We Had No Voice: Penelopes Maids in Margaret Atwoods The

Penelopiad
Margaret Atwoods The Penelopiad, a revisioning of the Odyssey, provides
authorial voices for
the characters of Penelope and the twelve serving aids who are strung up li!e
thrushes or pigeons at the
end of Odyssey ""# Penelope herself is the ain author of this te$t, narrating
her life in prose for fro
Hades# %he aids also address the audience fro the afterlife, in a series of
choral passages which are a
tri&ute to 'Atwood ()*+ the choral sections of ancient ,ree! draa# %he
contrast &etween the orderl-
prose of Penelope and the wildl- proiscuous generic te$tual variet- of the
aids graphicall- illustrates
the tension which Atwood creates &etween the istress of .d-sseuss house
and her slaves# Atwoods
rendering of the contrapuntal voices of the aids and Penelope in The
Penelopiad produces an e$tree
interpretation of the politics of gender, se$ and status in the household of
.d-sseus#
/n &oth Hoer and Atwood, Penelopes aids enact a se$ual &etra-al of the
household of
.d-sseus# /n the se$ual and status econo- of the Odyssey, %halann notes
that the oralit- of the free
and enslaved feales is utuall- dependent and e$clusive: in order for
Penelope to &e perceived as
innocent, a slave ust &e guilt- '%halann 0(+# /n Atwoods The Penelopiad,
however, the oral
polarit- is reversed: Penelope is guilt- and her aids are innocent# Atwoods
Penelope descri&es her
aids initial control over their own se$ualit-, re1ecting the situation in the
Odyssey '%halann 02+:
%he- were ever31owing fountains of trivial gossip: the- could coe and go
freel- in the palace, the-
could stud- the en fro all angles, the- could listen in on their conversations,
the- could laugh and 4o!e
with the as uch as the- pleased: no one cared who ight wor his wa- in
&etween their legs
'Atwood 02+# %his Penelope, however, e$erts her own control over her aids &-
herself stage3anaging
their riotous, o5ensive activities with the suitors 'Atwood (263(27+# Atwoods
aids are on a sp-ing
ission for Penelope which &ecoes fatal as a result of Penelopes sinister,
a&iguous negligence in
sharing her plot with 8ur-!leia 'Atwood ((9+# The Penelopiad iplies that
Penelopes &ehaviour is an act
of revenge for the aids fre:uentl- degrading speech towards Penelope, and
ost especiall-, for their
&etra-al of her tric! of the shroud# Atwoods Penelope, who un:uestiona&l-
recogni;es her returning
hus&and, ta!es her place alongside .d-sseus and %eleachus as the- all
fashion the noose around the
nec!s of the twelve girls#
Atwoods The Penelopiad paints a sharp picture of the woen who inha&it
.d-sseuss house
while he is a&sent# An- solidarit- &etween Penelope and the other woen of
her household, all her slaves
after the death of Anticleia, is a irage undercut &- env- and &etra-al#
Atwoods narrative, which to-s
suggestivel- with the aids as Penelopes sacri<cial victis, challenges us with
the <gure of a
urderous Penelope# =- giving voice to the slaughtered aids and Penelope,
Atwood forces us to
consider a to$ic i$ture of se$ and status which our te$t of the Odyssey
o&scures, or avoids, through its
focus on, and articulation of, the -th of .d-sseuss return#