Odysseus & Penelope: Enduring Love

Love suffereth long.beareth all things, believeth all things,

hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth.
1 Corinthians 3:4, 7-8 (ASV)

And then he spoke of a girl of surpassing beauty and faithfulness.

I can only assume he meant you.
The Princess Bride

By Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
One of my favorite stories of all time is one of the oldest stories of all time. It also
happens to be one of the best love stories.

They call it the Odyssey the story of the Greek hero Odysseus, written about 3,000
years ago by a man named Homer; but tales of the Greek hero had been passed around
by word of mouth for many, many years before that.
Odysseus was a king, a soldier, a genius, and easily the most beloved character in all of
Greek history. But he is remembered first and foremost as a father and husband
because the Odyssey is his struggle to return to the home and family he was forced to
leave behind.
Long story short: Odysseus is called to fight in a war that lasts 10 years, and then takes
another 10 years on top of that to get home, making it 20 years round-trip. All that
time, his beloved wife Penelope waits for her husbands return a return which never
seems to come for those 2 very long decades.
Teaser: theres a happy ending to this story, which is one reason why it is so beloved.
But let me tell you a bit about Odysseus and Penelopes story, and why I love them so
much.
Boy Meets Girl
When Odysseus was a young king (in the land of Greece), he was called to a council of
all the Greek kings and leaders. Their mission: to find the right match for the gorgeous
and very eligible princess Helen. She was a beauty unparalleled in her day and quite
rich with powerful political connections, so all the men of the land were crawling over
one another to marry her.

But not Odysseus. When he arrived, his eyes had settled upon another Penelope, Helens cousin.
So while all the other kings are literally beating each other to pieces and threatening war over
Helens hand, Odysseus had a word with Penelopes uncle over the matter of marrying her. But the
uncle was a shrewd man he wouldnt give permission for nothing, so Odysseus made a deal.

I will get the other Greek lords to stop fighting and agree peacefully on the right match for Helen if
you will grant me Penelopes hand, he said. The uncle agreed.

So Odysseus made a pact with the Greek Kings We must all agree to defend the man who
marries Helen, that way we may all avoid a civil war. I personally have no wish to marry Helen, so I
will be first to make the oath to protect he who marries her. Odysseus was no one to trifle with, as
they all knew, so the Greeks assented. Menelaus drew the lot and married Helen. Odysseus got
Penelope. Everyone went home happy (or not), and that was that.

A couple of years later, Odysseus and Penelope are happily married and have a newborn son.
Everything is great!
War:
What is It Good For?
Until some Trojan jerk named Paris abducts/woos Helen onto his boat and takes her back to Troy.
Her husband Menelaus gets mad, declares war on Troy, and starts calling on all those kings who
promised to protect him.

Except Odysseus really, really doesnt want to go to war. Why should he? The Trojans have never
done anything to him. If Menelaus cant keep a hold on his own wife, why should that concern him?
Besides, he has a kingdom, a loving wife, and a newborn baby to look after.

So he tries to weasel out of his obligation by pretending to be crazy. The envoys from the king arrive,
and Penelope apologizes that her husband is indisposed having suffered a mental breakdown. She
provides proof of his madness by pointing out that Odysseus is sowing salt in the fields (thus
rendering the rich farmland sterile. Only a madman would do that).

But the farce is put to a quick end when one of Menelaus envoys puts Odysseus infant son in the
path of the plow. A madman would continue on, not recognizing his child, but Odysseus stops his
progress. The jig is up. And so he is forced to bid his wife and young son farewell, muster the troops,
and head east to the Trojan war.
 By John Rush
The Scenic Route
Unfortunately the war drags on ad infinitum an entire decade is spent fighting the Trojan enemy,
the Greek boats parked outside the city walls.
It only FINALLY comes to an end when Odysseus, in one of his famous tricks, comes up with the
idea of the Trojan horse: build a giant horse, hide a giant army inside, let the Trojans take it inside
their city and WHAMOO you got yourself a sacked city!

The plan works, Troy falls, and Odysseus is the hero of the day. Game over time to go home.

But as he sets out for home, he encounters what I have heard one reader call the worst traffic
jam in human history.

