Penelope
Greek · mortal · heroic age · Recorded classification
Mortal queen of Ithaca, daughter of Icarius of Sparta; wife of Odysseus and mother of Telemachus. The archetype of the faithful wife: through the twenty years of Odysseus absence she kept off the suitors with the trick of the never-finished shroud and at last recognized her returned husband by the secret of their olive-rooted marriage-bed. Named throughout the prose of greek_odysseus as his spouse and the mother of his son.
Children
Domains
- marital fidelity and domestic cunning
Powers
- Hold off the suitors with the unfinished shroud
- Test and recognize her returned husband by the secret of the marriage-bed
Epithets
- περίφρων Πηνελόπεια circumspect, prudent PenelopeHomer, Odyssey 1.329; passim (primary)
Relations
- spouse: OdysseusHomer, Odyssey 23.85-240 (primary)
- mother of: TelemachusMother of Telemachus by Odysseus.Homer, Odyssey 11.447-449 (primary)
Sources
- existence: Homer, Odyssey passim (esp. 1, 2, 19, 23) (primary); Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.10.6, Epitome 7.38-39 (primary); Gantz, Early Greek Myth (1993), pp. 711-712 (secondary)