inawa0

[inawa0]

Ah, to be loved in the way Odysseus loves Penelope... Not to mention that at the end of it all, the only thing he's worried about is her still loving him. Not his kingdom, not his wounds, his pride, his treasures (bcs he was a king after all), no. Is his wife. His love. That's all that ever mattered.

Good afternoon today I am thinking about how Calypso hears Odysseus say Penelope's name before she even learns what his name is. She hears “Penelope” before she ever hears “Odysseus.”

And so do we.

In the opening lines of the musical, Odysseus rallies his men by invoking home: “Think of your wives and your children.” We are told so early and so clearly that the impulse that drives him, long before we even know him by name, is love, home, and memory. When the choir asks “What do you fight for?” he first answers: “Penelope.” And then he says it again. And when the prophet Tiresias speaks, when Eurylochus confronts him, when Circe questions his heart, when the gods themselves threaten him and debate his fate, it is always Penelope whose name rises, it is always his wife who is consistenly brought up. Penelope, whose presence is invoked in absence. Penelope, who defines every move he makes.

We learn who his wife is long before he utters his own name, which he only ever does once, in the only saga she's not mentioned. The only time he claims his name aloud is the one time he is wholly severed from her, textually and thematically. Every other chapter of this story, every other trial he endures, echoes with her name. Except this one. Penelope does not enter that cave. Her absence is deafening, and the one time he utters his name instead of hers, it is this exact same act that brings the storm, Poseidon's fury, the years added to their journey. The moment he lets go of her is the moment he is torn from her.

Her name is a refrain in the mouths of gods and monsters, a tether through temptation and torment. If you strip her from the story, you do not simply lose a love interest. You lose the anchor. You lose the tension. You lose the meaning behind every choice Odysseus makes, and every cost he bears.

She is not an afterthought. She is with him from the very beginning and she's the one with him at the very end. She is the centre of the story.