How had Atwood rewritten the ancient, fundamental Homer's Odyssey

How does Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad alter our view of Homer’s Odyssey, if at all?

The latter took me slowly, patiently through itself, but the former had engulfed me at once. In other words; yes, reading Atwood’s Penelopiad has changed my original understanding of Homer’s Odyssey.

It can be assumed that Atwood’s intention was to alter ‘how’ the world read The Odyssey and ‘how’ it perceived its hero, Odysseus. She “has retold a myth in a contemporary and memorable way,” primarily by giving the voice to his wife, Penelope. This switch in gender and station in life of the narration illustrates how these different genders see the world and how they themselves are viewed in it.

Both narratives are rich in content. Each of them tells about a certain character’s life journey, which has no smooth course but plenty of barriers, seeming to be everlasting. Towards that end, before anything else, it may be appreciated to see a brief summary of these texts, in order to bring the narratives back.

The Odyssey recounts a story of Odysseus, a Greek hero, who is travelling back from Troy to his homeland, Ithaca. During the course of his voyage, he is accompanied by his crew, whose members die buried in the deepest waters which they are surrounded by, one by one. They suffer from heavy seas, windstorms, hunger and loss; must confront captivity, treachery and fear. Their lives remain under the control of the immense anger of immortals, who seek to have them perish. Odysseus is coming home at last, alone, leaving his men in the hands of immortals.

The Penelopiad tells the identical story, although from a different point of view. It is Penelope, Odysseus’ wife, “speaking from beyond the grave as she tells her life story in the form of a confession, …, self-defence and self-justification.” Penelope speaks here about her life since childhood and its unceasing difficulties. Her narrative is often interrupted by voices of her twelve hanged maids, murdered by Odysseus in The Odyssey, “who haunt her narrative from the beginning to the end.” These women together relate the life beyond Odysseus’ heroism. The story that they tell is likely unknown to Odysseus.

Considering the aforesaid; The Penelopiad alters the way The Odyssey is perceived in multiple ways. Specifically, The Penelopiad changes the way the reader is taken through the story by changing the narrator, the position of genders, and the role of heroes.

Narrators

Literary works that tell a story naturally incorporate a narrator; someone whose voice leads the reader’s way throughout the book, someone whom the reader is listening to.

In the case of Homer’s Odyssey, the reader remains under the tutelage of Odysseus; “the man of twists and turns.” He spends a long period of his life across the deepest oceans and seas, to find a way home at last. He embodies a major voice of the book, casting a shadow upon the other living souls within the narrative. His life journey boastfully covers the pages of The Odyssey.

Throughout Atwood’s story, the reader is given a different narrator; the masculine voice of Odysseus is replaced by female voices. Penelope now stands as the main narrator and “the other narrative belongs to the silenced voices of the twelve maids, who have been haunting the pages of The Odyssey...” in Homer’s narrative.

Whereas women in Homer’s narrative are kept silent, Atwood is giving voice to the voiceless. She gives them a chance to independently lead the reader’s way throughout her narrative and tell the unknown; or more precisely, uncover this dark, yet a hidden side of Odysseus. Atwood’s use of the feminine voice to tell the story alters the idea that only men possess the permission to speak. The narrative then “shimmers with new meanings.” This change in narrators then changes what is viewed as important and relevant by the reader. It gives the reader a feminine view of the world.

Gender Status

Gender roles were constantly evolving and changing before women began to demand their importance in society to be recognized. But people in ancient Greece, where the story of Odysseus is happening, lived wholly under men’s law. In those days, men were leaders, heroes, warriors; whatever they desired to be. Whereas women were forced to behave as told, with no possible chance to wish for more. This pattern was reflected in Homer’s Odyssey.

To Odysseus was attributed this almost splendid character. He was a king, renowned far and wide. He governed the land of Ithaca where people lived happily, devoted to their king. He had a loving wife and a courageous son who was just like his father’s image; battler, protector, and faithful to his land to the last breath. Not much more could he wish to reach absolute perfection.

Women, however, were attached a quite different sort of character in Homer’s narrative. They were barely noticed throughout the story. Their voices were silenced. Their destiny consisted in keeping good and obedient company to men. They pretended to be happy to be favourable in the eyes of their king while weeping quietly when the men’s eyes averted from them.

Nevertheless, their sadness is drawing to the end. Atwood writes her Penelopiad during a time when women, in most parts of the world, are no longer under men’s dominance and so attain the equality of both genders. Masculinity is no longer the very centre of being. On the contrary, Atwood withdraws those women from underneath the men’s supremacy and elevates their position and voice. She thus compensates them for those long ages of silence. By this, she alters the approach to the inferiority of women, which used to be undeniable in the past. She gives them a story and a voice. They are no longer in the background. The story is about them now.

Heroism Roles

People may be heroes; in one’s eyes the greatest, strongest, even eternal beings. However, no two sets of eyes are identical, nor the minds bear the same thoughts.

Homer had decisively chosen a hero for his narrative; the invincible Odysseus, whose life abounded with adventures, with no day being the same. He took risks, overcame dangers and traps, defeated several enemies; each time achieving the absolute victory. He was admired, loved, and held in the highest regards by his own people. On the other hand, Penelope was portrayed as a minor character in his story. She stood as if in a different world then her husband, in a place far from that realm of heroes.

While the above may be true, it certainly does not last long. This realm of heroes is not occupied by Odysseus forever, for Atwood chooses Penelope to embody a heroine in her narrative. Atwood so alters this ideology of ancient Greece, where only men are worthy of appreciation and glory. She does her women the honour that has been denied to them till now. She makes them feel like a respectable part of society.

