Penelope
- daughter of Icarius and Periboea, wife of Ulysses, and mother of Telemachus, celebrated for her chastity and constancy, Ov. H. 1; Hyg. Fab. 126; Plaut. Stich. 1, 1, 1 (1); Cic. N. D. 3, 22, 56; id. Ac. 2 (Luc.), 29, 65; Hor. C. 3, 10, 11; id. S. 2, 5, 76; Juv. 2, 56: sponsi Penelopae, for sensualists, Hor. Ep. 1, 2, 28.—
- B Transf, poet., a chaste wife, Mart. 1, 63, 6.—Hence,
- II Pē-nĕlŏpēus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to Penelope, Penelopean: Telemachus, i. e. the son of Penelope, Cat. 61, 231: fides, Ov. Tr. 5, 14, 36.—Subst.: Pēnĕlŏpēa = Penelope, Auct. Priap. 70, 20.
(Πηνελόπη and Πενελόπη). A princess of Greece, daughter of Icarius, brother of Tyndarus, king of Sparta, and of Polycasté or Periboea. She became the wife of Odysseus (q.v.), monarch of Ithaca, and her marriage was celebrated about the same time with that of Menelaüs and Helen. Penelopé became by Odysseus the mother of Telemachus, and was obliged soon after to part with her husband, whom the Greeks compelled to go to the Trojan War. Twenty years passed away, and Odysseus did not return to his home. Meanwhile his palace at Ithaca was crowded with numerous and importunate suitors, aspiring to the hand of the queen. Her relatives also urged her to abandon all thoughts of the probability of her husband's return, and not to disregard, as she had, the solicitations of the rival aspirants to her favour. Penelopé, however, exerted every resource which her ingenuity could suggest to protract the period of her decision: among others she declared that she would make choice of one of them as soon as she should have completed a web that she was weaving (intended as a funeral ornament for the aged Laertes); but she baffled their expectations by undoing at night what she had accomplished during the day. This artifice has given rise to the proverb of “Penelopé's web,” or “to unweave the web of Penelopé” (Penelopes telam retexere), applied to whatever labour appears to be endless. For three years this artifice succeeded, but on the beginning of a fourth a disclosure was made by one of her female attendants; and the faithful and unhappy Penelopé, constrained at length by the renewed importunities of her persecutors, agreed, at their instigation, to bestow her hand on him who should shoot an arrow from the bow of Odysseus through a given number of axe-eyes placed in succession. An individual disguised as a beggar was the successful archer. This was no other than Odysseus, who had just returned to Ithaca. The hero then directed his shafts at the suitors, and slew them all. The character of Penelopé has been variously represented, some writers saying that she was unfaithful to Odysseus with all the suitors, and that from this intercourse was born Pan; but it is the more general version that she is to be considered as a model of conjugal and domestic virtue.
- Paus. 3.20.10
- her wooers set to run a race: Paus. 3.12.1, 4, Paus. 3.13.6
- married to Odysseus: Paus. 3.20.10, Apollod. 3.10.5
- her father asked to give her to Odysseus: Apollod. 3.10.8
- chooses to follow her husband rather than abide with her father: Paus. 3.20.10ff.
- mother of Telemachus: Apollod. E.3.5
- the suitors of: Apollod. E.7.25, Apollod. E.7.29
- receives gifts from wooers: Paus. 9.41.5
- she deceives them by undoing her web: Apollod. E.7.29
- delivers to them the bow of Odysseus: Apollod. E.7.32
- bears Poliporthes to Odysseus: Apollod. E.7.34
- conveyed by Telegonus to Circe: Apollod. E.7.37
- married to Telegonus: Apollod. E.7.37
- sent with him to the Islands of the Blest: Apollod. E.7.37
- said by some to have been seduced by the suitors and sent away or killed by Odysseus: Apollod. E.7.37
- turned out of doors by Odysseus, goes to Sparta and then to Mantinea: Paus. 8.12.6
- said to have borne Pan to Hermes in Mantinea: Apollod. E.7.37
- Pan said to be her son: Hdt. 2.145, Hdt. 2.146
- her grave: Paus. 8.12.5
- her son Ptoliporthes: Paus. 8.12.6