The Penelopiad

In this interlude by the chorus, the maids describe their own dreams of being at sea with men they love, instead of being at the sexual mercy of any higher-ranking man: “chased around the hall/And tumbled in the dirt/By every dimwit nobleman/Who wants a slice of skirt” (125).

Telemachus returns safely from his fact-finding mission, “more by good luck than good planning,” (127) and he and Penelope fight. She berates him for getting into such danger without seeking permission, accusing him of being little more than a child. He claims that he needn’t seek permission, being fully grown and entitled to the boats, and that someone needed to take action since Penelope refused to do so. After the fight, Penelope, Telemachus, and his friends Piraeus and Theoclymenus sit down to a meal: Penelope asks Telemachus to recount what news he received, and he tells her that he learned “that Odysseus was trapped on the island of a beautiful goddess, where he was forced to make love with her all night, every night” (131). “I’d heard one beautiful-goddess story too many,” (131) she recounts.

Penelope also asks after Helen, whom Telemachus describes as being “as radiant as golden Aphrodite,” (132) but when pushed further “that bond which is supposed to exist between mothers and fatherless sons finally asserted itself” (132) and he says that she has aged terribly and looks much older than Penelope.