Saturday, February 28, 2009

An Ancient Gesture

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Penelope and the Suitors by John William Waterhouse (1912).

I thought, as I wiped my eyes on the corner of my apron:
Penelope did this too.
And more than once: you can't keep weaving all day
And undoing it all through the night;
Your arms get tired, and the back of your neck gets tight;
And along towards morning, when you think it will never be light,
And your husband has been gone, and you don't know where, for years.
Suddenly you burst into tears;
There is simply nothing else to do.

And I thought, as I wiped my eyes on the corner of my apron:
This is an ancient gesture, authentic, antique,
In the very best tradition, classic, Greek;
Ulysses did this too.
But only as a gesture,—a gesture which implied
To the assembled throng that he was much too moved to speak.
He learned it from Penelope...
Penelope, who really cried.

-Edna St. Vincent Millay


*Side note: In Homer's Odyssey, Penelope is the faithful wife of Odysseus, who keeps her suitors at bay in his long absence. She devised tricks to delay her suitors, one of which is to pretend to be weaving a burial shroud for Odysseus's elderly father Laertes and claiming that she will choose a suitor when she has finished. Every night for three years, she undoes part of the shroud, until some unfaithful maidens discover her trickery and reveal it to the suitors.

Ancient gestures. Fascinating, don't you think?

5 comments:

  1. I love all mythical stories. One of my favorite books is The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell, where he takes the reader on a journey on how myth is woven into our own life.

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  2. *Side note: In Homer's Odyssey, Penelope is the faithful wife of Odysseus, who keeps her suitors at bay in his long absence. She devised tricks to delay her suitors, one of which is to pretend to be weaving a burial shroud for Odysseus's elderly father Laertes and claiming that she will choose a suitor when she has finished. Every night for three years, she undoes part of the shroud, until some unfaithful maidens discover her trickery and reveal it to the suitors.

    girl that is fascinating!

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  3. Very interesting stuff! Andy is reading the Odyssey right now--I'll ask him about this!

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  4. That is fascinating. I enjoyed it very much. Thanks you for sharing. It isn't often that you find a post like this. Thank you again.

    I am visiting you from SITS. I'm a newbie and really enjoying it. So glad I have found your blog!

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  5. Hi ladies- Thanks for stoppig by! I'll have to check out that book, too. =)

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