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1
Vladimir Costescu
Professor A. Feldherr
CLA 212
January 7, 2011
Good wife, bad wife: Penelope and Clytemnestra
The stories that as a whole make up the body of ancient Greek mythology have treated
the complex subject of women in various ways. Although women are generally considered to be
weak and subordinate to their husbands, there exist some examples of strong, even heroic women
in certain myths. Such “extraordinary” women include Deianeira, Phaedra, Medea, Penelope,
and Clytemnestra, among others. This discussion of women will focus on the latter two,
comparing and contrasting them and addressing the ways in which the former is often considered
a “good” wife and the latter a “bad” wife. The comparison of Penelope and Clytemnestra will
ultimately show that, in certain ways, the line between “good” and “bad” wife is rather blurry
and the distinction between husbandkilling monster and devoted, faithful wife is not as clearcut
as one might expect.
The major works in which Penelope and Clytemnestra appear are Homer’s Odyssey and
Aeschylus’ Oresteia, particularly the Agamemnon. One of the first things to notice about these
works is that they were both written by men, for men. Given the ancient Greek context, this is a
rather obvious observation, but it deserves to be pointed out because it should be expected that
men would have a biased view of women. Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days describe the
creation of Pandora, the first of “the race of women”, as a gift and punishment from the gods.
While she is made to “look like a goddess immortal, / having the lovely, desirable shape of a
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virgin” (WD 6263), she also has “a dog’s shamelessness and the deceit of a thief” (WD 68).
Since Pandora is used as a proxy for all women, these characteristics of Pandora are expected by
the Greeks to be in most women, making a “good” wife hard to find. Even in Aristotle’s era,
hundreds of years after Hesiod’s time, women were considered inferior; in Aristotle’s view, a
woman is essentially “a deformed man” (King 10, GA 728a17 ff.; 737a). Despite the depictions
of women as either evil, inferior, or both, women have important roles in the functioning of
society and, most importantly, in reproduction. Women perform the essential duty of
motherhood, which makes them much more than a pithos in which man places his seed.
Furthermore, as shown by Penelope’s story, women can also defend the household while their
husbands are away. However, Clytemnestra takes this to an extreme, taking over the household
and replacing Agamemnon with her own rulership, and Aegisthus as a figurehead. While most
women are not like Penelope or Clytemnestra, these figures are still important because they show
that at least some women are more capable than men give them credit for.
Penelope is in numerous ways a “good” wife – she is beautiful, resourceful, devoted, and
a good mother. Her devotion to Odysseus endures even after many years of his absence, and she
still feels “the unforgettable sorrow…whenever [she] [is] reminded of [her] husband” (Odyssey
1.3421.344). Throughout the Odyssey, there are many instances in which Penelope can be seen
weeping for Odysseus, or wishing for him to come back. In Book 17, at line 105, Penelope asks
Telemachos if he has heard of any news of Odysseus. Telemachos tells the story of his trip to
Menelaos, and, between lines 150 and 160, Theoklymenos tells Penelope that Odysseus is
already in Ithaka. Her response is to promise to reward him handsomely if in fact he speaks the
truth. Later on, in Book 19, starting on line 124, Penelope laments that her beauty was ruined
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when Odysseus left, and states that, if he came back, her “reputation would be more great and
splendid”. However, until his return, she grieves, “[wasting] away at the inward heart, longing
for Odysseus”. In Book 19 at line 310, when Odysseus returns in disguise and tells Penelope that
Odysseus is near, she once again offers gifts if Odysseus will indeed return. Penelope continues
longing for Odysseus, since he has not yet revealed himself, and in Book 20 at line 58, she cries
once again. Then, at line 62, she wishes that Artemis would kill her, going on to say at lines
8082 that she would meet Odysseus in the underworld, to escape an inferior husband should she
be forced to marry one of the suitors. The fact that she is willing to give up life to be with
Odysseus is significant, because as we know from Achilles, even being king of the dead is not as
good as being a lowly beggar in the living world. In other words, death for the Greeks is an
extremely undesirable state, even for Achilles who won great fame at Troy. Finally, in Book 21
at line 56, Penelope goes to the storeroom to prepare for the contest of Odysseus’ bow and cries
some more while gathering the bow and ax heads.
Beyond simply crying for Odysseus and wishing for death, Penelope also takes action to
continue her resistance against the suitors. Her first clever act of defiance is the weaving of
Laertes’ funeral shroud, which she describes in detail to a disguised Odysseus in Book 19 at lines
140160: “in the daytime I would weave at my great loom, / but in the night I would have torches
set by, and undo it.” However, she was given away by her servants, “careless hussies,” who told
the suitors of the ruse, so “by force, [she] had to finish it”. Despite this major setback, Penelope
continues to resist the suitors and, inspired by Athena, she announces to the suitors a contest.
