The Penelopiad

Penelope is the main character of the book. Most of the novella (except for the parts voiced by the twelve maids) is told in her voice. She is narrating her story from the underworld, where she, now dead, resides. She was born a princess of Sparta to King Icarius and a naiad, or water nymph. When she is a child, her father tries to drown her in the sea, she thinks perhaps to avoid he fulfillment of a prophecy that she would be weaving his burial shroud. She is saved by a flock of ducks, and is thus given the nickname Duck. She is not beautiful, but is clever and kind. She is married off at quite a young age to Odysseus, upon him cheating his way to success in the physical contest that determined her husband. She falls in love with Odysseus after their first night together, and he soon takes her back to Ithaca. There, she is quite lonely and bored, as she has no friends and her mother-in-law and Odysseus’s old nurse, Eurycleia, take over all of the domestic duties. Soon enough, she has her son Telemachus. Shortly thereafter, Odysseus head of to fight the Trojan War, and she is more alone than ever.