Throughout The Odyssey-an epic by Homer-we learn of all the trials and tribulations King Odysseus faces as he fights to return home to his loving wife, Penelope, and growing son, Telemachus. While Odysseus is away, there are many young men attempting to lure in his wife, Penelope, and take over his kingdom. They plot to kill Prince Telemachus and King Odysseus if he ever returns to Ithaca. Once Odysseus returns home, he remains in disguise until he is certain it is safe for him to reveal his identity. He convinces Penelope to set up a contest for the suitors in which they try to string King Odysseus’s bow, which only he can string, and shot an arrow through twelve axe heads. After he wins the contest, he reveals his true identity to everyone. He and Telemachus plot to slaughter the suitors as well as the maids who fornicated with them. We hear Penelope’s view of the vicious murders in Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad. There are several similarities throughout the two, such as the events that take place as a whole, however there are several differences as well, such as Penelope’s actions and feelings regarding the murders. Upon reading both The Odyssey as well as The Penelopiad, we are given two very similar yet cautiously different portrayals of “the slaughter in the hall”. In book 22 of The Odyssey, Homer makes no mistake of beating around the bush about the gruesome attack. “…thundered out to all the suitors: / “Look-your crucial test is finished, now, at last! / But another target’s left that no one’s hit before- / we’ll see if I can
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Although the stories in both are the same, the way in which they are written and the depiction of different events is so different that it is like reading a completely different story
Although the stories in both are the same, the way in which they are written and the depiction of different events is so different that it is like reading a completely different story