{"id":12525,"date":"2021-10-22T12:32:06","date_gmt":"2021-10-22T11:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/?p=12525"},"modified":"2021-10-22T12:32:06","modified_gmt":"2021-10-22T11:32:06","slug":"icariuss-daughter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/2021\/10\/22\/icariuss-daughter\/","title":{"rendered":"Icarius’s Daughter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introductory Note<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIcarius\u2019s Daughter\u201d celebrates Penelope, Odysseus\u2019s wife and heroine of Homer\u2019s Odyssey<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In the Odyssey<\/em>, two narratives are woven together by means of changes of scene and frequent flashbacks. In the first strand of the plot, Odysseus has many dire adventures as he makes his way home to Ithaca from the siege of Troy. In the second strand, covering events on Ithaca, Odysseus returns in secret, reveals his identity, and overcomes the Suitors. In the very last four lines of the epic (24.545\u2013548), the goddess Athene reconciles the factions on Ithaca and restores peace.<\/p>\n

The Suitors are wealthy hereditary lords. They mix competition and cooperation as they pursue Odysseus\u2019s wife, waste his resources, exploit his workers, and plot against his son Telemachus. Unlike Odysseus, who was a good king, the Suitors have nothing to offer the people of Ithaca.<\/p>\n

Today we might describe their regime using two Greek words: oligarchy and kleptocracy. That Odysseus has a home, an estate, and a kingdom to return to, and that a path remains open to legitimate government, is thanks to the role played by his wife Penelope. In a striking passage in the Odyssey, Penelope is compared to a good king. \u00a0In a roundabout way, she becomes an icon of good governance (19. 107 \u2013 114).<\/p>\n

At the centre of the story is that Penelope, under tremendous pressure, has promised to marry one of the Suitors as soon as she finishes weaving a burial shroud for her father\u2013in\u2013law Laertes. \u00a0Her plan is to keep unravelling her own work by night, thereby keeping everything open for a while longer. This ruse is finally exposed as the epic moves towards its climax.<\/p>\n

Penelope\u2019s courage through the years of uncertainty and despair is rooted in her love of Odysseus \u2013 and also in her loyalty to the values of her upbringing.<\/p>\n

The Odyssey<\/em> was composed (possibly) around the year 700 BCE. \u00a0Penelope, a Spartan princess, reminds me of the epitaph for the Spartan \u201c300\u201d who went to their deaths at Thermopylae in 480: \u201cGo, stranger, and tell them in Sparta that we lie here having kept faith with their laws\u201d (my translation of Simonides).<\/p>\n

The Bible was rendered into Greek in the 3rd<\/sup> century BCE. The New Testament is written in Greek. The early followers of the \u201cway\u201d of Jesus needed to make sense of the Greek literary tradition. A view emerged that in Greek literature we find seeds of a fuller truth revealed subsequently in the New Testament.<\/p>\n

The present poem tries to take this insight further. \u00a0I assume that there are \u201cstructural\u201d questions about human life that arise independently within all traditions. \u00a0A reasoned examination of these questions is part of what we call \u201crevelation\u201d. \u00a0Homer\u2019s portrayal of Penelope\u2019s faithfulness anticipates in important respects a Christian conception of vocation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIcarius\u2019s Daughter\u201d is constructed out of building blocks of three kinds: a single, brief proem or introduction; \u201creal\u2013life\u201d scenes based on incidents or images in Homer; and sequences in which we hear the inner voice of Penelope. Penelope is intended to represent any woman who acquires a coherent view of life through long experience.<\/p>\n

The proem has eight lines. Each of the ten stanzas that follow is in sonnet form. I leave it to the reader to discover where scenes from life segue into the meditations of Penelope. In many stanzas, the octet is the scene from life, the sestet a soliloquy.\u00a0 In stanzas VII, VIII, and IX, we hear Penelope\u2019s voice throughout. In stanza X, the scene and the soliloquy merge.<\/p>\n

At the end of this document, I offer some notes on the background to each part. \u00a0Readers may wish to review these notes briefly before reading the poem itself.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0<\/u><\/p>\n

