Penelopiad

[abooth]

I've just finished reading Margaret Atwood's Penelopiad -- her retelling of the Iliad / Odyssey from the point of view of Penelope and the twelve hung maids*. Apart from the short length, it's very typical Atwood (which means it's very good

Comments

[krasnoludek]

I don't remember the maids in the Odyssey either, and we didn't read an edited version (and our class had many teacher-led discussions about the sexual symbolism in the book---quite shocking to a high-school freshman!)

[abooth]

Book 22, vv. 570-85ish

Shrewd Telemachus
began by speaking to the other two:

"I don't want
to take these women's lives with a clean death.
They've poured insults on my head, on my mother,
and were always sleeping with the suitors."

He spoke, then tied the cable of a dark-prowed ship
to a large pillar, threw one end above the round house,
then pulled it taut and high, so no woman's foot
could reach the ground. Just as doves or long-winged thrushes
charge into a snare set in a thicket, as they seek out 580
their roosting place, and find out they've been welcomed [470]
by a dreadful bed, that's how those women held their heads
all in a row, with nooses fixed around their necks,
so they'd have a pitiful death. For a little while
they twitched their feet, but that did not last long.

I also remember the time it became acceptable to talk about sex in English lessons and how weird it was.

since you've read the book..

[anonymous]

i do need help.
i was wondering what could the theme of the book be..
other then Gender roles and sexual status..?

i have a bookreport due =)