Comparing the Odyssey and the Iliad to the Penelopiad
The Odyssey and The Iliad are two of the oldest pieces of surviving literature in the modern world. They were originally written around the 9th or 8th century BCE by Homer, and since then they have been translated into countless languages, including English, numerous times, with each editor and translator leaving their own interpretation of these epic tales. These classics are so vital to our understanding of the ancient world, whose principles are still used in the contemporary world, as they have often inspired other works of literature. In this essay, we will look at The Odyssey, book 9, and an extract of The Penelopiad, a novel based on The Odyssey, and we will analyse how Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad’s author, has interpreted The Odyssey and re-imagined its significance.
One of the main differences between The Odyssey and The Penelopiad is the point of view that we are following. In The Odyssey, we follow the hero Odysseus, while The Penelopiad reiterates the tales of the Odyssey from the main character’s wife’s point of view: Penelope. This is quite a crucial difference as in this book of the Odyssey there are hardly any female characters, and the few characters that we do have are mythological ones such as Calypso and Circe. In addition, Penelope isn’t even mentioned, or at least not by name, in book 9. However, we can assume that Odysseus has a significant other due to this quotation, found at the beginning of the chapter when Odysseus is telling King Alcinous about his travels:
“The Divine Calypso was certainly for keeping me in her cavern home because she yearned for me to be her husband […] but never for a moment did they have my heart. So true it is a man’s fatherland, […] are he holds sweetest.”[1] Odysseus’ fatherland is Ithaca, where Penelope lives, according to The Penelopiad: “What can I tell you about the next ten years? Odysseus sailed away to Troy. I stayed in Ithaca.” His love towards his home and his disinterest towards marrying both Calypso and Circe suggests that Odysseus might be already married, although this isn’t confirmed in book 9. By making Penelope her main character, Atwood has given a voice to one of the women of ancient Greece, which is extremely uncommon to find in classical texts. She has shifted the focus from Odysseus’ journey to Penelope’s waiting, adding a new story to this epic tale.
By shifting the focus from Odysseus onto Penelope, Atwood is challenging Homer’s work, by re-interpreting the importance of a hero, especially one whose accomplished many feats, in an epic tale. Instead, she gives us a simple character, a heroine waiting for her husband to return. Thus, we question the role of Odysseus and its significance in The Odyssey and in The Penelopiad. The Odyssey glorifies Odysseus, showing the audience what a great hero he is: he is strong, he fought in a war, he worked hard to help his men when they were in danger, and when they couldn’t be saved, he mourned them. “We sailed on from Ismarus with heavy hearts, grieving for the loss pf our dear companions.”[2] Every character in The Odyssey knows of Odysseus’ triumphs. “The whole word talks of my stratagems, and my fame has reached the heavens.”[3] Overall, Odysseus has every quality a hero should have strength, bravery, and altruism, as well as being victorious. However, The Penelopiad offers mixed opinions of Odysseus. Some agree with The Odyssey’s view of him, that he is an invincible hero, while others disagree: “Rumours came, […] Odysseus and his men had got drunk at their first port of call and the men had mutinied, said some; no, said others, they’d eaten a magic plant that had caused them to lose their memories.” Furthermore, in The Penelopiad, Odysseus doesn’t seem to be as famous as he claims to be in The Odyssey: “Minstrels sang songs about the notable heroes- Achilles, Ajax, Agamemnon, Menelaus, Hector, Aeneas, and the rest. I didn’t care about them: I waited only for news of Odysseus.” Atwood has transformed Odysseus from a hero into a simple, possibly flawed man, and therefore, she is also questioning the truthfulness and importance of his quests in his ten-year long journey.
Yet another difference between The Odyssey and The Penelopiad is the tone of these two stories. The Penelopiad mirrors Odysseus’ journey, we hear rumours of his travels, how his men lost their memories after eating a magic plant, how they had been attacked by Cyclops, and even about how they had been turned into pigs by the sorceress Circe. However, book 9 of The Odyssey ends on a different note than Chapter XII of The Penelopiad. Odysseus is still hopeful that he will return. Book after book, quest after quest, he never loses hope. Each travel ends with him and his crew setting off towards Ithaca: “We’re making our way home but took the wrong way-the wrong route- as Zeus, I suppose, intended.”[4] However, Penelope isn’t so sure of his return: ‘Day after day I would climb up to the top floor of the palace and look out over the harbour. Day after day there was no sign. Sometimes there were ships, but never the ship I longed to see. ‘The Odyssey is an epic tale of a hero’s journey home, while The Penelopiad is a tale of a woman who has been waiting for her husband to come home for the last ten years, and with each passing day she is losing hope for his return. Through The Penelopiad, Atwood has taken events from The Odyssey and turned them into a tale of pessimism and loneliness: “Even an obvious fabrication is some comfort when you have few others.”
Overall, The Penelopiad discusses the same themes found in The Odyssey, such as Odysseus’ feats during his ten-year long journey, but changes our impression of them by giving us different point of views, such as Penelope’s and the rumours she hears about Odysseus’ adventures from the other people of Ithaca, rather than just giving us Odysseus’ point of view like The Odyssey. By giving us access to the opinions of other characters, Atwood influences, and possibly changes, our view on Odysseus’ quests, and challenges our opinion of him in The Odyssey. Do we still believe him to be a hero? Or are our beliefs challenged by the rumours that Penelope mentions, the ones that led to her own change of heart towards Odysseus?
[1] Homer, The Odyssey, Translated by E.V. Rieu, Revised translation by D.C.H. Rieu (London: Penguin Group, 1946), p.110-111.
[2] Homer, The Odyssey, p.111.
[3] Homer, The Odyssey, p.110.
[4] Homer, The Odyssey, p.116.