trick to keep the greedy suitors waiting while she hopes for his return.

Who is Penelope?

Penelope is the Queen of Ithaca and the wife of Odysseus. For twenty years she waits for him, raising their son Telemachus and keeping more than a hundred pushy suitors at bay with patience and clever tricks. She is every bit as quick-witted as her famous husband.

Penelope is a character in The Odyssey, the ancient Greek poem by Homer, retold for ages 6–9 by Sean Lee.

What is Penelope like?

patient
wise
loyal

Penelope’s story

While Odysseus is away, young noblemen from Ithaca and the nearby islands move into his palace. They feast on his food and wine every day and demand that Penelope marry one of them. She does not want to, so she tells them she must first weave a burial cloth for her husband’s old father, Laertes. For three years she weaves by day and unpicks the cloth by night, until one of her maids gives her secret away.

Penelope spends many lonely years weeping for Odysseus and worrying about her son, especially when Telemachus sails off in search of news. When an old beggar arrives, she treats him kindly and asks him for news of her husband, not knowing the beggar is Odysseus in disguise.

At last she sets the suitors a challenge: whoever can string Odysseus’s great bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axe-heads may marry her. After the beggar wins and the suitors are defeated, Penelope is still careful. She tests the stranger by asking for their bed to be moved, and only Odysseus knows it cannot be, because he built it around a living olive tree.

“I used to keep working at my great web all day long, but at night I would unpick the stitches again by torch light.”

Penelope, telling the disguised Odysseus about her weaving trick, in Samuel Butler’s translation. From the original ancient Greek poem by Homer.

A moment to remember

Every night, by the light of a tiny oil lamp, Penelope secretly pulls out the threads she wove that day, so the cloth she promised to finish is never done.

Odysseus: husband
Telemachus: son
Antinous: suitor who wants to marry her
Athena: goddess who watches over her
Eumaeus: loyal servant of the household

Talk about it

Penelope waited a very long time and never gave up hope. What is something you had to wait for, and how did you keep hoping?

Questions about Penelope

Why doesn’t Penelope just marry one of the suitors?: She still loves Odysseus and hopes he is alive. She also does not trust the suitors, who are greedy and rude and are eating up her family’s wealth.
What is Penelope’s weaving trick?: She says she will choose a husband once she finishes weaving a burial cloth for Laertes, then secretly unpicks each day’s work at night. The trick works for three years.
How does Penelope know the stranger is really Odysseus?: She asks for their bed to be moved. Odysseus is upset, because he built the bed from a living olive tree and it cannot be moved. Only the two of them know that secret.