ABSTRACT
Homer's Odyssey, written in the sixth century BCE, is one of the founding texts of Western culture. It recounts the wanderings both of the Greek hero Odysseus, as he struggles to return to his Ithacan home after the Trojan War, and also of his son, Telemachus, as he sets out in search of his missing father. The principal female character in the poem, meanwhile, cuts a far more passive and sedentary figure. Whilst husband and son criss-cross the Eastern Mediterranean, Penelope remains at home, resisting an army of suitors who seek to persuade her that Odysseus is dead. Penelope's destiny, it seems, is not to roam the world; she is instead the destination and safe haven which Odysseus and Telemachus are striving to reach, and the longed-for terminus to their adventures and misadventures.
