The Penelopiad Notes and Summary
Introduction
· Everyone knows the Odyssey and everyone knows Odysseus as clever, full of wit, strategic, etc
· Penelope is the first cousin of Helen of Troy and is portrayed as the perfect faithful wife
o She spends her time weaving and praying for her husband back
· Stories were told orally so they had various versions
· The story will cover what Penelope was really up to, thinking, and what happened to the maids
Chapter 1
· Introduces the book as what she wished would happen now that she is dead and can reflect; “I’ve learned some things I would rather not know”
· Everyone arrives with a sack of words (spoken, been the subject of)
o Hers is a reasonable size but about half are about her husband
· Odysseus’s two specialties: he got away with everything and he could trick everyone into becoming a fool
o Everyone believes his version of the stories
o “An edifying legend” = male domination: men want women to be like Penelope because she is faithful and patient and waits for him
· Odysseus’s specialty is making people into fools (described as wiliness, foxiness, unscrupulousness)
Chapter 2
· Critiques Penelope, Odysseus, and Telemachus
Chapter 3
· Her dad, King Icarus of Sparta, ordered her thrown into the sea because he thought she was prophesized to weave his shroud and wanted to live forever
· Women had to ignore insults and be domestic
· She survived being thrown in the ocean and herfather took her back but she was anxious around him because of what he’d done
· The Naiad-born weep a lot
Chapter 4
· The maids were orphaned and “the dirty girls”
· They were objectified and raped and subservient as children
· “We snatched what we could.” The maids tried to enjoy what they could as house servants.
Chapter 5
· Penelope talks about the underworld
· It’s dark but that’s okay because she doesn’t have to see people
· “Making people roll heavy stones up steep hills is another of their favorite jests.” is a reference to Sisiphys’s eternal torture
· The only thing to eat is asphodel- the name of the chapter
· “self-styled hero” is throwing shade at all the underworld people who call themselves heroes
· Penelope disses prophecies saying they are vague
· She mocks the Christian idea of hell
· She is interested in the new inventions we have
· She mocks that we worship technology
o “looking out at the world through the flat, illuminated surfaces that serve as domestic shrines”
· She is jelly of Helen
o “Helen was never punished, not one bit.”
Chapter 6
· “Children were vehicles for passing things along.”
· “To have a child was to set loose a force in the world.”
· She laughs at the concept of museums and our clothing
o “Endless processions of people in graceless clothing file through these palaces”
· So self aware!
o “No man will ever kill himself for love of me.”
Chapter 7
· “And so I was handed over to Odysseus, like apackage of meat.”
· “no unsuccessful suitor lost his temper at myfeast. It was more as if they’d failed to win an auction for a horse.”
· “he could convince another person that the two of them together faced a common obstacle, and that they needed to join forces in order to overcome it.”
· “I think this is what he valued most in me: my ability to appreciate his stories.”
· “Odysseus had crafty and unscrupulous men on two of the main branches of his family tree.”
· “I myself have developed friendly feelings towards him – more than that, loving and passionate ones – and he behaved as if he reciprocated them. Which is not quite the same thing.”
Chapter 8
· “if a young hero came a-marrying me, I’d always bebeautiful, happy, and free.” -1st maid
· “It’s hope, and hope only, that keeps us afloat.”-maid chorus
· “I make the soft beds in which others do lie.” -2ndmaid
· “please alter my life and let a young hero take me for his wife!” -3rd maid
· “Hard work is my destiny, death is my fate.” -3rdmaid
Chapter 9
· Penelope talks about her rough journey to Ithica
· She ddidn’t spend much time with Odysseus but shedid respect him
· This chapter returns to Penelope’snarrative as she describes her trip to Ithaca.
· A bunch of people are there to see her arrival
· We meet her maid: Actoris
· Actoris died though
· Actoris died soon after arriving on the island,leaving Penelope totally alone.
· Penelope is upset but won’t show it to Odysseus
· Penelope noticed that Odysseus is confused by herand that he wants to figure her out
· Penelope is like, do you know how to get into myheart?
· Odysseus is like, NO LOL TELL ME
· Penelope is like, uno reverse card
· Odysseus is like….look, a ship!
Chapter 10
· The maids talk about Telemacus’s birth
· The maids say Telemacus will grow to kill them with Odysseus
· Telemacus was helpless and so were the maids
· “Helpless as he was helpless, but ten times morehelpless as well.” (referencing T)
· “His birth was longed-for and feasted, as ourbirths were not.”
· “We were animal young, to be disposed of at will.”
· “Our lives were twisted in his life; we also were children when he was a child.”
· “He saw us as rightfully his, for whatever purpose he chose.”
· They say maybe they should have just drowned him
Chapter 11
· Penelope talks about not having a good life inIthica but how she got used to it
· Penelope gave up on Anticleia
· Penelope tried taking care of T but wasn’t allowed
· Penelope wasn’t even allowed to WALK by herself
· Penelope has no friends so she would sit and listen to the maids laughing or weave with the slaves
Chapter 12
· Penelope talks about Odysseus being away and waiting to hear news about him
· Penelope goes to look to see if Odysseus was home yet but he never was
· there were rumors and songs about him
o sugarcoated for Penelope
o Penelope gave gifts in exchange for the sugar coating
· It seems he disappeared. Rumors and songs stopped and there is a sense of giving up.
o “Odysseus seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth.”
