What is an epithet for Penelope?
Thus in the Odyssey books 1 – 4 you will find several epithets including “bright eyed Athena” “sensible” Telemachus, “rosy fingered dawn” and “wise” Penelope.
How would you describe Penelope’s character?
In the beginning of the story, Penelope’s most prominent qualities are passivity, loyalty, and patience (along with beauty and skill at the loom) – the age-old feminine virtues. She does very little but lie in bed and weep.
Why is Penelope so upset?
1. She’s most upset about Odysseus’s failure to return home: She’s perpetually crying and expressing her grief.
How did Penelope characterize Helen in The Penelopiad?
Penelope characterizes Helen as vain, cruel, and flirtatious. Penelope feels that she is living in Helen’s shadow and often compares herself to her. She worries that Odysseus prefers Helen to her. In Penelope’s narrative, Helen runs away from Menelaus with Paris, a Trojan prince, inciting the Trojan War and causing Odysseus to leave Ithaca.
What kind of character is Penelope in the Odyssey?
Some critics dismiss Penelope as a paragon of marital fidelity — a serious and industrious character, a devoted wife and mother, but one who lacks the fascination and zest for life that some of Homer’s immortal women display. However, Penelope is not a pasteboard figure.
Why was Penelope in a very dangerous situation?
She is a complicated woman with a wry sense of destiny who weaves her plots as deftly as she weaves a garment. Penelope is in a very dangerous situation when the suitors begin invading her house and asking — and then demanding — her hand in marriage.
Which is an example of Penelope’s Guile?
Her ploy failed only when one of her servants eventually betrayed her and told the suitors what was happening. The contest of the bow and axes is another example of Penelope’s guile; it also illustrates her wry sense of destiny.