Penelope in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Penelope

38 passages from 6 ancient authors that tell of Penelope, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. Penelope was the wife of the hero Odysseus in Greek mythology. She was the daughter of Icarius and Periboea.When the suitors for the hand of Helen w... For the story in one place, read our article on Penelope.

Homer (30)

Homer, Odyssey 17.492–606Penelope sends for the strangerPenelope, hearing that the stranger has been struck, curses Antinous and asks Eumaeus to bring him to her, since he may have news of her husband. Odysseus tells Eumaeus to say that he will talk with her at dusk, when the fire will be kinder to him. Eumaeus returns to the hut after telling Telemachus, and Odysseus remains in the hall.
Homer, Odyssey 4.715–847Penelope's grief; Athena sends a phantomPenelope learns of the plot and of her son's journey and sinks down on the threshold, wailing, while her maids gather round her. Eurycleia confesses that she knew of the voyage, and tells her to wash and pray to Athena. Athena sends a phantom in the likeness of Penelope's sister Iphthime, which tells her that her son will return, and the suitors set out to lie in ambush on the island of Asteris.
Homer, Odyssey 18.110–301The suitors' gifts; Penelope appearsThe suitors laugh and congratulate Odysseus, and Amphinomus gives him bread and wine, and Odysseus warns him that no man should be arrogant, for the gods can change a man's lot. Athena puts it into Penelope's heart to show herself to the suitors, and she is made more beautiful with sleep and with divine gifts. She reproaches Telemachus for letting the stranger be mistreated, and the suitors give her presents of dresses, a necklace and earrings.
Homer, Odyssey 23.1–84Eurycleia wakes PenelopeEurycleia goes laughing to Penelope's room and wakes her with the news that Odysseus is home and has killed the suitors. Penelope says that the gods have made the old woman mad, and that it is some god who has killed the suitors, since Odysseus is lost far away. Eurycleia tells her of the scar, but Penelope still doubts and goes down to the hall.
Homer, Odyssey 16.321–481The suitors' ambush fails; Penelope rebukes AntinousThe ship that was sent for Telemachus comes back, and the suitors, learning that he escaped, gather and plan to kill him. Amphinomus advises waiting for a sign from the gods, and Penelope comes down to rebuke Antinous for plotting against the son of the man who once saved his father. Eurymachus smooths it over, and Eumaeus returns to the hut that evening.
Homer, Odyssey 23.163–287Penelope's test of the bedOdysseus sits down again opposite Penelope and says that her heart must be of iron. Penelope, as a test, tells Eurycleia to move the bed out of their bridal chamber, and Odysseus angrily asks who has moved it, since it was built round an olive trunk. At these words Penelope's knees and heart are loosened, and she runs to him, throws her arms round his neck, and kisses him. Odysseus tells her that the prophecy of Teiresias still requires one more journey, inland, and Penelope says that the gods may bring a happier old age.
Homer, Odyssey 19.317–507Eurycleia washes the stranger; the scarPenelope calls Eurycleia to wash the stranger's feet, and Eurycleia says that he looks like Odysseus. As she bathes him she finds the scar that a boar's tusk made when he hunted on Parnassus, and tells how he got his name, and drops his foot. She is about to cry out, but Odysseus seizes her throat and makes her swear to keep silence.
Homer, Odyssey 4.625–714The suitors plot an ambushIn Ithaca the suitors, playing at their games, learn from Noemon that Telemachus has gone to Pylos, and Antinous resolves to lie in wait for him with a ship in the strait between Ithaca and Samos. The herald Medon hears the plot and tells Penelope, who asks him why her son has gone.
Homer, Odyssey 17.1–183Telemachus returns to the townAt dawn Telemachus takes his spear and goes to the town, telling Eumaeus to bring the stranger to beg there. Eurycleia and the maids greet him with tears, and Penelope throws her arms round her son and begs him to tell what he has learned of his father. He tells her of Nestor and Menelaus, and of what Menelaus heard from Proteus, and the seer Theoclymenus tells her that Odysseus is already in Ithaca.
Homer, Odyssey 19.1–95Odysseus and Telemachus remove the armsOdysseus, left in the hall, plans with Athena's help the death of the suitors, and tells Telemachus to carry the arms away to the store-room. Telemachus does so, with Eurycleia's help, and Athena goes before them with a golden lamp. Telemachus goes to bed, and Melantho abuses the stranger again, and Penelope rebukes her.
Homer, Odyssey 19.96–163Penelope questions the strangerPenelope has a chair set for the stranger by the fire and asks him who he is. Odysseus answers that she should not ask about his family and country, which would make him weep, and praises her fame. Penelope tells how the gods ruined her beauty when Odysseus left, how she put off the suitors with the web of Laertes' shroud, and how her parents now urge her to remarry.
Homer, Odyssey 19.508–604Penelope's dreamPenelope tells the stranger of her sorrow, and of a dream in which an eagle swooped down on her geese and killed them all, and then spoke to her as Odysseus returned. He tells her that the dream can have only one meaning, that Odysseus will come and kill the suitors. She says that dreams are confusing, and announces that she will set the contest of the bow, and goes up to her room to weep.

