A Penelopean Poetics: Reweaving the Feminine in Homer's Odyssey

156 Pages·2004·6.159 MB·English

by  Barbara Clayton

A Penelopean Poetics
Greek Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches
Series Editor: Gregory Nagy, Harvard University
Associate Editor: Timothy Power
Assistant Editors: Casey Due, Mary Ebbott, Alex Hollman, Olga
Levaniouk, Leonard Muellner, and Jennifer Reilly
On the front cover: A calendar frieze representing the Athenian months, reused in the
Byzantine Church of the Little Metropolis in Athens. The cross is superimposed,
obliterating Taurus of the Zodiac. The choice of this frieze for books in Greek Studies:
Interdisciplinary Approaches reflects this series' emphasis on the blending of the diverse
heritages-Near Eastern, Classical, and Christian-in the Greek tradition. Drawing by
Laurie Kain Hart, based on a photograph. Recent titles in the series are:
Nothing Is As It Seems: The Tragedy oft he Implicit in Euripides' Hippolytus
by Hanna M. Roisman
Lyric Quotation in Plato
by Marian Demos
Exile and the Poetics ofL oss in Greek Tradition
by Nancy Sultan
The Classical Moment: Views from Seven Literatures
Edited by Gail Holst-Warhaft and David R. McCann
Nine Essays on Homer
Edited by Miriam Carlisle and Olga Levaniouk
Allegory and the Tragic Chorus in Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus
by Roger Travis
Dionysism and Comedy
by Xavier Riu
Contextualizing Classics: Ideology, Peiformance, Dialogue
Edited by Thomas M. Falkner, Nancy Felson, and David Konstan
The Pity ofA chilles: Oral Style and the Unity oft he Iliad
by Jinyo Kim
Between Magic and Religion: Interdisciplinary Studies in Ancient Mediterranean
Religion and Society
Edited by Sulochana Asirvatham, Corinne Ondine Pache, and John Waltrous
Iambic Ideas: Essays on a Poetic Tradition from Archaic Greece to the Late Roman
Empire
Edited by Antonio Aloni, Alessandro Barchiesi, Alberto Cavarzere
The Ritual Lament in Greek Tradition, Second Edition
by Margaret Alexiou
revised by Dimitrios Yatromanolakis and Panagiotis Roilos
Homeric Variations on a Lament by Briseis
by Casey Due
Imagining Illegitimacy in Classical Greek Literature
by Mary Ebbott
Tragedy and Athenian Religion
by Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood
The Usable Past: Greek Metahistories
Edited by K. S. Brown and Yannis Hamilakis
The Other Self: Seljhood and Society in Modern Greek Fiction
by Dimitris Tziovas
The Poetry ofH omer: New Edition, Edited with an Introduction by Bruce Heiden
by Samuel Eliot Bassett
A Penelopean Poetics: Reweaving the F emillille in Homer's Odyssey
by Barbara Clayton
A Penelopean Poetics
Reweaving the Feminine in
Homer's Odyssey
Barbara Clayton
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Clayton, Barbara, 1955-
A Penelopean poetics: reweaving the feminine in Homer's Odyssey / Barbara Clayton.
p. cm - (Greek studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 13: 978-0-7391-0723-2
1. Homer. Odyssey. 2. Homer-Characters-Penelope. 3. Epic poetry, Greek-History
and criticism. 4. Penelope (Greek mythology) in literature. 5. Women and
literature-Greece. 6. Femininity in literature. 7. Women in literature. I. Title. II. Series.
PM167.C552003
883'.01-dc22 2003060463
Printed in the United States of America
eN
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSIINISO Z39.48-1992.
Contents
Acknow ledgments vii
Introduction IX
1 Not the Iliad: Reconsidering a Gendered Approach to the Odyssey
2 Unweaving to Reweave: Poetry and Process 21
3 Reweaving Identities: Odysseus' Lies and the Tale of the Scar 53
4 Weaver and Artist: Surveying a Penelope Tradition 83
Conclusion 123
Appendix: Handbooks of Greek Literature and General Works on Homer 127
Arranged Chronologically
Bibliography 129
Index 139
About the Author 143

