How did Penelope trick the suitors for 3 years?

The emblem of Penelope's cleverness is the device by which she tricks her suitors for three years, her weaving. She uses the weaving to buy herself time, but the weaving is itself an image of time. Time is a weaving and unweaving; it makes and unmakes beings and relations.

How has Penelope tricked the suitors for three years?

Many suitors had come to woo "the widow". She put them off with a ruse, persuading them to wait until she had finished a funeral shroud for Laertes, Odysseus's father, which she wove by day and secretly unravelled by night. In this way she managed to deceive them for three years.

What trick has Penelope used to deceive the suitors for almost 4 years?

For three years, she held the suitors off through her ruse of the shroud, telling the suitors that she must finish a shroud for Laertes, her father-in-law, against that sad but inevitable time of his death.

What did Penelope weave as a delaying tactic for 3 years?

The story of the loom symbolizes the queen's clever tactics. For three years, Penelope worked at weaving a shroud for the eventual funeral of her father-in-law, Laertes. She claimed that she would choose a husband as soon as the shroud was completed.

How does Penelope trick the suitors in Book 18?

When Penelope speaks to the suitors, she leads them on by telling them that Odysseus had instructed her to take a new husband if he should fail to return before Telemachus began growing facial hair.

The Odyssey: Argus, The Suitors, and Penelope

How did Penelope trick the suitors?

The emblem of Penelope's cleverness is the device by which she tricks her suitors for three years, her weaving. She uses the weaving to buy herself time, but the weaving is itself an image of time. Time is a weaving and unweaving; it makes and unmakes beings and relations.

Why does Penelope trick the suitors?

On Odysseus's return, disguised as an old beggar, he finds that Penelope has remained faithful. She has devised tricks to delay the 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.

How did Penelope delay the suitors?

Penelope Timeline and Summary. For three years, Penelope has put off choosing a husband among the suitors by saying that she must first finish weaving a shroud for Laertes. Each day she weaves and each night she unravels her day's work. Thus she delays for three years until a treacherous maid spills the beans.

What is Penelope's challenge to the suitors?

Penelope stalls the suitors for three years by saying that she would marry when she is finished weaving a shroud for Odysseus's family. She would weave during the day and undo her work at night, so she would never finish. NOTE: The burial shroud will be the final act of respect for Odysseus's family.

How do the suitors find out about Penelope's trick of weaving and then Unweaving the shroud on the loom?

In retrospect, Penelope sees her strategy as ill considered, but notes that she was running out of time and had to be crafty. When they did eventually find out the trick that Penelope had played with the shroud, the Suitors broke into Penelope's room and caught her undoing the weaving.

What task does Penelope tell the suitors that they must perform to win her hand in marriage?

What task does Penelope tell the suitors that they must perform to win her hand in marriage? Penelope tells the suitors that they must string O's bow and shoot an arrow cleanly through all all the axes to win her hand in marriage.

Where in the Odyssey does Penelope trick the suitors?

Penelope in the Odyssey

In book 2 of the Odyssey, Penelope's clever deception of the suitors is revealed. She had been using the weaving of a great funeral shroud for her father-in-law, Laertes, as an excuse to avoid picking a new husband out of the suitors.

What does Penelope say in the challenge?

By completing the task, the beggar is revealed to be Odysseus, and he and Telemachus prepare to punish the suitors. Penelope tells “the beggar” of how much emotional strain she's been under since the Trojan war, but now she must remarry, even if she still wants Odysseus.

Why did Penelope set up contest?

Why does Penelope choose an archery contest using Odysseus' bow? Because she wants to see if any man can be as great as Odysseus.

How many years did Penelope wait for Odysseus?

Helen, who abandoned her husband, went down in legend as the most faithless of wives, while Penelope, who waited 20 years for Odysseus to return, earned fame as the most faithful wife of all. Though Icarius consented to the marriage of Penelope and Odysseus, he wanted the couple to remain in Sparta with him.

How did Penelope Test Odysseus?

She tests Odysseus by ordering her servant Eurycleia to move their marriage bed. Odysseus gets angry. He explains that he built their bedroom around an ancient olive tree, and used the top of the tree to make their bedpost. He is angry because he believes Penelope must have replaced this bed with a movable one.

How did Odysseus make sure that his plan against the suitors of Penelope will work?

Summary: Book 19

When the suitors retire for the night, Telemachus and Odysseus remove the arms as planned. Athena lights the room for them so that they can see as they work.

Why does Penelope take Odysseus hunting bow to the hall where the suitors are?

why does Penelope take Odysseus' hunting bow to the hall where the suitors are? Because she says she will marry the man who can shoot an arrow through twelve ax handle sockets.

How does Odysseus shock the suitors?

How does Odysseus shock the suitors? Odysseus made it through all the arrows.

Why does Penelope unravel her weaving?

She promised to marry one of them after she completed a shroud for her father-in-law. Steadfastly loyal to her absent husband, Penelope unraveled her weaving at the end of each day to avoid remarrying.

What chapter does Penelope unravel weaving?

Chapter 15. Back to the Loom. Before turning to the question of larger context, it is necessary to consider one more muthos Penelope tells in Book 19: the tale of her weaving and unweaving of Laertes' shroud.

What ultimatum does Penelope give the suitors?

Summary: Book 21. Penelope gets Odysseus's bow out of the storeroom and announces that she will marry the suitor who can string it and then shoot an arrow through a line of twelve axes.

Why does Penelope wear funeral garment?

Penelope promises to remarry once she has completed a funeral shroud for her aging father-in-law, Laertes. By day, she publicly works on the garment, but by night she undoes whatever she had accomplished.

Who betrayed Penelope in The Odyssey?

Melantho is not a well-known character in the poem. She is Penelope's maid and the sister of Melanthius in Odyssey. In the poem, Melantho betrays Penelope. She appears to be more loyal to the suitors.

Who did Calypso marry?

According to Homer's epic, the Odyssey, when Odysseus landed on Ogygia, Calypso fell in love with him and decided to keep him as her immortal husband.