Summary
Chapter 9—"The Trusted Cackle-Hen"
Penelope and Odysseus sail to Ithaca, with Penelope spending most of her time below deck due to seasickness. Penelope has become enamored with Odysseus during their short time together. Penelope brought a maid with her from Sparta, named Actoris, who dies shortly after arriving in Ithaca. Penelope is very unhappy in her early days in Ithaca, though she tries to conceal it from Odysseus. She compares Ithaca to Sparta and considers it "no paradise" (59). She notices that Odysseus has a powerful reputation, and men from all over come to Ithaca to get his advice.
Penelope has a tense relationship with her mother-in-law, Anticleia, who disapproves of Penelope because of her young age. Anticleia refuses to teach Penelope Ithacan customs, leaving Eurycleia, Odysseus's former nurse, to show her the proper way to do things. However, Eurycleia does not let Penelope perform any wifely duties around the palace. This leaves Penelope with very little to do. Eurycleia tells Penelope that her "job" is to "fatten up," so that she can give Odysseus a son (63). Penelope gives birth to Telemachus, and Eurycleia helps her take care of the newborn. Odysseus is pleased when his son is born, noting that Helen has not given birth to a son yet.
Chapter 10—"The Chorus Line: The Birth of Telemachus, An Idyll"
In this chapter, the chorus commemorates Telemachus's birth. In this idyll, Telemachus is compared to a ship on a "nine-month voyage" within Penelope's womb. The chorus sings: "Through the dangerous ocean of his vast mother he sailed" (65). As Telemachus was formed in Penelope's wombs, the 12 maids were also growing inside of their mothers' wombs. They swim "Through the turbulent seas of our swollen and sore-footed mothers / Who were not royal queens, but a motley and piebald collection, / Bought, traded, captured, kidnapped from serfs and strangers" (66).
The maids are born at the same time as Telemachus and are equally as "helpless" as he is when they are infants (66). However, they are "ten times more helpless as well" because of their low class and dire fate. The maids grow up alongside Telemachus, who see them as his property, to do with as he pleases. The maids do not know that Telemachus will eventually be the one to kill them. They wonder whether, if they had known back then that he would kill them, they would have drowned him when no one was looking. Only the Fates know the answer to this question.
Chapter 11—"Helen Ruins My Life"
Penelope acclimates to Ithaca, even though she has little authority within it. Penelope faces aggression from her mother-in-law, who refuses to speak directly to her. Penelope finds it more peaceful to keep to herself, and she does so. Sometimes, Penelope goes on walks, though they make her feel "like a prize horse on parade" (72). She also sometimes sits in the courtyard and listens to the maids talk to each other as they go about their chores. Penelope also spends time in the women's quarters, where she works on her weavings alongside any slaves that were working on the looms. Penelope also spends time in her room, where Odysseus has constructed a special bed that is whittled from an olive tree with its roots still in the ground. Only Penelope, Odysseus, and Actoris know about this bed. Odysseus tells Penelope that he would know if she cheated on him if word about this bed came out, and he would "chop [her] into little pieces with his sword or hang [her] from the roof beam" (74). Odysseus's threat frightens Penelope. When they are in bed together, Odysseus tells Penelope stories about his life and the lives of other nobles.
One of the stories that Odysseus tells Penelope is about Theseus and Peirithous kidnapping Helen when she was a young girl. Odysseus and others had waged a war against Athens to get her back. Penelope remembers Helen telling her this story when they were young. Helen was proud of how many men died in her name. Time passes. When Telemachus is one year old, Helen runs away with a prince of Troy named Paris. Paris was visiting Melenaus and Helen's palace as a distinguished guest. When Melenaus left for a funeral, Helen and Paris slipped away in Paris's ship, taking "as much gold and silver as they could carry" with them (77). Melenaus and Agamemnon, his brother, send emissaries to Troy to try to get Helen to return, but they come back empty-handed. Odysseus tells Penelope that he and others swore an oath that will force him to go to war against Troy in support of Melenaus. Even though Odysseus swore an oath, he still tries to get out of it when Melenaus, Agamemnon, and Palamedes visit Ithaca to have him join the war effort. Odysseus pretends to be insane, but Palamedes throws Telemachus in front of a plow that Odysseus is driving. Odysseus refuses to run over his own son, revealing his sanity, and he is forced to go to war.