Icarius\u2019s Daughter<\/strong><\/p>\n

For Darine on her 60th<\/sup> birthday<\/em><\/p>\n

Proem\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Donne ch\u2019avete intelletto d\u2019amore:
\n<\/em>The women who have come to know love\u2019s meaning
\n<\/em>Were Dante\u2019s team. They helped him to ignore
\nSome things and do others. And so, Darine,
\nTo mark your birthday, a wise, loyal wife
\nInhabits this verse; famous, too, for coping
\nWith crises patiently. Dante\u2019s New Life
\n<\/em>Depends on the women\u2013artisans of hope.<\/p>\n

I<\/p>\n

Those powerful men, grim in their cross\u2013purposes,
\nView and review her. Their adulterate eyes
\nFix on a face and figure. Who she is,
\nWhere she will turn \u2013 this she can dramatize,
\nActing her chosen part. They imagine her theirs.
\nThey bond, amid the clattering cups and cheers.
\nA fold falls by her cheek. She climbs the stairs;
\nCollapses, an unwanted puppet, in tears.<\/p>\n

So many things are matters of the will:
\nThat put\u2013up job, night after night; forgiveness;
\nHow even today, each day, I\u2019m scheming still:
\nI shelve the toys of memory, to live.
\nMy glory was never the shine in others\u2019 eyes.
\nNor in my own. Mine is a greater prize.<\/p>\n

II<\/p>\n

There in the harbour, an apron of dressed stone.
\nOdysseus is tossing orders to his men.
\nThe urgency of doing has outgrown
\nAll the old doubts. \u201cThey may come not again
\nFrom Troy, these long\u2013oared ships.\u201d She could have died
\nRight on the spot. \u201cAwait me until the day
\nThe beard has come to that child\u2019s cheek.\u201d That child.
\n<\/em>\u201cThen marry well.\u201d And still he\u2019s looking away.<\/p>\n

Waiting for sleep, my thoughts were numerous
\nAs notes the nightingale produces, lonely
\nIn darkness. Laneways near my father\u2019s house
\nEntered my dreams. Each morning there was only
\nIthaca. The vague mist, the barren scree.
\nI too have wandered a weather\u2013beaten sea.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

III<\/p>\n

\u201cOthers besides Odysseus were lost in Troy.\u201d
\nAs if the memories his mother stored
\nFor all their sakes stood in his way. A boy
\nEssaying the sharp impatience of a lord.
\nAn instant destiny, to have a son.
\nAbyss of love and dread, all your life through.
\nThe nothing you would ever leave undone,
\nWeighing against the nothing you can do.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, you smile.\u00a0 One day, a meowing sends me
\nInto the yard. The trough. More wild contortions.
\nKnowing that seconds count, I move. A frenzy
\nOf mother\u2013love surrounds a half\u2013drowned morsel.
\nA cleavage in the clouds. A quick reaction
\nWrenching the wheel of nature off its axle.<\/p>\n

IV<\/p>\n

Hours given to her son were never wrong.
\nLike this, as a young girl, she would sit and spin,
\nDelving in the unwoven stuff of longing,
\nTrusting in life. Like this, as years close in,
\nAgeing, unkempt Laertes is content.
\nHis vines and orchards give him a new prime,
\nFar from the palace and old arguments.
\nA mind at play knows no hard edge of time.<\/p>\n

That his lost father would come back to us,
\nHere to our home, away from the world\u2019s harms,
\nIs what I was praying for, for Telemachus.
\nActing the hero in a goddess\u2019 arms,
\nOdysseus yearned for this hearth, mortal embers:
\nThat brush with human love a man remembers.<\/p>\n

V<\/p>\n

So deep is their embrace, it seems that Dawn,
\ncollusively, holds back. \u00a0\u201cOur wedding gifts,
\nI polished them last year until they shone,
\nWhich pleased the older servants.\u201d Her man shifts
\nTo face her. \u201cLook, we\u2019re winning. That\u2019s why
\nTomorrow I move inland to find support.
\nLater, we know it from a prophesy,
\nThere\u2019s one more journey. Of a trickier sort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daybreak. I stir myself in the chill air.
\nThe maids and I are getting his trunk ready,
\nHis practised voice is carrying everywhere.
\nI think of our immoveable carved bed.
\nHere will I lie. Wherever the wind blows,
\nIt starts from here, this life that I have chosen.<\/p>\n

VI<\/p>\n

\u201cThe junction of this world with the unreal
\nOr real world of life after death. The queen
\nAll empathy as I deliver my spiel.
\nAchilles, a shadow of what he once had been.
\nAjax, with whom I clashed in life, estranged,
\nUnwilling to accept a simple hug,
\nOnce, twice, three times. No gleam, even of danger,
\nFor thwarted Sisyphus. Eternal fug.\u201d<\/p>\n

