Penelope

Greek mythology · queen · fidelity, cunning patience

Odysseus's queen, who held Ithaca against a houseful of suitors for twenty years, weaving a shroud by day and unraveling it by night. Her cunning matches her husband's: she tests even him, at the end, with the secret of their immovable bed.

Stories

The Slaying of the Suitors

Home at last and disguised as a beggar, Odysseus strings the great bow that no suitor could bend and turns it on the men who devoured his house. With Telemachus beside him and Athena overhead, he clears the hall; Penelope tests him one last time with the secret of their bed.