Chapter 12—"Waiting"
Ten years pass as Penelope waits for Odysseus to return from war. She, and the rest of the palace, get news about how the war is going in the form of minstrel songs from time to time. These songs mention all of the notable heroes, though Penelope waits only for news of Odysseus. The minstrels tell stories of Odysseus's leadership, wit, and bravery. They also share that Odysseus snuck into Troy to speak to Helen himself, which does not make Penelope happy. Penelope hears about Odysseus coming up with the plan to invade Troy using an enormous wooden horse. Then, she hears that Troy has fallen and the Greek ships (presumably, including Odysseus's ship) have set sail for home. Then she hears no more news.
Penelope waits, day after day, for Odysseus to arrive home. Penelope hears rumors about what happened to Odysseus from other ships. He goes on several adventures. These rumors have two different sides to them, painting Odysseus as a clever hero in some versions and an inconstant and irresponsible man in others. However, the minstrels only sing the "noblest" versions in Penelope's presence (84). The noble versions explain that the only reason Odysseus has not yet made it home is because Poseidon has it out for him.
While Odysseus is away, his mother dies. His father, Laertes, loses interest in palace life and escapes to the countryside. This leaves Penelope to run the palace alone. Penelope's mother did not set a good example for how to run a palace when she was growing up, leaving Penelope to "learn from scratch" (87). Nevertheless, Penelope catches on quickly. She begins to make inventories, plan the palace menus, and manage the wardrobes. Penelope also manages the castle's slaves, sometimes rearing the children of slaves herself. Melantho of the Pretty Cheeks is one of these children. Penelope earns a reputation as a smart bargainer. She begins to oversee the farms and flocks. Despite her new responsibilities, Penelope feels more alone than ever. Men from other islands begin to express their interest in Penelope (and her fortune), though she ignores these whisperings as long as stories about Odysseus continue to arrive. Eventually, the rumors stop coming.
Chapter 13—"The Chorus Line: The Wily Sea Captain, A Sea Shanty"
In this poem, the chorus takes on the voice of Odysseus's crewmen and recounts Odysseus's journey. After leaving Troy, Odysseus first stops at Lotus port. Later, the ship encounters a one-eyed Cyclops who Odysseus successfully deceives. Then, the ship meets the Laestrygonians, who are cannibals. After escaping them, they arrive at the island of Circe, where Odysseus's men are turned into swine. Odysseus's men are able to escape after Odysseus causes the goddess to fall in love with him. After, Odysseus and his men go to the Isle of the Dead so that Odysseus can speak to Teiresias, the prophet. After, the Sirens try to drive Odysseus mad, but he solves their riddle. Odysseus also bests the whirlpool of Charybdis and Scylla. Finally, Odysseus's men turn on him in order to eat Zeus's cattle when Odysseus tells them not to. Zeus kills all of Odysseus's men and he alone survives, arriving to the goddess Calypso's island. He stays there for seven years before escaping on a raft.
Analysis
In these chapters, we see Penelope react to entering a new environment where she has little support and feels like "a stranger among strange people" (57). She is forced to rely on her wits to persevere through her first few years at Ithaca, where Anticleia and Eurycleia give her a hard time. Penelope must learn Ithacan customs and mold her behavior accordingly, including "whether to cover the mouth when you laugh, on what occasions to wear a veil, how much of the face it should conceal, how often to order a bath," et cetera (61). In her first years in Ithaca, Penelope confines herself to the parts of the castle where she is out of the way, including the women's quarters. Here, Penelope is able to connect with women across class lines: "When it was raining I would take up my weaving in the women's quarters. There at least I would have company, as a number of slaves were always at work on the looms" (73). These women's quarters will be important in the coming chapters, as they become a safe haven for Penelope from the suitors. While Odysseus is away, Penelope's position in Ithaca changes. She is no longer an unwanted member of the household and instead becomes a vital part of its running smoothly. In Odysseus's absence, Penelope takes on the role of head of the household and takes on many tasks that wouldn't be normally considered appropriate for women. As a result, Penelope gains a favorable reputation across the land for her bargaining skills and farming advice.
