PENELOPE

in Greek mythology, a daughter of Icarius of Sparta and the nymph Periboea and wife of the hero Odysseus. In the Odyssey is told the story of how, during her husband's long absence after the Trojan War, many chieftains of Ithaca and nearby islands became her suitors. To spare herself their importunities she insists that they wait until she has woven a shroud for Laertes, father of Odysseus. Every night for three years, until one of her maids revealed the secret, she unravels the piece that she had woven by day in order to avoid the day that she must give up hope for the return of her beloved husband and remarry. When at length Odysseus does return, she makes him prove his identity and finally accepts him. According to later writers, after the death of Odysseus, Penelope married Telegonus, son of Odysseus and the sorceress Circe.