by Reagan Densmore
When everyone sees something in one, singular way, a way that maybe makes sense, so you stick to it. But then, a new suggestion arises, one that is eye-opening, and leaves you in awe. Interpretations are intriguing as they lead you to different questions or conclusions. The author that prompted me to write this is Margaret Atwood. Most famous for her novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, however the story I specifically want to bring the attention of is The Penelopiad. A story in response to Homer's The Odyssey. It provides a new perspective on this nostos story, one of homecoming, and brings to light new possibilities regarding Penelope and the twelve slave girls.
The story centers the character, Penelope, the faithful wife of Odysseus, who is the main character of The Odyssey. When Odysseus finally comes home after nearly 20 years of being away, it leads to bloodshed quite quickly. Odysseus and his son, Telemachus eventually kill all 120 of the suitors of whom spent these long years trying to win the heart of Penelope. The two also kill the twelve slave girls who had been sexually involved with these suitors.
Penelope meets the beggar, who was her husband in disguise, and asks for an interpretation of her dream. She dreamt of twenty geese flying around her house. Suddenly, an eagle with a pointed beak flew down from a mountain, and broke their necks, killing them (Homer, Book 19.540-46). In The Odyssey, it is interpreted as the geese being the unwanted suitors, and the eagle being her husband, Odysseus. However, Atwood provides a different interpretation of this. She suggests that while the eagle can still be seen as Odysseus, the geese can be seen as the slave girls who were murdered because of his orders. They were hung, as a matter of fact. “Odysseus-the-beggar interpreted this dream for me: the eagle was my husband, the geese were the Suitors, and the one would shortly slay the others. He said nothing about the crooked beak of the eagle, or my love for the geese and my anguish for their deaths” (Atwood, 2005, p. 139).
This is extremely interesting, as it provides us a whole new view of what may have seemed like a simple dream. But now it holds such importance due to its multiple ways of interpretation. What happened to the twelve girls in The Odyssey, did not seem as significant, they were not a huge part of the story, and they were hanged for their dishonorment. They were ratted out by an older maid, Eurycleia, to Odysseus for their involvement with the suitors, and therefore being dishonorable to the King, their owner (Homer, Book 19.424-25). However, Odysseus proclaims to one of the suitors that they had assaulted these girls (Homer, Book 22.35-38). If he believed that they were assaulted, why would he have them murdered, and why did his son, Telemachus, want a worse punishment for them than his father suggested? Instead of them being slain with swords, Telemachus had them hanged (Homer, Book 22.441-44). Here the women are meant to be faithful to their men, in this case, their owner, the king. It was seen as an attack on the king, rather than to the girls, who were the ones who were pursued by these suitors. This leads to the question of if Penelope had been unfaithful to Odysseus within their almost 20 years apart, how would that have been taken? Would she have been murdered as well? Atwood leads us down this whole new hole of questioning over this one specific part of this story.
The story gets into Penelope’s character, and what if she was actually unfaithful. What if the girls blamed her for their death, though it was her son who killed them. In The Penelopiad, we discover that these twelve girls were Penelope’s favourites, as she taught them everything they needed to know, and raised them with her son (Atwood, 2005, p. 113). Chapter 21 then suggests the idea that Penelope was actually unfaithful, so she had the maid, Eurycleia, tell Odysseus about their dishonorment (Atwood, 2005, p.150). This twist highlights the female fear of the power of their men. Both Odysseus and Penelope had affairs during their time apart, however the only one who would be punished would be Penelope, as she was to honor the king. However, her fear leads her to throw her slaves under the bus, she uses her power over them to have them killed instead.
It is fascinating how one new interpretation can form a new story, how your eyes can be opened to alternate possibilities. Margaret Atwood’s sort of feminist twist on the story of the Odyssey is truly amazing. Atwood’s stories show the need for feminism, and she shows how the different genders contribute to this need. This twist on The Odyssey really goes to show how interpretations are magnificent, in the sense that there is no one singular way to view something, and a different view can change a story, or at least a particular character. I’ll leave this on one note, think outside the box, come up with your own views, as you may come up with something eye-opening.
References
Atwood, M. (2005). The Penelopiad. Penguin Random House.
Homer. (2018). (E. Wilson, Trans). The Odyssey. Norton.
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