Odysseus bounces back to his round of tasks.
\n\u201cAs long as the sun shines, I must be active.\u201d
\nWithin, like a sustaining loaf and flask,
\nI hear a softer voice. Your gifts are intact.
\n<\/em>Now take your way towards measurable good
\n<\/em>And testify to all you have understood.<\/em><\/p>\n

VII<\/p>\n

I often think back on my hard departure
\nFrom home and my poor father, Icarius.
\nOnce that idea of our living in Sparta
\nFailed, as I knew it had to, he would fuss
\nEndlessly over our going; day by day,
\nAnd almost hour by hour, he would alight
\nOn gifts or tokens for my going away.
\nIf candles could bewitch the encroaching night!<\/p>\n

Inevitable that Antino\u0113,
\nMy maid, should quit her outhouse in the palace,
\nNot for a man, but to accompany me.
\nThis was our law, which we termed \u201cnatural\u201d.
\nOrdained for servants by all\u2013seeing Zeus.
\nOr un\u2013thought out, impersonal, abusive?<\/p>\n

VIII<\/p>\n

Eumaeus would point out that they dispensed
\nWith everyday skills: building, ploughing, planting.
\nThis he compared to their indifference
\nTo children and the homes they took for granted.
\nThe suitors had been lifelong specialists
\nIn power and unearned income. Towards the poor,
\nTheir laws on property were like closed fists.
\nAll eyes were dazzled by the cult of war.<\/p>\n

Odysseus facing Scylla. Long acquainted
\nWith conflict, his one tactic was to fling
\nSpears even at ogres. Our wide planet painted
\nBy poets is hungry for a homecoming.
\nFacing time\u2019s monster, we unfriend our peers.
\nAngry and small and armoured, we wave spears.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

IX<\/p>\n

So much was there on that one perfect morning
\nIn Pylos. I remember the well\u2013built
\nCitadel empty. A session on the shore
\nOf the whole populace. The ample, gilt
\nWine\u2013cups. The welcome. Joy, to have our fill
\nOf sunshine and good food. In this equation,
\nPrayers to the gods were ineliminable.
\nThe way we shared our time was a libation;<\/p>\n

In the dark forest of a leaden Age,
\nA glade of peace. \u00a0No staked\u2013out paradigm
\nOr single rule explains events. To gauge
\nWhat\u2019s going on within some frame of time,
\nAnd where the meaning is gentle, to take part
\nTrustingly, equally, is the great art.<\/p>\n

X<\/p>\n

The walk to the old quay is getting too steep.
\nBesides, no ship will come now. She mutters,
\nDaylight is not forever, we fall asleep<\/em>.
\nIt\u2019s time I gave my fine possessions to others.
\nHelen went out and came back. Calibrated
\nPoorly, in some dark hour, inscrutable signs,
\nFor all it matters now. I wept and waited.
\nMy modesty in presence of the Divine.<\/em><\/p>\n

Beneath the landscape of our daily hurt,
\nAll broken down into particulars,
\nThere runs the constant river from which blurt
\nFountain\u2013like moments, juxtaposed like stars.
\nI am resolved, whatever the future brings,
\nTo thank God for my being and for his things.<\/p>\n

NOTES ON THE BACKGROUND TO \u201cICARIUS\u2019S DAUGHTER\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Title and images<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In Greek legend, Icarius was Penelope\u2019s father. They lived in Sparta around the time of the Trojan War.\u00a0 Penelope\u2019s relationship with her nymph\u2013mother is less well defined in the stories than her relationship with Icarius.<\/p>\n

Helen (\u201cHelen of Troy\u201d) was Penelope\u2019s first cousin. In Homer, Penelope is aware of the very different trajectories of her life and Helen\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The first image (title) of Penelope is a painting by Domenico Beccafumi from c. 1514. Penelope contemplates her loom, as if to invite reflection on her character and capabilities. For nearly thirty years, Beccafiumi directed work on the pavement of the cathedral in Siena.<\/p>\n