Homer had depicted Odysseus as an almost divine man, whose deeds were primarily good. Odysseus embodies the bright side of a heroic life. His dark side remains hidden.

Odysseus was portrayed by Homer as the infinite hero, whose life’s actions were predestined to be remembered for good. He has lived through terrible wars and fights, sufferings and pain, bad fortune and misery. Years were passing, and he was still captured by endless waters and horrifying creatures, longing for his homeland to be within the sight shortly. Ithaca, a land where his people dwelled, became a place so sorrowful after a loss of its sovereign. Odysseus’ most precious wife fell into deep grief and despair, calling for her husband’s arms to hold her at last. Once Odysseus found his way home, alone, since his crew had died out among those endless waters of oceans and seas; he was greeted and praised to the highest skies. Their mightiest king was home at last.

The reader’s mind now overflows with thoughts. Seeing how brave, admired, and longed for he is; how his wife does nothing but weeps endlessly with him so far away. How can anyone think wrong about such a person? Yes, he is no saint, may be even too far from it. But these circumstances he was under? Being on the open seas, in the middle of nowhere, for so long. When even the ugliest, wickedest creature then offers a shelter, feast, or even a warm embrace; who would refuse and lie down to sleep outside, where the anger of immortals is lurking still? Hardly anyone, and so does not Odysseus. Nevertheless, these thoughts are banished now. Odysseus returns home at last, from a voyage so long that no one hoped to catch a sight of him ever again. Ithacans rejoice, warmly are welcoming his king back home. The reader now finishes the book with a smile on his face, bearing this bright image of Odysseus in mind.

Atwood, however, brings a quite different image of Odysseus. This beautifully depicted character of Homer’s Odysseus falls away. He makes way for someone else who has plenty to say as well, perhaps even a lot more. The reader now learns of the struggle of women. ‘Penelope and her twelve hanged maids’ come forward in Atwood’s narrative, speaking to the reader from the underworld; “from the world of the dead to the world of the living.” They speak freely now; bound by no social convention which loses its significance among the dead. They may now purify themselves of those wicked lies that kept falling upon them when alive; reveal their real selves. After their own narrative is told, the reader may revise his view on the whole story.

Why has Atwood decided to ‘rewrite Homer’?

As mentioned before in the text, Atwood writes her Penelopiad from a woman’s point of view. Gender, and the experiences of the different genders, appear to be a predominant theme that Atwood is attempting to illustrate in her book. She undertakes a journey “to revisit an ancient and powerful tale,” and to reveal the realities of ordinary lives of women in those days. But why would anyone do such a thing? Reading and further studying of Homer’s narrative probably did not quite live up to Atwood’s expectations. Despite the ‘rich contents’ provided throughout the narrative; Atwood seeks more. “The story as told in The Odyssey doesn’t hold water: there are too many inconsistencies.” But what are these ‘inconsistencies’, or as Atwood herself calls them, ‘a few dark alleyways, …, that have always intrigued me’?

Homer’s original story was focused on men, a protagonist Odysseus in particular. Not surprisingly, if we considered the age when it was completed. In those times were men and women so distinct from each other; no equality between them in almost any respect. However, those historical conditions have evolved far beyond what they were like when Homer completed his narrative; and finally, women possessed their position in the society closer to men. Towards that end, Atwood wrote her Penelopiad in response to these developments; in the voice of women.

“Strong myths never die. Sometimes they die down, but they don’t die out. They double back in the dark, they re-embody themselves, they change costumes, they change the key. They speak in new languages, they take on other meanings.”

Why do women stand for a ‘mainstay’ of her narratives?

Atwood’s stories usually abound with women characters, oftentimes in positions of its narrators. It is rather probable that she has established a certain pattern of character; a submissive woman who languishes in the world where men possess all the power, a woman who is desirous to wreak vengeance on a race of men. She repeatedly uses this pattern in her stories to show the struggle that women have in society. To illustrate this, the voices of these women are frequently ignored, silenced. Oftentimes, women are not given their chance to speak until they die. “Many of Atwood’s female storytellers turn out to be disembodied voices.” They are trapped in the “state of bonelessness, liplessness, breastlessness,” when “speaking from beyond the grave.”

Atwood has been drawn into the world of myths ever since the start of her publishing career. She, thus, abounded with knowledge about the conditions of those ancient times. She was aware of how the women were treated and what was their place among men; they languished. Via her books, Atwood gave these women the privilege to speak, and so share their interminable troubles in order to relieve themselves.

Both texts narrate a story of a ‘struggle.’ Each of them has its own hero of this struggle. Homer presents his struggle as war and journey, choosing Odysseus as a hero. Atwood’s struggle originates in the life of women during that time period, having Penelope as a heroine. Penelope now tells her own story, in which she herself plays the main role. Homer would have never thought such a thing be possible. And that is what Atwood is trying to show.

Atwood wants the reader to perceive Penelope as the heroine. Whereas in Homer’s story Penelope languishes as the voiceless, by Atwood she is given her voice back. When her period of silence draws to its ending, she rises from underneath her husband’s glory and lays herself bare.

By ‘giving a voice to the voiceless,’ Atwood reveals the other side of the life in Homer’s narrative which has not been shown; the life of women. She casts light on those ‘dark alleyways’ which made the story uncomplete. She provides the reader with another perspective on the story which alters the previous one. The reader sees clearly through the whole story now, able to create his own opinion about it.