Penelopiad
From where did Penelope narrate her story?
The Fields of Asphodel in Hades.
How many years total was Odysseus gone from Ithaca?
20 years
(10 fighting + 10 returning)
This text hold's the socio-cultural value: Vengeance and retribution
What is 'The Odyssey'?
The value, attitude or idea which is revealed/affirmed/questioned by Atwood in this quote from 'The Odyssey': 'Send away they mother, and command her to web whomsoever her father bids.'
What is patriarchal hierachy/power? Questioned.
What is being suggested the maids and Odysseus and Telemachus symbolically represent here: ‘Thus possibly our rape and subsequent hanging represent the overthrow of a matrilineal moon-cult by an incoming group of usurping patriarchal father-god-worshipping barbarians.’
The Twelve Maids represent the cult of worshipping the goddess of the Moon, Artemis. Odysseus and Telemachus represent the move to eradicate female centric worship, ato move towards male-only religious worship and leadership.
Name three of the delivery styles of the Maids' Greek Chorus?
nursery rhyme, skipping rope song, a lament (a mournful chant) in a chorus line, a shanty, verse
Why is Odysseus disguised as a beggar before he goes home?
1. To test Penelope's loyalty and that of others
Engages with a deconstruction and subversion of gender stereotypes
Who is 'The Penelopiad'?
The value, attitude or idea suggested by Odysseus' mother in this quote from 'The Odyssey': ''Thous shalt find... proud men that devour they livelihood... on their deed shalt thou take vengeance when thou comest'.
What is vengeance? On the suitors the value goes unchallenged in 'The Penelopiad' but justice is sought by the Twelve Maids.
This advice is given by whom, to whom, in what circumstance: 'Remember, if you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.’
Who is Penelope's mother (the Naiad - note, her name is not worthy of record), who is Penelope, at Penelope and Odysseus' wedding.
What role did the Twelve Maids play for Penelope?
'My eyes and ears among the Suitors.’ 'my trusted eyes and ears in the palace.’
Whilst Penelope thinks it likely that ‘It was only a one-eyed tavern keeper… and the fight was over non-payment of the bill,' the Odyssey suggests:
Odysseus had been in a fight with a giant one-eyed Cyclops
A courtcase is held in modern times. The patriarchal modern court does not see there is a case, so the Maids call in The Furies.
The value, attitude or idea which is revealed/affirmed/questioned later by Atwood in this quote from 'The Odyssey':'she abides with steadfast heart in they halls... respecting the bed of her husband and the voice of the people'.
What is loyalty? Questioned.
The technique in ‘If the shroud was a web then I was the spider.’
What is metaphor? What is symbolism?
What literary device contrasts Helen's character with Penelope's to highlight their differences?
Foil
Whist Penelope thinks it likely, '’It was just a brawl of the usual kind… with ear-bitings and nosebleeds and stabbings and eviscerations.’ The Odyssey suggests:
The men had been eaten by cannibals
The ideology of reinterpreting conventional wisdom to provide a different perspective on a long standing point of view.
What is postmodernism?
The value, attitude or idea which is revealed/affirmed/questioned by Atwood in this quote from 'The Odyssey': 'He is bringing with him many rich treasures... but he lost his trusty comrades and his hollow ship.'
What is status and class structure? Questions the dispensability of the sailors and the maids.
The technique and meaning behind Penelope's statement, she will “spin a thread of her own,”
What is metaphor, she is weaving a tale of deception.
Whose perspectives, voice and time periods are in 'The Penelopiad"?
First person voice of both the Twelve Maids, as a chorus, alternating with Penelope's first person voice from Hades. We are in modern day time and flashback to 12th Century BC.
Whilst Penelope thinks it likely, 'Odysseus stayed at ‘an expensive whorehouse’ (p84), The Odyssey says:
Odysseus was the guest of the goddess Circe on an enchanted isle (she’d turned his men into pigs)
The term used to describe a belief in the power and dominance of men over women?
Patriarchal Power.
The value, attitude or idea which is revealed/affirmed/questioned by Atwood in this quote from 'The Odyssey': 'For Zeus and Helios waxed wroth against him... whose well-built ship Poseidon has smitten on the sea.'
What are 'patriarchal father-god-worshippers?
Reveals 'the overthrow of matrilineal' worship and religion which occurred thousands of years ago.
The speaker, the subject and the technique in: ‘My snow-white geese. My thrushes, my doves’
Who is Penelope, who are the Twelve Maids and what is avian imagery / cumulative listing / asyndeton