The second image is another early 16th<\/sup> century painting from Siena, Pinturicchio\u2019s work of 1509 known as \u201cThe Return of Odysseus.\u201d We see Penelope, the returning Odysseus and the displaced Suitors. As in Beccafiumi\u2019s painting, Penelope\u2019s use of the loom is a key to understanding her character. On the cathedral pavement, Pinturicchio\u2019s representation of two Greek philosophers at the summit of the \u201cMountain of Wisdom\u201d is a significant statement about the relationship between Christianity and classical culture..\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Proem<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A proem (Greek: pro\u2013oimion<\/em>) is the introduction to a song.<\/p>\n

Donne che avete intelletto d\u2019amore <\/em>(which I translate in line 2 as \u201cwomen who have come to know love\u2019s meaning\u201d) is a line from one of the poems woven into Dante\u2019s short prose work Vita Nuova<\/em> (\u201cNew Life\u201d). The Vita Nuova<\/em> is quasi\u2013autobiographical. Dante comes to accept that his love for Beatrice will never lead to a relationship or to marriage. Instead, Dante is drawn, through Beatrice, towards a vision of human life in the round. Dante the troubadour becomes the philosophical poet of the Divina Commedia<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The \u201cwise, loyal wife\u201d referred to here is, of course, Penelope.<\/p>\n

Stanza I<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A fold falls by her cheek<\/em>: \u201cthe daughter of Icarius, wise Penelope\u201d makes her first appearance in the Odyssey (1. 329) when she descends from her upstairs room to face the suitors. With two maids in attendance, she takes her stand by a pillar, drawing a fold of her headscarf across her face. Finally, she returns to her room and collapses in tears (\u201cshe wept for Odysseus, her beloved husband \u2026\u201d). As we move with Penelope to the bed chamber, Homer notes the continuing noise from below, from the men who wanted to sleep with her (1. 365).\u00a0<\/u><\/p>\n

Stanza II\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Await me until the day \u2026:\u00a0 <\/em>these eight lines are based on a flashback (18. 259) in which Penelope describes the circumstances of Odysseus\u2019s departure many years before.\u00a0 In the sestet, the image of the suffering nightingale is borrowed from Homer (19. 518).<\/p>\n

The urgency of doing has outgrown \/ All the old doubts. <\/em>One tradition tells us that Odysseus initially tried to avoid joining the expedition to Troy. In the Iliad<\/em>, the Greeks\u2019 motives for fighting are ambivalent. This is brought out early in the poem when Thersites accuses the leaders of the expedition of being interested mainly in booty. There are misgivings on the Trojan side as well, centred on the never fully tested possibility of negotiating an end to the siege.<\/p>\n

Stanza III<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Others besides Odysseus \u2026<\/em>: Telemachus rebukes his mother in this way in the first scene in which we see them together (1. 354). Telemachus\u2019s coming\u2013of\u2013age (and growing assertiveness) is an important theme in the Odyssey. In this stanza, the \u201cscene from life\u201d occupies only four lines. The remaining ten lines of the stanza are devoted to Penelope\u2019s memories and reflections.<\/p>\n

Stanza IV<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The first eight lines picture three forms of contemplative or creative activity. The \u201cyoung Penelope,\u201d imagined in line 2, is based on the portrait of the princess Nausicaa in Odyssey, Book 6. The determined gardening of Laertes, Odysseus\u2019s widowed father, is described in most detail in the last book of the Odyssey (24. 226).<\/p>\n

We know from the Odyssey<\/em> (23.333) that Odysseus spoke to Penelope about Calypso.\u00a0 At the beginning of the Odyssey<\/em>, we find Odysseus entrapped by Calypso<\/a><\/span>, a beautiful goddess, on her remote island.\u00a0 So far from taking advantage of Calypso\u2019s promises, Odysseus longs to see again \u201ceven the threads of smoke rising from the homesteads of his own country\u201d (1. 58).<\/p>\n

Stanza V<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Dawn,\/ Collusively, holds back: <\/em>in Homer, the surreal holding back of \u201crosy-fingered dawn\u201d by the goddess Athene prolongs the great recognition scene in which Odysseus and Penelope fall into one another\u2019s arms (23. 239). Odysseus almost immediately starts to talk about his future plans. These include a mysterious journey he must undertake before his old age. We first learn of this additional tasking of the hero in Book 11 when Odysseus meets the prophet Teiresias at the edge of the underworld.<\/p>\n

Our immoveable carved bed<\/em>: Odysseus\u2019 and Penelope\u2019s carved bed was immoveable because it had been constructed (by Odysseus himself) around a living olive tree (23. 190).<\/p>\n