How it should have happened.And Odysseus actual route

Only a week or so after embarking, Odysseus lets his hubris get away from him and decides its a
good idea to talk smack to Poseidon. Bad life choice for a sailor. Now the sea god has his name
blacklisted, and as far as he is concerned, Odysseus return home is postponed indefinitely.
All the days he would sit upon the rocks, at the seaside, breaking his heart in tears and
lamentation and sorrow as weeping tears he looked out over the barren water (V.156-
158)

The Greek hero hops his way across the whole Mediterranean, reaching the shore of nearly every
land except his own. Homesick, he keeps pushing his crew to get back to Ithaca. But somehow, he
just keeps getting further and further away. He sees all that the marvels the world has to offer and
then after having a bad run-in with a dozen or so monsters, Odysseus loses his crew, loses his ship,
and loses his way. 10 years come and go and Odysseus languishes, trapped on a literally god-
forsaken island. And he pines, unable to stop thinking of home and of his wife.

Study of Athena and Odysseus by John Rush

Luckily, Odysseus does have one friend on Olympus the Greek goddess of wisdom Athena.
Eventually she manages to persuade Poseidon to stop picking on the poor man. A messenger is
dispatched, and they get Odysseus off that spit of land and back home to Ithaca.
Except its been 20 years since he left, and Odysseus kingdom is a very different place.

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch

For 10 years or so, Penelope waited patiently for the end of the war and the inevitable return of her
husband. Then, at the end of those 10 years, the Greek ships start to return from Troy. But Odysseus
is not among them.

More years pass still no sign of Odysseus. Penelope looks everyday to the shores, but he never
comes. Eventually, everyone assumes he is dead. But not Penelope and her son. They know hes
alive, somewhere, and so they continue to wait. Penelope will not give up on her love.

She sees him, but hardly reacts. The gods have played tricks on her before, and she is a canny
woman. She has no idea if the man standing before her is a vision or another man in disguise. He
certainly looks real.

Odysseus of course is a little put off by the lack of response.

Strange woman!What other wife could have a spirit so unbending? Holding back
from her husband, home at last for her after bearing twenty years of brutal struggle.
(Odysseus, Book 23, Line 186-190)

And then he commands the maidservant to make him a separate bed to sleep alone.

And with that Penelope sees her chance to test Odysseuss identity.

You see, back when he was a young king, Odysseus had built his bedroom around a great,
magnificent olive tree that grew in his palace. He built the grand room to opulent perfection, then
lopped off the very top of the tree, smoothed the trunk out and made it into one of the bedposts of his
bed. This was the bed literally rooted to the ground. It was their special secret no one but a single
maidservant knew of it.

And now Penelope was going to test Odysseus by baiting him with it. Knowing full well the bed cant
move, she tells the maidservant to carry the royal bed into another chamber for him to sleep on.

Odysseus freaks out.

Woman your words, they cut me to the core! Who could move my bed? Impossible
task.I know, I built it myself. (Odyssey, XXIII, Lines 205-206, 213)
Then, describing the bed in detail and why it cant be budged and catching on to his wifes shrewd
trick, Odysseus says,

Theres our secret sign, I tell you, our life story! (Odyssey, XXIII, Lines 226-227)

And with the proof of their secret, Penelope knows that it truly is him, the man she waited 20 years to
see again. She bursts into tears, throws her arms around him and kisses him, explaining why she
was reserved. And he knows her sincerity.

The Moral of the Story: Love & Loyalty

Whats so remarkable to me about Penelope and Odysseus love story is their perseverance despite
all odds. Sure, Odysseus gets plenty sidetracked, but his end goal is always to get back home to
Penelope. He never even for a moment forgets his love for her. In fact, his love for Penelope is the
one thing that keeps him going when all other matters seem darkest.

As for Penelope well, I think its no secret that shes the real hero of the story. She gives up 20
years of her life to wait for the man she loves. She could have cut her losses, remarried, had more
kids no one would have blamed her. But she felt in her bones that Odysseus would one day return.
It wasnt a guarantee. She could never really know for certain. And everyone else already believed
he was dead. But Penelope had decided long before she would be there for him, no matter how long,
no matter the consequence. And so she waited.

A wise man once said that the crowning

characteristic of love is always loyalty. Thats why I love Penelope and Odysseus so much theirs
was a love that endured, that bound them together, no matter how much time passed, no matter how
much water under the bridge.
Thats why they get the happy ending. Thats why when they finally embraced one another after two
decades being apart, all the time lost was just like a day for all it mattered.

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enduring-love/