Who Is Penelope?
The wife who waited twenty years
Penelope is the wife of Odysseus and the queen of Ithaca. She is known as a wise and faithful wife who waited twenty years for her husband to come home after he left for the Trojan War.
In the original poem, crowds of suitors, convinced her husband is dead, take over her house. Penelope promises to choose a new husband once she finishes weaving a burial shroud for her father-in-law, Laertes. Every day she weaves, and every night she secretly unravels the work, buying herself three years. In this manga, she is shown weaving at her loom in the palace on Ithaca at the very beginning and end, framing the whole voyage (an addition in the manga version).
Her weaving trick is still told today as proof that her cleverness is a match for her husband's.
Episodes featuring this character3
NEWEpisode 1
The Fruit That Makes You Forget HomeThe Lotus-Eaters
Odysseus won the Trojan War with the trick of the wooden horse. Now his crew won't stop feasting ("just one more cup!"), and he himself gave the order to raid a city. Between the two, seventy-two of his men are lost. Then a storm drives the fleet to a land of sweet fruit that makes anyone who eats it stop wanting to go home.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 2
The Man Who Said His Name Was NobodyThe Cyclops Polyphemus
Trapped in the cave of a one-eyed giant, Odysseus survives by giving up his own name. But once safe aboard his ship, he shouts his real name back at the shore — and brings the sea god's curse down on himself.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 5
What the Greatest Hero Said After DeathThe Nekyia — Journey to the Underworld
At the lightless edge of the world, Odysseus summons the dead—yet even when his own mother appears, he keeps his sword raised so the prophet can drink the blood first. Three times her shade slips through his arms, and the heroes of Troy speak their hearts. Odysseus learns what it truly means to come home alive.
19 pages