https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penelope – Penelope and the Suitors by John William Waterhouse

The image I chose portrays Penelope weaving while surrounded by her maids and suitors. In the background you can see what I assume to be the kingdom of Ithaca out of a window. In the image, Penelope is seated and wearing a bright red dress while she weaves. Her dress is the brightest piece of color in the image and so your attention is immediately drawn to her. The maids around her are the same complexion as she is but their clothing is less striking and elegant. She seems completely focused on her weaving, much to the dismay of the suitors surrounding her. Her portrayal is a feminine one. She has very pale, soft looking skin with rosy cheeks and a slim figure. Several suitors can be seen in the background, and they are all trying to attract her attention with material possessions. One man has flowers, and another has jewelry. It seems that they are sticking with the stereotype that women want materialistic expensive things and Penelope has zero interest in any of them.

From everything else I’ve researched and scenes about Penelope, I feel this image represents her best in the way that I imagine her to be. Most of the other images I saw and pieces that I’ve read objectify and sexualize Penelope by focusing on her sexuality. In fact, this was one of the only images of Penelope that I could find in which her breasts weren’t showing. I’ve been attempting to analyze the cunning and intellectual side of Penelope and so I felt like her sexuality and body was irrelevant. Because of this I would say that the image I chose challenges the typical narrative more so than any of the other pieces of art or text do. In the image I chose, she is highlighted for her beauty but also mainly for her intelligence and her disinterest in material possessions or any man besides the one she has chosen. She is shown challenging typical stereotypes about women while in other images of Penelope and other female characters from the Odyssey the women are often sexualized and appear materialistic.

I felt that the image I chose had less of the typical implicit bias you see in artwork relating to classical Greek history. As I discussed earlier, Penelope is completely dressed in the picture I chose and in my opinion is presented in a classy manner and not objectified. She is certainly spotlighted though in terms of his appearance and attire, and I can tell from the image that she comes from a different class of people in comparison to the maids. Additionally, the maids all have a similar complexion to Penelope and so I don’t see any implicit bias in terms of race either. The one bias towards gender I do see is the fact that the suitors are clearly still attempting to make advances even though in the image Penelope is making it abundantly clear that she has zero interest. They are also taking part in a classic stereotype about women being materialistic and wanting expensive gifts or items. However, Penelope expresses zero interest in the items too and thus challenges the stereotype.