The Penelopiad

Gods, oracles, and the dead are constantly being misheard or misinterpreted. Penelope explains that, when the dead try and communicate with the living, she “can’t make [herself] understood, not in your world, the world of bodies, of tongues and fingers…those of you who may catch the odd whisper, the odd squeak, so easily mistake my words for breezes rustling the dry reeds, for bats at twilight, for bad dreams” (4). She assumes her own father misheard the prophecy regarding his own death, or else the oracle herself did, as “the gods often mumble” (8). The Suitors declare that the prophecy of Odysseus’s return must have been misinterpreted, and even Penelope began to doubt.

Penelope frequently uses her veil to disguise her true feelings and to shield her from her surroundings. During the contest for her hand, she doesn’t look directly at the contestants, but rather peeks from behind her veil, keeping her from “shamelessly” staring at the men, but also enabling her to stay separated, at a distance. She uses the veil once again to hide her laughter at the question of whether she’d like to stay with her would-be murderer father, an act that is taken as a modest inability to articulate her desire for her husband.