The Odyssey famously recounts Odysseus’ daring escapades on his winding way home from the Trojan War. Yet the story instructs us more about Odysseus’ home than it does his homecoming. More particularly, the epic demonstrates the crucial role feminine intellectual virtue plays towards fostering a well-ordered home. The Choice for Home: Penelope versus Odysseus Every home is defined by the people within it, and every person is defined in large part by their choices, especially the choice for virtue or vice. The choices of Odysseus and his wife, Penelope, sharply contrast each other. Both are clever and resourceful. From the first line of the poem the hero Odysseus is defined by the descriptions “many-sided” or “the man of many ways.” We see Penelope’s cleverness in how she delays a new marriage through her weaving. Promising the suitors she will choose a new husband when a death shroud for her father is completed, she weaves during the day and takes it apart each night. Like Odysseus, Penelope suffers sorrow through their years apart. Yet at Odysseus’ homecoming, Penelope tells of what she endured in Odysseus’ absence; Odysseus tells of what he made others to endure. Most importantly, Odysseus often does not acknowledge that his choices affect other people. The plot moves by Odysseus’s constant inward waffling between desires for peace and conflict, between using clever resourcefulness to seek the honor that comes Penelope’s Titus 2 Virtue Emily Ferkaluk
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