Whoever “takes the bow in his hands, strings it with the greatest / ease, and sends an arrow clean
through all the twelve axes, / shall be the one I go away with” (Odyeesy 21.7521.77). Even
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though she did not know that Odysseus was already in Ithaka, she is confident enough that her
husband is so strong that none of the suitors could complete the task.
Penelope is also a good mother to Telemachos, in that she is concerned for his safety
whenever it is threatened. In Book 4 at lines 789790, Penelope sits in her chamber and worries
about Telemachos and whether he will escape death at the hands of the angry suitors. When she
sees Athena in her dream, she declares that “it is for him [she] [grieves] even more than for that
other one [Odysseus]” (Odyssey 4.819). In Book 16 at line 418, Penelope tells Antinoos off for
his plan to kill Telemachos, calling him a “violent man, deviser of evil” and properly accusing
him of “try[ing] to murder [Odysseus’] son” at line 432. Despite being concerned for his safety,
Penelope also properly acknowledges that Telemachos is a male who has authority in the house,
evidenced by her obeisance of Telemachos’ order to go into the house in Book 21 at lines
350352, for “[his] is the power in this household”.
However, even though Penelope has been devoted to her husband, she shows that she has
at least partially lost faith in Odysseus. In Book 19 at lines 312313, Penelope tells the disguised
Odysseus that she thinks “Odysseus will never come home again”. Then, in Book 23, Penelope
in multiple instances refuses to believe that Odysseus has returned. At lines 1115, she scolds the
nurse for waking her, telling her that “the gods have driven [her] crazy” and accusing her of
insulting her in her time of sorrow. Then, at lines 6268 Penelope maintains her stance that
“Odysseus / has lost his homecoming and lost his life, far from Achaia” despite the nurse’s
excited description of the killing of the suitors. Even when she is beginning to believe that
Odysseus is back, she debates “whether to keep away and question her dear husband, / or to go
up to him and kiss his head, taking his hands” (Odyssey 23.8623.87). She decides to take the
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former option, causing Telemachos to scold her for being “harsh” and having a “hard heart” and
proclaim that “no other woman, with spirit as stubborn as [hers], would keep back / as [she] [is]
doing from her husband who, after much suffering, / came at last in the twentieth year back to his
own country” (Odyssey 23.9723.100). As if this is not enough, Odysseus himself similarly
scolds her at lines 165172, echoing the words of Telemachos, and says that she has a “heart of
iron”. Ultimately, she refuses to believe Odysseus until she tests him by asking one of the
women to move his bed. This sends Odysseus into a rage because he knows the bed cannot
possibly be moved, and he proceeds to describe the bed’s construction at lines 185200. Only at
this point does Penelope finally relent and accept that Odysseus is really home.
Charles Rowan Beye interprets Marylin Katz’ book Penelope’s Renown as attempting to
“establish a Penelope who is consistently ambiguous, freefloating, as it were, capable therefore
of choice, rather than the woman who waited at home in a pool of tears until her errant husband
appeared in her bedroom”. This is in no way meant to detract from the good things Penelope
does as a devoted wife and mother, merely to show that she is a more complex character than a
weeping husk of a woman. Instead, her wiles match those of Odysseus, as evidenced by the ruse
of the funeral shroud and the archery contest she devises.
Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon, is often described as the quintessential “bad”
wife. Although she outwardly speaks like a “good” wife when Agamemnon returns from Troy,
lamenting “all the long years this man was gone at Ilium” (Aeschylus 850), she is actually
plotting to kill him. Firstly, Clytemnestra’s killing of Agamemnon is a crime against the Greek
customs of marriage, which dictate that a man should be secure in his own home and enjoy the
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servitude of his loyal and devoted wife. Instead of loyalty to her husband, Clytemnestra exhibits
betrayal and violates her role as a woman and wife.
Clytemnestra also takes away her husband’s nostos, or homecoming, from Troy. She
orders her servants to lay down the purple tapestry as a carpet, under the pretense that
Agamemnon’s nostos, or homecoming, would be enhanced if he walked on it. Agamemnon
initially refuses, stating that he “cannot trample upon / these tinted splendors without fear thrown
in [his] path” (Aeschylus 923924) since the tapestry belongs to the gods and he is a mere mortal.
