Penelope.
     The daughter of Icarius of Sparta, Penelope was wooed by Odysseus. Her father wished her to remain with him, but she chose to marry and went with Odysseus to his home in Ithaca. She bore him a son, Telemachus.
     During the ten years Odysseus fought in the Trojan War, and for the additional ten years he took to make his way home to Ithaca, Penelope remained faithful to him. However, in his absence, his court was overrun by a persistent band of suitors, who unsuccessfully sought to marry Penelope while wasting Odysseus’s fortune. Seeking to delay a decision, Penelope refused to choose a new husband until she had completed a burial shroud for her father-in-law, Laertes. By day she sat and wove at her loom, and by night she undid each day’s work, attempting to forestall the dreaded day. The term “Penelope’s web” has become proverbial for anything perpetually in the doing but never done.
     Eventually, Penelope’s deception was revealed by a maid and she was forced to declare her choice of a husband. She announced that she would marry the suitor who could string Odysseus’s bow and shoot an arrow through the eyes of twelve axes. None of the suitors could perform the feat, but a beggar at the court came forward and handled the bow without difficulty. He revealed himself as the long-lost Odysseus, returning in disguise to discover what evils had befallen his household during his travels. He and Telemachus killed all the suitors, and Odysseus convinced Penelope of his identity by describing the construction of their marriage bed.
     According to a different tradition, Penelope was said to have been the mother of Pan by the god Hermes.

See also Odysseus, General List, Return; Telemachus.