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In Homer's Odyssey, Penelópē (Πηνελόπεια/Πηνελόπη) is the faithful wife of Odysseus, who keeps her suitors at bay in his long absence and so is eventually rejoined with him. Prior to recent readings, her name had been associated with faithfulness, but the most recent readings offer a more ambiguous interpretation.

Etymology

The origin of her name is Pre-Greek and is more likely related to the Hesychius' gloss πηνέλοψ/*πηνέλωψ "some kind of bird" (arbitrarily identified today with Eurasian Wigeon), where -έλωψ is a common Pre-Greek suffix for predatory animals http://www.zeno.org/Pape-1880/A/%CF%87%CE%B7%CE%BD-%CE%B1%CE%BB%E1%BD%BD%CF%80%CE%B7%CE%BE Zeno.org lemma relating πηνέλωψ (gen. πηνέλοπος) and http://el.wikisource.org/wiki/%CE%93%CE%BB%CF%8E%CF%83%CF%83%CE%B1%CE%B9/%CE%A7 <χην(ά)λοπες>· ὄρνεα (predators) ποιά. ὅπερ ἔνιοι <χηναλώπεκες., however the semantic relation between the proper name and the gloss is not clear (Penelope was also the name of a bird-like ancient deity). In folk etymology, Πηνελόπη is usually understood to combine the Greek word for "web" or "woof" (πήνη / pene), and the word for "eye" or "face" (ὤψ / ōps), which is considered the most appropriate for a weaver of cunning whose motivation is hard to decipher, or alternatively πήνη and λέπω "peel, skive" (akin to leper) due to the shroud-unbraiding part of her myth.

Role in the Odyssey

Penelope is the wife of the main character, the king of Ithaca, Odysseus (Ulysses in Roman mythology), and daughter of Icarius and his wife Periboea. She has one son by Odysseus, Telemachus, who was born just before Odysseus was called to fight in the Trojan War. She waits twenty years for the final return of her husband, during which she has a hard time snubbing marriage proposals from several odious suitors (including Agelaus, Amphinomus, Ctessippus, Demoptolemus, Elatus, Euryades, Eurymachus and Peisandros, led by Antinous).

On Odysseus's return, disguised as an old beggar, he finds that Penelope has remained faithful. She has devised tricks to delay her suitors, one of which is to pretend to be weaving a burial shroud for Odysseus's elderly father Laertes and claiming that she will choose a suitor when she has finished. Every night for three years, she undoes part of the shroud, until some unfaithful maidens discover her chicanery and reveal it to the suitors.