Chapter 13
· The maids perform the Odyssey story
· Odysseus leaves Troy with treasure, goes to the island of the Lotus-eaters, then the Cyclops, then the cannibal L giants, then Circe, then Isle of the Dead where Tieresias was, then the sirens, then Charybdis and Scylla, then Calypso, then his escape
· No one knows what the Fates are planning and that includes Odysseus
Chapter 14
· Penelope says she ran into Antinous (a suitor, thefirst one Odysseus shot on return) and thinks of him as a pest
· In the underworld, she asks him to take the arrowout of his neck
· Antinous says that it represents his love for herand it was shot by Cupid
· Penelope is like, we are dead man!
· Antinous calls her merciless but removes the arrow
· Antinous told her that the suitors wanted to sleep with her and have “brats” with her
· Penelope is like, “No, really? Why?”
· Antinous says they wanted her for her treasure and kingdom
o Penelope = “not much to look at”
Chapter 15
· Penelope is pressured to pick a suitor but doesn’t want to
· T blames Penelope for his inheritance going away
· Penelope wants to leave Ithica
· On the bright side, a suitor could order T aroundand get him to stop being entitled
· Penelope keeps in mind that Odysseus would comeback but the Suitors are like, that was just a prophecy
· Penelope said she’d marry once she finished makinga shroud but she undoes it over and over so it is never done
Chapter 16
· Penelope notices that T is old enough to order her around but she’s been doing fine for 20 years!
· The suitors are going to try to kill him
· She cries a lot
· She dreams about Odysseus
o Helen having sex with him
o That he’s being killed
· “I might as well have been a stray dog, pelted with stones or with its tail set afire for their amusement.”
Chapter 17
· The chorus talks about dreaming they’re beautiful, loved, safe, and don’t have to work
· “But then the morning wakes us up: / Once more we toil and slave, / And hoist our skirts at their command / For every prick and knave.”
o Shows that Penelope is not a very reliable narrator. She has MAIDS that are treated like slaves.
Chapter 18
· T says he doesn’t need permission to take a boat since its technically his and he wants to save his father
· He says Odysseus would be proud of him for getting away from all the woman to be brave
· Penelopeis upset
· Penelopeis curious about what T would find about Odysseus
Chapter19
· Penelope wonders if prayer works
· Penelope knew Odysseus was disguised but didn’t say so so Odysseus would believe she missed him
· Penelope knew T can’t lie and that he was in on it
· Penelope didn’t tell the maids who Odysseus was
Chapter 20
· Penelope has hard rumors that she sleeps around so she says she led them on but for strategy
· Penelope says Odysseus wouldn’t have minded
· Penelope says the reason Odysseus didn’t reveal himself to her because she’d cry tears of joy and reveal him to everyone else
o She’s trying to rationalize this
· Odysseus locked her in a room while killing suitors so she wouldn’t have to see
Chapter 21
· Melantho, a maid, says there is “another story” about Penelope
o “Word has it….” that Penelope was a sl*t
· Eurycleia says Odysseus is back and she knowsbecause of his scar
· Penelope says she knew that (short leg man haha)
· Penelope worried O would punish her for beinglustful
· Penelope asks E to make her look good
· E says the maids know about her affairs with the suitors so they have to be stopped from saying it
· Penelope puts it on E to save her honor
· Penelope makes herself pretty and pitiful
· The maids sing “blame it on the maids” and call themselves sl*ts
Chapter 22
· Penelope talks about running into Helen in the underworld
· Helen wants a bath to sooth her and is naked toawaken the men
· Helen says desire doesn’t die with the body, onlythe ability to satisfy it
· “’We’re all aware of your legendary modesty,Penelope.’”
o This quote by Helen seems passive-aggressive. Theword “legendary” seems like a compliment but it seems to put her down for beingmodest.
· “’You’re being witty’ said Helen. ‘Better late than never’”
o We’ve transitioned from passive-aggressive to straight up aggressive. Helen clearly feels threatened by Penelope so she is trying to tear her down.
Chapter 23
· Penelope slept while the suitors were killed
· Eurycleia tells her what happened
· Odysseus did the archery thing and also shotAntinous
· Odysseus told Eurcleia to point out which maids were disloyal and then maid them clean up the blood
· O told T to kill the maids so he hangs them
· Penelope asks E who was killed and E said she had to point out some maids or they’d all die
· Odysseus hung the most beautiful maids
· Penelope has to stay quiet and not rehash the past
Chapter 24
· Both sides make their cases to the judge
· The maids say they were sacrifices to Artemis, which involved sex with the suitors then renewing their virginity
· The argument is that their deaths were a willingself-sacrifice
· They debate over whether or not they were raped
o Rape = sex without the parties’ consent OR sex without the parties’ master’s consent
· Case is dismissed
Chapter 25
· Penelope is sad about the maids being murdered
· She turns a blind eye to Odysseus’s killing
· She doesn’t greet O right away and T is like “rude!”
· Penelope says she wishes she could send T off to another war just to get rid of him (a little much, don’t ya think?)
· Penelope told O that he couldn’t be O because hewas so messy
· Penelope tells E to move the bed in O’s room and Ogot mad because it used to be fixed in place
· Penelope was like “oh you must be my husband because you know the bed can’t move!”
· They get in bed but they’re so much older so…ew
· They tell stories, like they do
· O says he missed her and Penelope agreed, adding that she was faithful in the meantime
· She says they were both liars