The tale is simple enough : but there is some evidence that even it has undergone a process of gradual development and reconstruction. It would seem that in one of the very early versions, Odysseus was the son of Sisyphus, who belongs to the Master Thief cycle ; and that his affiliation to Laertes was a later development of the myth. Odysseus marries Penelope, the daughter of Icarius of Sparta ; and she by one form of the legend was, like so many children of the folk-tales, exposed when a child and fed by the sea-birds, whence by a later folk-etymology her name was said to be derived. Another Saga, again, told how Odysseus won her as his bride in a foot-race contest, an incident which appears later on in the Homeric story. She, while her son Telemachus was still an infant, was left by Odysseus, who is said to have unwillingly joined the expedition to Troy. Some time before his return, after an absence of twenty years, Penelope was beset by a crowd of insolent Suitors, who insisted that she should marry one of their number, occupied the palace, consumed the flocks and herds, and intrigued with the maid-servants of the absent prince. Penelope for a time evades their unwelcome proposals by making a web to serve as a shroud for the aged hero Laertes ; this she unravels every night. The Suitors discover the trick and renew their wooing. Telemachus, then a youth, sets out to seek his father, and the Suitors contrive an ambush to destroy him, which he escapes by the aid of the gods. Finally, Odysseus returns, and, assisted by his son and some faithful dependants, wreaks an ample vengeance on the insolent Suitors, and is restored to his faithful wife.[1]
Such is a bald summary of this entrancing Saga. A little consideration will show that it swarms with difficulties. To understand it we must, I think, try to answer the following questions : — What is the position of Laertes, and how did
- ↑ A curious variant occurs in the Mantinean tradition that Odysseus turned Penelope out of doors because she brought danglers about the house. Pausanias, viii., 12, 3.
