The Penelopiad
The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus
By Margaret Atwood
(Canongate U.S., Paperback, 9781841957982, 224pp.)
Publication Date: October 2006
Categories: Fairy Tales, Folklore & Mythology
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In The Odyssey, Penelope -- daughter of King Icarius of Sparta, and the cousin of the beautiful Helen of Troy -- is portrayed as the quintessential faithful wife. Atwood's dazzling retelling of the old myth is as haunting as it is wise and compassionate, as disturbing as it is entertaining. With incomparable wit and verve, she gives the story of Penelope new life and reality.
"Homer's Odyssey is not the only version of the story. Mythic material was originally oral, and also local--a myth would be told one way in one place and quite differently in another. I have drawn on material other than The Odyssey, especially for the details of Penelope's parentage, her early life and marriage, and the scandalous rumours circulating about her.
I've chosen to give the telling of the story to Penelope and to her twelve hanged maids. The Maids form a chanting and singing Chorus which focuses on two questions that must pose themselves after any close reading of The Odyssey: what led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to? The story as told in The Odyssey doesn't hold water: there are too many inconsistencies. I've always been haunted by the hanged maids; and, in The Penelopiad, so is Penelope herself.
--from Margaret Atwood's Introduction to The Penelopiad
"From the Hardcover edition.
“Half-Dorothy Parker, half-Desperate Housewives.” —The Independent (UK)
“By turns slyly funny and fiercely indignant, Ms. Atwood’s imaginative, ingeniously constructed ‘deconstruction’ of the old tale reveals it in a new—and refreshingly different—light.” —The Washington Times
“Here—at the outset of the twenty-first century, with everyone else looking forward with great intensity and hoping to predict what our mysterious future might bring—is Margaret Atwood, one of the most admired practitioners of the novel in North America, taking the measure of the old Odyssey itself with a steady gaze and asking the reader to follow forthwith, even as she coolly rewrites that oral epic from the point of view of the hero’s wife.” —Alan Cheuse, Chicago Tribune
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