I believe that the Penelopiad is important in relation to the Odyssey because it provides an entirely different perspective. The Penelopiad provides Penelope’s perspective from when she was running the kingdom of Ithaca during Odysseus’ absence. It highlights several female perspectives including other female characters like the housemaids. I have been attempting to highlight the positive characteristics of Penelope specifically and the Penelopiad does that. In a genre dominated by male characters and riddled with submissive female characters, the Penelopiad stands alone in presenting the female gender in what I consider to be an accurate manner.

The Penelopiad mainly focuses on Penelope’s perspective while Odysseus is away. It highlights Penelope’s intelligence while dealing with the suitors, as well as her leadership potential while running the kingdom of Ithaca. After all, she did manage to run the entire kingdom for the plethora of years that Odysseus was gone. While Penelope’s perspective is my focus (as well as the focus of the Penelopiad), I personally felt like an extremely relevant perspective that Homer’s Odyssey failed to represent that the Penelopiad captured is the perspective of the housemaids. The Penelopiad really manages to capture what it was like to be a woman of a lower class during the classical Greek era and shines light on many of the issues that women faced. Specifically, it highlights sexual assault and how the housemaids were treated by the men that they were forced to serve. It is an extremely important piece to read as well as an upsetting one. Penelope’s perspective is relevant to Odysseus’ journey because it highlights that he wasn’t the only one affected by his actions. Penelope was left completely alone to run a kingdom, raise a son, and deal with suitors in his absence. The view the Odyssey provides is an extremely narrow-minded one that fails to address the struggles of the other people affected by Odysseus’ journey. While the Odyssey does discuss how Odysseus’ son Telemachus has been affected, it fails to address how Penelope’s has been. In fact, it mainly portrays Penelope in a negative light save a few books where she outsmarts the suitors who then criticize her as a trickster.

The perspective of Penelope proves insightful for us to revisit the Odyssey because it still has cultural relevance even today. Reading the Penelopiad in contrast to the Odyssey has allowed me to better empathize with the struggles women face in our world. One specific quote that really struck me from the Penelopiad was, “What can a woman do when scandalous gossip travels the world? If she defends herself, she sounds guilty” (Atwood). Penelope is essentially saying that if she defends herself and her actions, she will seem guilty by association. This is a common occurrence even in current times. An example of this would be the plethora of women who are afraid to come forward after being sexually assaulted because of the negative repercussions that may occur. The fact that victims of sexual assault are blamed for the clothes they wore or whether they were intoxicated when the event occurred. Penelope was addressing a relevant social issue that has led to victim-blaming even in a society where women are supposed to be equal to men. In the Odyssey this is abundantly clear when Odysseus returns. In fact, he blames the housemaids for sleeping with the suitors and hangs them. “I refuse to grant these girls a clean death, since they poured down shame on me and Mother, when they lay beside the suitors” (Wilson and Homer). Odysseus blames the housemaids entirely and damns them without even considering their perspectives or attempting to empathize. Their perspective is completely negated in the Odyssey and I think that’s a shame.

References

Atwood, Margaret. The Penelopiad. n.d.

Wilson, Emily and Homer. The Odyssey. W.W. Norton & Company INC., 2018.