Stanza VI<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The queen\/ All empathy as I deliver my spiel:\u00a0 <\/em>the queen is Queen Arete of the Phaeacians. Odysseus is reliving for Penelope the presentation he had made at the Phaeacian court. The pinch of salt implied in the word \u201cspiel\u201d is already there, I feel, in Homer.<\/p>\n

The junction of this world with the unreal\/Or real world of life after death: <\/em>as a prelude to making his way home and overthrowing the corrupt order that has developed in Ithaca in his absence, Odysseus is obliged to travel to the edge of the known world to a place where it is possible to meet with the souls of the dead. These encounters seem to me to shape the \u201cexistential\u201d context of the whole story.\u00a0 There is life after death. The gods are concerned with justice. On the other hand, life in the \u201cother world\u201d is much inferior to life in this world.\u00a0 What happens after death is difficult to understand, interpret, or rely on. This sense of the inaccessibility of ultimate truth is reinforced by Homer\u2019s technique. Odysseus\u2019s experiences of the \u201cbeyond\u201d or near \u201cbeyond\u201d are narrated not by the inspired poet (\u201cTell me, Muse \u2026\u201d) but indirectly by Odysseus himself as a character in the poem.<\/p>\n

Like a sustaining loaf and flask: <\/em>when the prophet Elijah loses confidence in himself he awakes to find a loaf and a flask at his side. A voice instructs him to resume his work. In the Odyssey, a divine influence can help us get through what might otherwise be too hard (cf. the daim\u014dn<\/em> or spirit in 3.27). The sestet in the stanza reflects Penelope\u2019s inner thoughts on hearing Odysseus talk about God.<\/p>\n

Stanza VII\u00a0 <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In this stanza and stanzas VIII and IX, there is no observed event or scene from the Odyssey that triggers Penelope\u2019s meditation. We hear her own voice throughout.<\/p>\n

That idea of our living in Sparta:<\/em> in the Greek literary tradition, Icarius was heartbroken that Penelope was leaving Sparta. However, his plan to persuade Odysseus to set up home in Sparta was unrealistic. Odysseus was an ambitious king whose base was in Ithaca.<\/p>\n

Antino\u0113: <\/em>\u00a0Antino\u0113 is one of several slaves mentioned by name in the Odyssey.\u00a0 Eurycleia, Odysseus\u2019s old nurse, and Eumaeus, the swineherd, were born in freedom. They are victims of raids (like St. Patrick at a later period) and of the slave\u2013trade. Laertes never exercises his prerogative, as master, to sleep with Eurycleia when she is a young woman (1.433). Eumaeus is cared for by Odysseus almost as if he were his own child (14.140). Neither Eurycleia nor Eumaeus fits the profile of the \u201cnatural slave,\u201d whose limitations and unavoidable dependence on others supposedly justify the institution of slavery.<\/p>\n

Eumaeus makes a couple of comments that are significant in this context. In book 17, he states that \u201call\u2013seeing Zeus takes half the virtue out of a man on the day when he becomes a slave\u201d (17.322) \u2013 in other words, what might be thought of as poor or dependent behaviour in a slave is shaped by the harsh treatment he has received. Eumaeus also states (13.59) that \u201cit is the dik\u0113 <\/em>of a serf to live in fear.\u201d Dik\u0113 <\/em>appears to mean something like \u201clot in life\u201d or \u201cplace in nature.\u201d Homer engages with the institution of slavery and understands the perspective of slaves, serfs, and the abject poor (pt\u014dchoi<\/em>, a word that recurs in the Sermon on the Mount).<\/p>\n

The Odyssey provides a solid background, I would argue, to the last three lines I give Penelope in this stanza, including line 12: \u201cThis was our law, which we termed \u2018natural\u2019.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Stanza VIII<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

They dispensed\/ With everyday skills: <\/em>this phrase is based on a conversation in Book 14 of the Odyssey between Eumaeus and Odysseus. Posing as a stranger (the scene is marked by dramatic irony), Odysseus describes a certain type of privileged person (male) who despises the skills and virtues necessary to create a good home. The central word is oik\u014dpheli\u0113<\/em> (14.222), derived from two words meaning \u201chousehold\u201d and \u201chelp\u201d. In Homer, perhaps the most attractive feature of Odysseus\u2019s elusive personality is his mastery of all kinds of skills such as carpentry, agriculture, seafaring, and even public performance. In this, he is very different from the elite warriors of the Iliad, who do no work other than fighting. In lines 1 \u2013 4 of the stanza, I imagine Eumaeus drawing on his conversation with the disguised Odysseus in a subsequent discussion with Penelope about the suitors.<\/p>\n

