Trouble Was His Middle Name, FO: to ride the silver seas

Homer's Odyssey, as I'm sure you know, recounts the story of Odysseus, King of Ithaca, and the ten years it took him to make it home after the Trojan War.

Now there was a man who would not stop to ask for directions.

While he was off galivanting with sea nymphs and taunting the odd one-eyed giant, his wife Penelope was at home beating back the advances of 108 young men who all thought they should be the next king of Ithaca, and they'd all like to grace her sheets while they were about it.  While circumstances rather forced her hand when it came to entertaining gentlemen callers, she was adamant that "no other man's boxers will go in my washing machine," and she rebuffed all advances.

Penelope was the true hero of the Odyssey.   Odysseus, who's name actually means "trouble" in Greek, my gods what a trainwreck of a man, is widely considered to be one of the cleverest of the ancient heroes.  And other than the wee-est spot of hubris - which was basically a pre-requisite for the heroing gig back in the day - he's a pretty stand-up guy.

But he's got nothing on his wife.  Friends, she had over one hundred frat boys drinking her ouzo and eating her olives, literally devouring the wealth of a country that she'd been ruling for twenty years, and she plays them.  Plays them one and all for fools and stalls them for three years while she waits for her dumb husband to get home.   

"Let me weave this shroud for Laertes," she said.  (She was a big Hamlet fan, loved Shakespeare.)

Unweaves a night's work.

"Oh, still not done!  Loads to do!" she said the next morning.

"Seems legit," the suitors all agreed, going back to the ouzo.

Suitors.  Am I right?

 Dorothy Parker, a delightful human being, author, and poet wrote this about Penelope:

Penelope

In the pathway of the sun, 
In the footsteps of the breeze, 
Where the world and sky are one, 
He shall ride the silver seas, 
He shall cut the glittering wave. 
I shall sit at home, and rock; 
Rise, to heed a neighbor’s knock; 
Brew my tea, and snip my thread; 
Bleach the linen for my bed. 
They will call him brave.

It calls into question what we define as heroism.  Is it more brave to go out into the world, to "ride the silver seas," or to stay and to wait.  To make a home, to get up day after day and do the things that must be done.  To honor politics, custom, and civility and to "heed a neighbor's knock" when you'd rather do nothing more than stay in bed and mourn the loss of the one you loved more than life?

Is it bitterness, grief, pride, or simply weariness we hear in Penelope's voice when she says, "They will call him brave"?

So anyway, this shawl I knit is called Odyssey, but I knit it for Penelope, mostly, and only a little bit for her dumb husband.

Project Notes

Project Name: to ride the silver seas

Pattern:  Odyssey by Joji Locatelli

Yarn:  DK Still by Deep Dyed Yarns in Whisp (dk grey), One Shot (olive), and Smoke (lt grey)

Total Yardage: 558 yards

Needles:  US 9 (5.5 mm)

Started: January 1, 2020

Completed: January 20, 2020

Ravelry Project Page: here