Penelope

The name Penelope is borne by a character in Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey composed around the 8th century B.C. She is the wife of the protagonist, Odysseus, king of Ithaca, who must leave Penelope shortly after she gives birth to their son Telemachus to go fight in the Trojan War. After ten years of battle, the Greeks sack Troy, but Odysseus does not immediately return to Ithaca. Unbeknownst to everyone, Odysseus is trapped on an island for another 10 years, held hostage by a beautiful nymph Calypso who has fallen in love with the mighty hero. Back in Ithaca, Penelope spends all of her time fending off a bevy of unsavory suitors determined to take Odysseus’ place. As the years roll on, Penelope finds it increasingly difficult to deflect these odious men. She tells the suitors she must first weave a burial shroud for Odysseus’ elderly father, Laertes; once she is finished she promises to pick a suitor. Each day she weaves the cloth and each night she unravels a part of her day’s work in order to delay the unthinkable. Now Penelope has no way of knowing where Odysseus is, or if he’s even alive. But she stays firm in her faithfulness and fidelity. Her fortitude and her cunning in the face of such pressure is a match for her husband’s. Eventually, and after some assistance from various gods, Odysseus returns home disguised as a beggar, proves his identity to Penelope through his skill with the bow and arrow, and destroys all the suitors and, presumably, lives happily ever after with the lovely Penelope. So goes the story of Penelope. The etymology of her name is somewhat debated. Her name comes from the Greek. Pēnelopē is thought to combine “pēnē” which means ‘weft, a piece of woven cloth’ with the word “lepō” meaning ‘peel’ – which makes sense in describing Penelope’s ruse of weaving the shroud cloth only to undo it at night or “peel” part of it off. Alternately, the name is thought to come from “pēnelōps” which is the name of a particular type of duck. Obviously, the former meaning makes more sense. This is an ancient name, one of the fewer derived from mythology (rather than the majority which are derived from the Bible). The name first shows up in England in the 16th century.