However, Clytemnestra convinces him to walk on the tapestry by posing the question “If Priam
had won as you have, what would he have done?” (Aeschylus 935), to which Agamemnon
responds that he thinks Priam would have walked on the tapestry. Instead of enhancing
Agamemnon’s homecoming, the tapestry ruse is the beginning of a trap for Agamemnon, which
culminates in Clytemnestra murdering him while he’s taking a bath. Thus, Clytemnestra
dishonorably takes away Agamemnon’s homecoming, which to the Greeks was an exceedingly
important event for a hero returning from battle.
Clytemnestra’s murder of Agamemnon also takes away his kingship and exiles his son
from the country. Clytemnestra marries Aegisthus, Agamemnon’s cousin and enemy, who had
formerly been an exile scheming to take the throne. This power shift results in Orestes’ exile, yet
another betrayal to dead Agamemnon. The wickedness of Clytemnestra is acknowledged by
pretty much everyone in the city, and she becomes a very unpopular figure, if a feared one.
Ultimately, however, she faces punishment for her act, being killed by her son Orestes. Orestes is
then haunted by the Furies, but he is subjected to a trial for his actions and acquitted with Apollo
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and Athena’s blessings. In other words, even the gods think Clytemnestra is evil and her death is
justified.
Despite the overwhelming evidence against Clytemnestra, there are also some redeeming
circumstances surrounding her murder of Agamemnon. Firstly, as she proclaims to the populace
after bringing out the bodies of Agamemnon and Cassandra, “he slaughtered like a victim his
own child, my pain / grown into love, to charm away the winds of Thrace” (Aeschylus
14171418). While it is possible that Clytemnestra was using this justification only to please the
people, it is quite likely that she indeed felt the pain of losing Iphigenia when she was sacrificed
to the gods. Secondly, Agamemnon returned from Troy with Cassandra, a beautiful and wise
slave captured from Troy. While the Greeks returning from battle abroad generally did bring
back women slaves, Cassandra is no ordinary slave given her extreme beauty and her ability to
tell prophecies due to her relationship with Apollo. Thus, Clytemnestra likely felt threatened by
Cassandra’s arrival much in the same way Deianeira felt when Herakles brought back Iole.
While these circumstances do not excuse Clytemnestra’s actions, they allow us to view her
perspective and possibly consider her less a monster and more a woman scorned.
Taking Penelope and Clytemnestra together, along with other women in Greek myth, we
can see that sexuality is a significant factor in the stories of myth. Both of the women are
beautiful and desirable, and though they seem to be polar opposites, they have a lot in common.
They are both married to a Trojan hero and veteran, they both have male children who are just
coming of age, and they are both waiting at home alone for their husbands to return. The only
thing that separates the two women is choice. Love and hate are not so different, and while
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Penelope sticks with love, Clytemnestra drifts towards hate, feeling alone and still angry at
Iphigenia’s death.
As these examples and analyses have demonstrated, both Penelope and Clytemnestra are
more complex than may seem. Penelope is not simply the “good” wife who waited at home for
her husband to return, nor is she as threatened by the suitors as it seems. Rather, she experienced
doubts about whether Odysseus would return and considered ending the wait and marrying a
suitor – though she ultimately did wait for Odysseus. Also, while the suitors presented a threat to
the household, Penelope had the situation under control through her clever ruse of unweaving the
funeral shroud every night; the ruse was only brought to the suitor’s attention by a disloyal
woman servant. Likewise, Clytemnestra was not simply the monster that she seemed to be. She
had a couple of legitimate motivations for killing her husband: he killed their daughter Iphigenia
to allow him and his men to continue their journey to Troy, and he brought back a very beautiful
and intelligent slave woman, Cassandra. While spousal murder is by no means acceptable, these
extenuating circumstances add some nuance to make Clytemnestra’s acts less evil. When taking
all of these facts together, the line between Penelope and Clytemnestra, and also between “good
wife” and “bad wife”, is a bit less clearcut.
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Works Cited
The poems of Hesiod. 1985. Print. Bazan, Elizabeth B. and Jennifer K. Elsea.
Oresteia: Agamemnon, The libation bearers, The Eumenides. 1954. Print.
Lattimore, Richmond. The Odyssey of Homer. Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2007.
Print.
Beye, Charles. "Penelope's Renown: Meaning and Indeterminacy in the Odyssey." N.p., n.d.
Web. 5 Jan 2011. <http://serials.infomotions.com/bmcr/bmcrv2n06beyepenelopes.txt>.
King, Helen. Hippocrates' woman: reading the female body in ancient Greece. Psychology
Press, 1998. Print.