The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus by Margaret Atwood

The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus Margaret Atwood ebook
Publisher: Canongate U.S.
Format: epub
ISBN: 1841957178, 9781841957173
Page: 224

In Homer's depiction we see them as innocent by standards, but in the Penelopiad we see that they are used by Penelope to spy and keep the suitors busy till Odysseus is to return home. I personally cant find much love for these “add on” stories to classic greek myths. In The Penelopiad, she focuses on the terrible fate of Penelope's twelve maids, strung up by the neck by Odysseus and his son Telemachus once they have butchered Penelope's 120 suitors who endlessly harassed her in the 20 years of Odysseus' absence. This is also the story of Penelope's twelve maids and their murder by Telemachus and Odysseus upon his return. The Penelopiad The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus (The Myths Series) (9781455839261) Margaret Atwood, Laural Merlington. One of the stranger parts of Odyssey is Odysseus and Telemachus' slaughtering of Penelope's maids once they regain control of his kingdom. Written in 2005 as part of the Canongate Myth series, The Penelopiad is often part, as I see it, is the view of feminism Atwood leaves us with in The Penelopiad. (From the performance: The Penelopiad, published in 2005, is part of the Canongate's Myths series, which feature re-imaginings of myths by contemporary authors (the most recent is A.S.Byatt's Ragnarok). And it's been a long time since I've read any Atwood, so I had no idea what might happen as I started reading. I liked the subversive After Atwood's The Penelopiad, I'm reading Jeanette Winterson's Weight and Karen Armstrong's A Short History of Myth, another title in the Canongate Myth series. So when I picked up The Penelopiad, I wasn't sure what to expect. Ever since I heard about the Read-A-Myth Challenge, so kindly hosted by JoV and Bina, I have been looking forward to reading Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad. Penelope – Odysseus' wife – is dead. When Odysseus finally comes home after enduring hardships, overcoming monsters and sleeping with goddesses, he kills her suitors and – curiously – twelve of Penelope's maids. The all-female cast is attempting to bring to the stage an adaptation of the Greek myth of Penelope, wife of Odysseus, as retold by Margaret Atwood in her 2005 novel, The Penelopiad. Odysseus spent most of his travels battling monsters and having sex (first with the goddess Circe, and then, when living with the nymph Calypso for seven years), while back in Ithaca, his wife Penelope wept and prayed and waited. The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood is a modern-day, rather irreverent, retelling of the myth of Penelope, Odysseus's very faithful wife, and her maids.