//THE PENELOPIAD//

 

“Death is much too high a price to pay for the satisfaction of curiosity, needless to say.” ~ Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad.

The Penelopiad is a retelling of the Odyssey from the view of Penelope. Left alone for twenty years when Odysseus goes off to fight in the Trojan War after the abduction of Helen, Penelope manages, in the face of scandalous rumors, to maintain the kingdom of Ithaca, bring up her wayward son, and keep over a hundred suitors at bay, simultaneously. When Odysseus finally comes home after enduring hardships, overcoming monsters, and sleeping with goddesses, he kills her suitors and—curiously—twelve of her maids.

This book is captivating and interesting. Compared to the full Iliad and odyssey by (the author construct) Homer it’s a quite “adorable” but also shocking retelling. If you want to get into Greek mythology this is a good choice, since no particular knowledge is required to understand this work. In a splendid contemporary twist to the ancient story, Margaret Atwood has chosen to give the telling of it to Penelope and to her twelve hanged Maids, asking: "What led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to?"

Atwood does a really great job with this. My impression is that Penelope in most telling of the myths is portrayed as simple and unaware of the happenings around her. In this telling, she is a well developed character and we learn that she was very aware of her circumstances and actually was actively manipulating the situation. This provides an important feminist spin on stories in which women are generally not represented very well. The book combines a few different approaches to story telling which was a nice touch as well.

And I have to say, stylistically I can only take my hat off to the author. "The Penelopiad" tells the story of Odysseus' wife from her own perspective. Penelope has now been dead for thousands of years, sitting in Hades and now wants to clean up with the image people have of her today.

The author refutes her story in a stylistic way to ancient Greek sayings, which is evident through the choir of the twelve virgins, which breaks the story over and over again. At the same time, she still managed to get her book into today's time, e.g. by the vicious way Penelope narrates.