The Penelopiad
2005 • 105 pages
Ratings46
Average rating3.6
15
Ratings46
Average rating3.6
As portrayed in Homer's Odyssey, Penelope - wife of Odysseus and cousin of the beautiful Helen of Troy - has become a symbol of wifely duty and devotion, enduring twenty years of waiting when her husband goes to fight in the Trojan War. As she fends off the attentions of a hundred greedy suitors, travelling minstrels regale her with news of Odysseus' epic adventures around the Mediterranean - slaying monsters and grappling with amorous goddesses. When Odysseus finally comes home, he kills her suitors and then, in an act that served as little more than a footnote in Homer's original story, inexplicably hangs Penelope's twelve maids. Now, Penelope and her chorus of wronged maids tell their side of the story in a new stage version by Margaret Atwood, adapted from her own wry, witty and wise novel. The Penelopiad premiered with the Royal Shakespeare Company in association with Canada's National Arts Centre at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in July 2007.
Featured Series
18 primary booksCanongate's The Myths is a 18-book series with 18 primary works first released in 2005 with contributions by Karen Armstrong, Margaret Atwood, and 24 others.
Reviews with the most likes.
Ugh this book was so fuckin boring that I'm not even gonna try to finish it.
Contains spoilers
Abandoned this book on page 36. The writing felt forced, and Penelope felt inauthentic. There was a completely lifeless quality to the story, which makes sense given that it's told by Penelope after she's dead but makes for a bad reading experience.
《The two of us were – by our own admission – proficient and shameless liars of long standing. It's a wonder either one of us believed a word the other said.But we did.Or so we told each other.》
I really like how the author weaved the story (pun intended) with the addition of the twelve maids' choruses, they gave it a really nice touch.
There are so many fascinating characters in Homer that are delightfully drawn albeit that their roles are peripheral, walk on walk off roles to drive the main plot lines or to illustrate it's backdrop. Many deserve more. Penelope is one such. Her story, and through it the story of women, deserves to be more than a plot device, a final task for Odysseus to complete. Margret Atwood shines her formidable intellect on to the text of this final act. The words form shadows creating a palimpsest, revealing another less “heroic” aspect to Odysseus character but one which nevertheless gives him more complexity, a man of twists and turns doomed perhaps not just by Poseidon but also his flaws. But this is Penelope's story, just what would make her put up with an absent husband and defy a patriarchal society that sought to use her in his absence. But not just her. Her household is a matriarchal society under siege. How do the other women cope and survive? What is their fate?
The Penelopiad is an important addition to the Homeric cannon as is Pat Barkers “The Silence of the Girls”.
