3-080-540 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Penelope and the Suitors, 1911-1912. Penelope's legendary marital fidelity was recorded in Homer's epic poem, 'The Odyssey'. For many years, her husband Odysseus had been absent at the siege of Troy. Pressed to make a second marriage, she stalls for time, telling the crowds of suitors that they must wait until she has finished weaving a shroud for her father-in-law. During the day she works at her weaving and at night, still convinced that Odysseus will return, she undoes all her day's work.