Penelope’s husband, Odysseus, is one of the only Greek heroes who have not returned home from the Trojan War. What she does not know is that Odysseus was captured by Calypso who falls in love with him and refuses to let him go for ten years. No one in Ithaca knows where he is, however many believe he is dead. Penelope was devastated at first when her husband did not come home but now that he has been gone for so long, she is just getting lonely. With all the talk around Ithaca saying he is probably dead, she almost starts to believe it.
She can not stand the fact of betraying Odysseus in case there is a small chance of him still being alive. Meanwhile, several suitors are living in her house, eating all the food, and trying to take Odysseus’s place. Not only that, but they are even trying to marry Penelope. Penelope is unaware of what they are really trying to do and allows them to keep living there.
During the assembly in book 2, Penelope is accused of seducing all of the suitors but refusing to marry any of them. Penelope thinks, “I was not trying to seduce them, I was just trying to be nice.” They also accuse her of saying she will choose who she will marry when she finished weaving a burial shroud and unweaving it every night so it would never be completed. They say that if she does not make a decision on who she will marry, she would be sent back to her father, Icarius, and he will decide her next husband. Penelope does not want to be sent away and she does not want to marry a suitor. She still has hope that her true love, Odysseus, is still out there trying to find his way back.
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