Penelope weaves

Being an explanation of the title of this blog.

Penelope was the wife of Odysseus. While the Odyssey was on and the King was away, possibly dead, Penelope held the Kingdom together. She was ( apparently) patient and faithful, maintaining that the King Odysseus would return eventually.

Her virtues of patience and faithfulness to her husband have been celebrated as an example to other wives. She started to weave a burial shroud for her stepfather when others insisted she should take another husband.

But she undid the weave each night, and refused to choose another suitor until the the shroud was finished. Penelope was clever and devious. She might not have even been strictly faithful, and perhaps her devotion to her absent husband was a way to use the authority of the King to keep her place as Queen and ruler.

So Penelope weaves, not just cloth but power and influence. Penelope makes policy, manipulates opinions, uses dirty tactics. When Odysseus returned she eased him back onto his throne with a contest designed to choose a new King. The contest favoured Odysseus, and he won and was revealed.