Odysseus facing Scylla:<\/em> in Book 12 of the Odyssey, Odysseus must sail past the whirlpool Charybdis and the monster Scylla. Scylla uses her six heads to seize six men (or given time, twice six) off every passing ship; she is violence personified, her mother\u2019s name, Cratais, suggesting \u201cforce\u201d. \u00a0In common with some other dangers faced by Odysseus on his journey (the Sirens, the Cyclops), Scylla and Charybdis cannot be faced down by organised military strength. Circe is explicit in her advice to Odysseus: deeds of war\u00a0 (polem\u0113ia erga<\/em>) will achieve nothing against Scylla (12. 116). Odysseus disregards this warning. He puts on full armour, grabs two spears, and stands on the forecastle deck as the ship sails between the whirlpool and the monster. Acting according to the instincts of a warrior, Odysseus is powerless. Scylla seizes and gobbles up six of his comrades.<\/p>\n

We unfriend our peers. <\/em>\u00a0Odysseus fails to forewarn his comrades about Scylla (12.223). \u00a0His guile has a purpose, to ensure that his men keep rowing and are not distracted by fear. Perhaps the posturing on deck with the spears is intended to serve a similar psychological purpose.<\/p>\n

Stanza IX<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This stanza draws on two religious ceremonies in Pylos described in Book 3 of the Odyssey. The first takes place on a beach in the early morning and involves all or most of the citizens of several towns. (Did this inspire Keats? What little town by river or seashore \u2026<\/em>) The second ceremony, inside the palace, includes Nestor\u2019s daughters and his sons\u2019 wives. Women are not mentioned as being present in Homer\u2019s account of the liturgy by the seashore. However, they are so obviously part of the second liturgy that I find it reasonable for the Penelope of my poem to recollect a ceremony by the sea. My account is intended to carry a small echo of the miracle of the loaves and fishes.<\/p>\n

A leaden Age. <\/em>In Hesiod, phases of history are identified, symbolically, with reference to metals. The Golden Age is the\u00a0 ideal.<\/p>\n

Stanza X<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In the final stanza, I take one last look at Penelope \u201cfrom outside,\u201d picturing her in old age, probably widowed, as she takes her regular walk to the pier in the bay from which Odysseus set out for Troy so many years before.<\/p>\n

In some dark hour: <\/em>\u00a0for Penelope, Troy is the \u201cunmentionable place.\u201d Nevertheless, Penelope\u2019s unjudgmental and even kindly attitude to Helen is true to Homer (23.218).<\/p>\n

Modesty in presence of the Divine: <\/em>according to a later author (Pausanias), Icarius, on Penelope\u2019s leaving home, raised a shrine to Aid\u014ds<\/em> in her honour. Aid\u014ds<\/em> means \u201cshame\u201d or \u201cmodesty\u201d. It refers to the disposition in a human person to respect the laws of God.<\/p>\n

Constant river<\/em>: the image of a \u201cconstant river\u201d surfacing here and there is inspired by the Greek belief that the fountain Arethusa in Syracuse sprang from an underground river originating in Arcadia in the Peloponnese.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introductory Note \u201cIcarius\u2019s Daughter\u201d celebrates Penelope, Odysseus\u2019s wife and heroine of Homer\u2019s Odyssey. In the Odyssey, two narratives are woven together by means of changes of scene and frequent flashbacks. In the first strand of the plot, Odysseus has many dire adventures as he makes his way home to Ithaca from the siege of Troy. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":282,"featured_media":12526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[2220,2538,4289,5327,7082,7083,7084,7085,7193,7197,7260,7305,7341,9205],"class_list":["post-12525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","tag-daughter","tag-domenico-beccafumi","tag-icariuss","tag-laertes","tag-penelope","tag-penelope-in-poetry","tag-penelope-in-the-odyssey","tag-penelope-wife-of-odysseus","tag-philip-mcdonagh-cassandra-voices","tag-philip-mcdonagh-penelope","tag-pinturicchio","tag-poem-about-penelope","tag-poetry","tag-the-odyssey-in-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/282"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}