Though Odysseus and Penelope's marriage is most strongly shaped by their 20-year separation from each other, these chapters give us insight into their familial dynamics. Early in their marriage, Penelope holds a "great opinion" of Odysseus and "admire[s] him immensely" (56). In contrast, Odysseus sees—and treats—Penelope as if she were a child. Penelope writes of Odysseus, "he himself continued to be as attentive and considerate as he had been at first, although his manner was that of an older person to a child" (57). (This is not surprising, as she is only fifteen years old when they are married.) In accordance with ancient Greek attitudes about women, Odysseus sees Penelope more like his property and less like his equal. Only Penelope and Odysseus know that their marriage bed is carved out of an olive tree with its roots still in the ground. Odysseus warns Penelope that if word gets around about this bed, Odysseus will know that Penelope has cheated on him, and he will murder her. Penelope takes this threat seriously. Seemingly everything in Penelope's life in this period emphasizes that her one true job is to give Odysseus a son, which is explicitly said to her by Eurycleia. Penelope does end up giving birth to Telemachus, and soon after, Odysseus is whisked off to Troy.
We see more gender and class dynamics at work in these chapters. Penelope feels as if her freedom is severely limited in Ithaca in her first years there. She feels less like an individual and more like "a prize horse on parade, walking in [her] fancy robes while sailors stared at [her] and townspeople whispered" (72). This is a great example of how women were seen in Ancient Greek society. Think about how Penelope was less important than the wedding gifts that came with her in Odysseus's eyes. Marriage politics and family dynamics define women in this time more as objects to be traded for status than full individuals with agency and power. However, Penelope is also a very rich woman. She has a much more pleasant existence than the female slaves in her castle, as the chorus is quick to remind us. The twelve maids were born around the same time that Telemachus was. However, he was treated like a prince. Meanwhile, they were "animal young, to be disposed of at will / Sold, drowned in the well, traded, used, discarded when bloomless" (67). Compared to Penelope, these maids' lives are extremely violent and limited, as they have no say what happens to them or their bodies. As critic Valarie Miner argues in her article "Fictions and Frictions," "the maids remind us that if Penelope was disenfranchised by her sex, they were further disadvantaged by class."
If you have read Homer's Odyssey and Iliad, you might recognize the events running in the background of Chapters 11, 12, and 13. As Penelope waits for Odysseus to return home, she hears about his heroism during the Trojan War. Penelope puts her own spin on the events of the war, placing a lot of the blame on her cousin, Helen. Penelope notes, "I've often wondered whether, if Helen hadn't been so puffed up with vanity, we might all have been spared the sufferings and sorrows she brought down on our heads by her selfishness and deranged lust" (76). In Homer's version of events, we are on the battlefield with the heroes. In The Penelopiad, however, we see the war through a different lens. Penelope must rely on news from minstrel songs, which could take weeks to arrive in Ithaca. She eagerly waits for mention of her husband, taking in the good with the bad: "I relished those moments. There he was making an inspiring speech, there he was uniting the quarreling factions, there he was inventing an astonishing falsehood, there he was delivering sage advice, there he was disguising himself as a runaway slave and sneaking into Troy and speaking with Helen herself, who—the song proclaimed—had bathed him and anointed him with her very own hands" (82). The fact that Penelope has to wait for news via minstrel song is accurate to her time and place, as that is often how information and stories circulated. In fact, The Iliad and The Odyssey were originally songs sung by a wide array of performers each of whom put their own spin on the events. It is not even certain that Homer existed as a real person at all, though he has been crowned as the author of those great works through time.
Penelope's reliance on oral accounts of what is going on overseas becomes much more complicated after the Trojan War has ended. Now that Odysseus is on his own, she must rely on "rumors." These rumors have two sides to them. Sometimes they are laudatory, painting Odysseus as a hero. Other times, they paint him as flighty and irresponsible. For example, there are two conflicting accounts of what Odysseus was up to on a certain isle. Penelope recounts: "Odysseus was the guest of a goddess on an enchanted isle, said some; she'd turned his men into pigs—not a hard job in my view—but had turned them back into men because she'd fallen in love with him and was feeding him unheard-of delicacies prepared by her own immortal hands, and the two of them made love deliriously every night; no, said others, it was just an expensive whorehouse, and he was sponging off the Madam" (84). Here, the "official" version of Odysseus's travels (as first recorded in The Odyssey) is put into question. Instead, the rumor of what Odysseus is up to depends on the audience listening to it. Penelope notes, "needless to say, the minstrels took up these themes and embroidered them considerably. They always sang the noblest version in my presence" (84). Penelope is left not knowing where her husband is nor exactly what he is up to. The figure of Odysseus—widely respected throughout the Western canon—is cast in an uncertain light. Is he really cursed by Poseidon, forced to undergo a perilous journey? Or is he skirting his responsibilities back in Ithaca in favor of a more exciting life?
