Penelope: Weaver of Fate w/ Olga Levaniouk
Penelope is one of the most compelling characters from ancient Greek mythology. And yet her intelligence and agency in the Odyssey is seldom fully appreciated. Towards the end of the epic, Penelope comes face-to-face with Odysseus, who has finally returned home disguised as a beggar. After they exchange a few stories (with Odysseus still maintaining his disguise), Penelope sets in motion a chain of events that seals the fate of all the major characters in the story.
Since antiquity people have debated whether Penelope realizes who this beggar is or not. Obviously, how you come down on that question is going to profoundly affect how you see her as a character. Is she naive and passive or is she discerning and cunning?
Homeric scholar Olga Levaniouk has a unique take on this question and other aspects of Penelope's role. She joins us to illuminate the complexities of Penelope's character and mythological background. Levaniouk is Professor of Classics at the University of Washington in Seattle, and author of the book Eve of the Festival: Making Myth in Odyssey 19.
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Scholarly works mentioned during the conversation:
Elizabeth Barber, Prehistoric Textiles: The Development of Cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages with Special Reference to the Aegean, Princeton Univeristy Press, 1991. (discusses the shroud/tapestry Penelope weaves on pp. 258-9)
Louise Pratt, “Odyssey 19.535-50: On the Interpretation of Dreams and Signs in Homer,” Classical Philology 89 (1994): 150-52. (argues that the 20 geese in Penelope's dream symbolize the twenty years she has waited for Odysseus)
Olga Levaniouk, “The dreams of Barchin and Penelope." In D. Elmer, ed. Singers and Tales in the 21st century. Harvard University Press, 2019.
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If you would like to revisit the Odyssey, we recommend checking out the following English translations:
- Robert Fagles' is an easy-flowing read and a favorite at American high schools and colleges.
- Emily Wilson's is a new translation and has been receiving rave reviews. It is both poetic and an easy-flowing read.
- Robert Fitzgerald's is poetic and has a more elevated, lofty style.
- Richmond Lattimore's is preferred by some Homer enthusiasts because it most closely follows the Greek phrasing. However, his English does not flow as smoothly as the other translations above.
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Transcript of the episode's prologue:
When you think of the Odyssey by Homer, what comes to mind first? Maybe it's Odysseus outsmarting the Cyclops, or dodging the monsters Scylla and Charybdis, or resisting the temptation of the Sirens.
But while Odysseus is out there living fast times on the high seas, his wife Penelope is stuck at home faced with dangers no less daunting. 108 suitors have occupied her palace, are pressuring her to marry one of them, and are even plotting to kill her son Telemachus by Odysseus. To appreciate just how precarious her situation is, consider her options. If she outright rejects the suitors, they might arrange to have her killed. But if she agrees to marry one of them, well then there's a 107 other suitors whom she just pissed off. Again, they might kill the guy she just picked. And even if she manages to avoid that, her new husband might arrange for her son Telemachus to accidentally fall off a cliff, so that the his (i.e. the suitor's) future son by Penelope becomes heir to the throne.
Towards the end of the Odyssey, Penelope emerges as one of the main characters, and we finally get to see her tact and shrewdness in navigating the social and dynastic minefield around her. If you remember from episode 15, our guest Richard Martin suggested that Penelope is Odysseus' equal in wits. She is just as crafty, if not more, than he is. This is a claim I've heard several times throughout my schooling in the classics. And while I've intuitively sensed whenever I read the Odyssey that there's more to Penelope than meets the eye, that she knows more than she lets on, I never felt like I really understood the full complexity of her character. She's more mysterious than Odysseus, and always remained an enigma to me.
But recently, I met a Homeric scholar who has studied Penelope for a long time and has come up with a compelling interpretation of her role in orchestrating the action that concludes the epic. So I'm excited to share with you a recent conversation I had with professor Olga Levaniouk of the University of Washington on Penelope.
If you haven't read the Odyssey or it's been a long time, you may want to listen first to our episode number 15, which gives a basic overview of the plot and structure of the epic, and then come back and enjoy this one with all that helpful context in mind.
A brief synopsis before we begin: When Penelope finally encounters Odysseus for the first time in 20 years, he has returned to Ithaca disguised as a beggar (to avoid being killed by the suitors, because he has lost all of his men and is therefore vulnerable). Penelope comes face-to-face with this beggar, the disguised Odysseus, in book 19 of the Odyssey. (Quick side note: Book 19 really means chapter 19 of the 24 chapters. They're not really books. But the convention since antiquity has been to call these divisions books, because way back in the day books were small scrolls.)
But anyway, Penelope in book/chapter/scroll 19 meets the beggar and they have a chat, at the end of which she suddenly declares that she will set up a contest the next day, where the winner will get to marry her. The plan is that Odysseus' bow will be brought out of the storage room, and whoever of the suitors is able to string the bow and shoot an arrow through a row of axes will marry her. Of course, only a real hero is strong enough to wield the bow. So Odysseus wins the contest and then proceeds to kill all the suitors and then finally reveals his identity to Penelope.
One of the questions that has been endlessly debated since antiquity is, does Penelope realize who this beggar is before the slaughter of the suitors? Obviously, how you come down on that question is going to profoundly affect how you see her as a character. Is she naive and passive or is she discerning and cunning?
Our guest today has a unique take on this question and other aspects of Penelope's role. Olga Levaniouk is professor of classics at the University of Washington in Seattle, and author of the book Eve of the Festival: Making Myth in Odyssey 19.