The Maids comment on the section with envy, since they are not allowed to marry.Ĭontrary to custom, Odysseus took his bride back to his home on the island of Ithaca. Odysseus won the race (supposedly by cheating) and married Penelope that day. Penelope next describes the contest for her hand in marriage, a running race, when she was fifteen. In the Maids’ commentary on Penelopes’ childhood, they compare their own lineage, contrasting their slave and peasant parents with Penelope’s royal ones. Her mother, meanwhile, was neglectful and cold. According to stories Penelope heard growing up, Icarius tried to kill Penelope in infancy by throwing her into the sea, but Penelope was saved by a flock of ducks. Penelope begins her account with her childhood, stating that she was born in Sparta to King Icarius and a Naiad mother. The Maids, meanwhile, introduce themselves through a song that accuses Odysseus of killing them. Penelope's account begins with her deciding from the afterlife to tell her side of the famous story of her marriage to Odysseus after thousands of years. Penelope's first person narrative is a mostly chronological account starting at her birth, while the Maids provide commentary on her narrative. The story is told in retrospect, with Penelope and the Maids in the afterlife reflecting on the events that occurred centuries before. Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad retells the story of the Odyssey from the perspective of Penelope and her Twelve Maids.
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