Essay On Penelope's Relationship In The Odyssey

The ultimate goal in the Homeric world is homophrosyne, a common knowledge that occurs in a marriage between two dignified people. The oneness between husband and wife is more than love, it functions to bring family, friends, and communities together to feast and drink and sacrifice to the gods. In Book 18, lines 295-297, Penelope laments the fact that she will have to defile her unity with Odysseus by marrying one of the suitors. Likemindedness between Odysseus and Penelope is at the center of the poem, a key notion, one of the things that delineates them as human. For Odysseus to truly complete his homecoming journey, he will have to reconnect with Penelope and restore the conventional idea of oneness. Penelope realizes that her connection …show more content…
Their minds seem to always be in the same place; thinking of one another, mourning the others absence, concerned with Odysseus’ return home. Their thoughts parallel each other’s throughout the entire epic. This great couple may not be partaking in the customary feasting and sacrificing that brings husband and wife and friends together, but they’re still displaying their love and likemindedness. They transform the idea of oneness into something else entirely. Odysseus and Penelope don’t just throw a bunch of parties, they share their sorrow and grief and most importantly, their cunning. Odysseus has displayed his cunning in battle at Troy and on his long, forsaken journey. Penelope has displayed hers by extracting gifts from the suitors and tricking them by pretending to weave. They truly do share one mind, always acting in perfect harmony. The purpose of Odysseus homecoming is an attempt to achieve this time-honored congruity, it’s why he goes through great pains to return to Penelope’s mortal love. In The Odyssey the ideas of nostos and homophrosyne are inseparably connected, and Odysseus’s homecoming will not be truly complete until he has achieved unconditional oneness with Penelope