Acknowledgments
It is a tremendous pleasure to thank those without whom this book would never
have come into existence. First and foremost, I am grateful for the interest and
assistance of Mark Edwards. His passion for Homer and his wonderful
scholarship have been an inspiring model for me from the beginning. lowe an
enormous debt of gratitude to Hilary Mackie and to Ralph Hexter, whose advice
and guidance were so instrumental in the early stages of this project. My
heartfelt thanks go to Richard Martin, for his excellent suggestions as well as his
unfailing generosity in shepherding me through the transition from dissertation
to publication. I would also like to thank Greg Nagy for his enthusiastic
welcome into the Greek Studies series, Casey Due for her kindness in helping
me navigate the final stages of this process, and Holly Coty for her invaluable
proofreading assistance. Thanks are in order as well to Stanford University, and
in particular to the Introduction to the Humanities program, for truly generous
support. Last but by no means least, I would like to thank my husband Marc
Nelson-cnap aU ~oi EOOI rroTIjp KO\ rroTvlo ~f}TT]P nOE KooiyvTJTOS.
Permissions
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the publishers, agents, and authors for per
mission to quote excerpts from the following works:
Edwin Muir, "The Return of Odysseus," from Collected Poems. Copyright ©
1960 by Willa Muir. Used by permission of Oxford University Press, Inc.
and Faber and Faber Ltd.
Dorothy Parker, "Penelope," from The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy
Parker, edited by Brendan Gill, copyright © 1928, renewed © 1956 by
Dorothy Parker. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of
Penguin Putnam, Inc. and Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd.
Linda Pastan, "At the Loom," from The Imperfect Paradise by Linda Pastan.
Copyright © 1988 by Linda Pastan. Used by permission of W. W. Norton &
Company, Inc. "You are Odysseus," from PM/AM: New and Selected
Poems by Linda Pastan. Copyright © 1975 by Linda Pastan. Used by
permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. "To Penelope," from Last
viii Acknowledgments
Uncle by Linda Pastan. Copyright © 2002 by Linda Pastan. Used by
permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. and the Jean V. Naggar
Literary Agency.
Katha Pollitt, "Penelope Writes," from Antarctic Traveller by Katha Pollitt,
copyright © 1981 by Katha PoIlitt. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf,
a division of Random House, Inc.
Adrienne Rich, "When We Dead Awaken." Copyright © 2002 by Adrienne
Rich. Copyright © 1973 by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., from The Fact
of a Doorframe: Selected Poems 1950-2001 by Adrienne Rich. Used by
permission of the author and W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
WaIl ace Stevens, "The World as Meditation," from The Collected Poems of
Wallace Stevens by WaIlace Stevens, copyright © 1954, renewed 1982 by
Holly Stevens. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of
Random House, Inc. and Faber and Faber Ltd.
Diane Wakoski, "Daughter Moon," from Waiting for the King of Spain.
Copyright © 1976 by Diane Wakoski, excerpt reprinted by her permission.
Derek Walcott, Omeros. Copyright © 1990 by Derek Walcott. Reprinted by
permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC, and Faber and Faber Ltd.
Theodore Weiss, "Storeroom," from Fireweeds. Copyright © 1976 by Theodore
Weiss, excerpts reprinted by his permission.
Introduction
What is a Penelopean poetics? Simply put, it is a poesis (the creation of
something, from the Greek verb poieo, "to make"), modeled upon Penelope's
weaving, unweaving, and reweaving. The end result of Penelope's poesis is, of
course, the burial shroud for her father-in-law Laertes. However, my emphasis
here is not upon what Penelope makes. Instead I wish to focus upon how
Penelope creates, hence the importance of the modifier "Penelopean" in my title.
Her poesis privileges process over product, and this will be significant when we
look at Penelope's poesis from a metaphorical perspective.
Just as the Greek term poietes came to mean not just any maker, but
specifically a maker of poetry, so does Penelope's poesis lend itself,
metaphorically, to the making of poetry. "Semiotic woman is a weaver," writes
Ann Bergren in a 1983 article on language and Greek thought.l Bergren's article
explores connections between poetry, weaving, metis (or cunning intelligence),
and the figure of Helen. I believe that these connections made by Bergren can be
pursued somewhat differently by focusing on Penelope. (Bergren simply glosses
Penelope as the "paradigm" of the semiotic-weaving woman.) Not only is
Penelope's web among the most enduring images of Homer's Odyssey-a topic
I shall explore in detail in chapter 4-Penelope's identity, much more so than
that of Helen, remains fixed to the activity of weaving itself. In other words,
Penelope is first and foremost a doer, a maker, a pOietes in the most general
sense. While we associate other Homeric women with specific
attributes-Helen's beauty, Circe's magic, or Nausicaa's innocence-Penelope
is primarily defined by what she does. She weaves and unweaves, she waits, she
remembers. Her attribute is faithfulness, but this is a quality, as the Odyssey
makes quite clear, that she embodies through activity. Penelope is faithful while,
or as long as, she is able to weave, to wait, and to remember Odysseus. As we
shall see in more detail in chapter 2, it is possible that Penelope's name is a
marker of this identity, since it has been argued that an etymological relationship
may exist between nT]VEAOTTEIa and the Greek word mlvT] which means either
the "woof' of the weaving, or the instrument upon which the woof thread is
wound, i.e., the shuttle or bobbin.2 A weaving Penelope, then, is a figurative
poet, and she has much to tell us about the poetics of the Odyssey.
I. Bergren 1983a, 71.
2. See chapter 2, 35.