18 more passages of Homer that name Penelope

Apollodorus (2)

Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome E.7.1–40The wanderings of Odysseus, the suitors and his deathOdysseus leaves Troy and meets the Cicones, the Lotus-eaters and Polyphemus the Cyclops, then Aeolus, the Laestrygonians and Circe. After the visit to Hades, the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis and the cattle of the Sun, he reaches Calypso and then the Phaeacians and Ithaca, where the suitors are named and killed. The section ends with his later life among the Thesprotians and the variant accounts of his death at the hands of Telegonus, and of Penelope's fate.
Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 3.10.1–9Hermes, Asclepius, Leda and the suitors of HelenThe Pleiades are named, and Maia bears Hermes to Zeus, who steals Apollo's cattle, invents the lyre and trades it for the cattle and the art of divination. The line of Taygete and Lacedaemon leads to Hyacinth, to Asclepius, son of Apollo and Coronis, whom Zeus strikes with a thunderbolt for raising the dead, and to Tyndareus and Icarius. Zeus, as a swan, lies with Leda, who bears Helen and the Dioscuri (or, in another version, Nemesis lays Helen's egg), and Theseus carries Helen off. The kings of Greece court Helen, and Tyndareus, on Odysseus's advice, binds them by an oath to defend the chosen husband.

Aristophanes (1)

Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae 531–687Episode: Cleisthenes exposes MnesilochusThe chorus are outraged by the speech, and the First Woman and Mnesilochus trade insults, until the beardless Cleisthenes arrives to warn them that Euripides has sent a man into the festival disguised as a woman. Cleisthenes questions the women in turn and Mnesilochus, caught out by questions about last year's rites, is stripped and shown to be a man. Cleisthenes goes to fetch the police, and the chorus search the festival for any other intruder.

Pausanias (3)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.12.1–9Mantinea: the roads to Methydrium and Orchomenus, Penelope's grave and Anchises' tombPausanias notes the sanctuary of Zeus Charmon and the oaks of Arcadia, including the cork oak whose bark is used for floats. On the road to Methydrium he tells how Alcimedon exposed his daughter Phialo and her child by Hercules, and how a jay's imitation of the baby's cries led Hercules to them. On the roads to Orchomenus are the stadium of Ladas, the mound the Mantineans say is Penelope's grave, the ruins of old Mantinea and the tomb of Anchises on Mount Anchisia.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 3.12.1–11Sparta: the street Apheta, the Booneta, the Hellenium and the SciasAlong the street Apheta, Pausanias explains the name from the foot-race of Penelope’s suitors, then the Booneta bought with oxen and the sanctuaries of Athena Goddess of Paths. He also lists shrines of Iops, Amphiaraus and Lelex, the precinct of Taenarian Poseidon, the Hellenium and the tomb of Talthybius, altars of Apollo and Earth, royal graves, the sanctuary of Arsinoe, the shrine of Maron and Alpheus, the temples of Zeus Tropaeus and the Great Mother, and the Scias, where public assemblies meet.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 3.20.1–11Laconia: Therapne, Alesiae, Mount Taygetus and the road to ArcadiaPausanias describes the fountain Messeis, the Phoebaeum and the sanctuary of Earth-holding Poseidon, then Alesiae, Pharis, Bryseae, Mount Taletum and the sanctuary of Eleusinian Demeter. He explains how Helos gave its name to the Helots and mentions Lapithaeum, Dereum and Harplea. On the road to Arcadia he notes the image of Athena Parea, the Horse’s Tomb and the image of Modesty, set up by Icarius.

Epic Cycle (1)

Epic Cycle, Summaries and Fragments 9.1–10.2Returns and TelegonyProclus' summary of the Returns begins with Athena causing a quarrel between Agamemnon and Menelaus about the voyage from Troy. The fragments mention Medea and Aeson, Heracles at Themiscyra, and Telemachus marrying Circe. The Telegony, in two books, has Odysseus sailing to Elis after the suitors are buried, and the author says that Odysseus had a son Telegonus by Calypso.

Parthenius of Nicaea (1)

Parthenius of Nicaea, Love Romances 3.1–4.5Odysseus and Evippe; Alexander and OenoneOdysseus seduces Evippe in Epirus, and their son Euryalus is killed at Ithaca when Penelope persuades Odysseus that he is a plotter; Odysseus himself later dies of a wound from his own offspring. Oenone, who lives with Alexander (Paris) on Mount Ida, foretells that he will leave her and that only she can cure him. When he is wounded by an arrow of Philoctetes she answers him haughtily, and he dies before she arrives, and she kills herself.