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Weaving and Fiber Work
During the chapter entitled “An Anthropology Lecture,” the Twelve Maids give an explicit, symbolic reading of their own death and invite the reader to adopt it. In this reading, details of the Maids’ deaths as described in The Odyssey and reproduced in The Penelopiad carry symbolic meanings that, in aggregate, make them a metaphor for the overthrow of female-focused goddess cults by male-dominated, father-god-focused religion. The number of Maids plus Penelope (who the Maids see as the Priestess of this cult) equals thirteen, or the number of lunar months in a year. The Maids and Penelope, therefore, represent a cult of the moon goddess according to this reading, and the slaying of the Suitors stands for an annual ritual to renew their virginity. However, Odysseus’s arrival and his killing of the Maids and marriage to Penelope symbolize how male-centric religion hijacked the rituals of this female-focused religion and eventually eclipsed it. According to the Maids, there is archeological evidence for this same kind of religious upheaval in the ancient world.
There is a further complication to this symbol as well, however. Although the Maids themselves offer this reading, they also suggest it as a means to avoid facing the fact that they were real girls who suffered pain and violence. This symbolic reading of the Maids’ Deaths, then, may actually be a warning against symbolism of this kind—a condemnation of turning violence against women into an abstract concept divorced from real people’s live experiences.
The Maids’ Deaths Quotes in The Penelopiad
The The Penelopiad quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Maids’ Deaths . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 8
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Oh gods and oh prophets, please alter my life,
And let a young hero take me for his wife!
But no hero comes to me, early or late—
Hard work is my destiny, death is my fate!
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Chapter 19
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I then related a dream of mine. It concerned my flock of lovely white geese, geese of which I was very fond. I dreamt that they were happily pecking around the yard when a huge eagle with a crooked beak swooped down and killed them all, whereupon I wept and wept.
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Chapter 23
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‘Only twelve,’ she faltered. ‘The impertinent ones. The ones who’d been rude… They were notorious whores.’
‘The ones who’d been raped,’ I said. ‘The youngest. The most beautiful.’ My eyes and ears among the Suitors, I did not add. My helpers during the long nights of the shroud. My snow-white geese. My thrushes, my doves.
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Chapter 24
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No, Sir, we deny that this theory is merely unfounded feminist claptrap. We can understand your reluctance to have such things brought out into the open—rapes and murders are not pleasant subjects—but such overthrows most certainly took place all around the Mediterranean Sea, as excavations at prehistoric sites have demonstrated over and over.
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Point being that you don’t have to get too worked up about us, dear educated minds. You don’t have to think of us as real girls, real flesh and blood, real pain, real injustice. That might be too upsetting. Just discard the sordid part. Consider us pure symbol. We’re no more real than money.
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Chapter 26
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Your client’s times were not our times. Standards of behaviour were different then. It would be unfortunate if this regrettable but minor incident were allowed to stand as a blot on an otherwise exceedingly distinguished career. Also I do not wish to be guilty of an anachronism. Therefore I must dismiss the case.
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Get the entire The Penelopiad LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Maids’ Deaths Symbol Timeline in The Penelopiad
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Maids’ Deaths appears in The Penelopiad. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2: The Chorus Line: A Rope-Jumping Rhyme
...their hanging, dwelling on their feet twitching in the air and the injustice of their death. They accuse Odysseus of “scratching his itch” with many women, and assert that what they...
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...Maids say that they cleaned the blood of their dead lovers (the Suitors) before being hanged. They reiterate that their deaths were not fair and accuse Odysseus of taking pleasure in...
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Chapter 10: The Chorus Line: The Birth of Telemachus, An Idyll
...as they played together as children, they did not know that Telemachus would one day kill them . They wonder if they would have drowned him back then had they known. Since...
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Chapter 21: The Chorus Line: The Perils of Penelope, A Drama
...honor. She tells Eurycleia to tell him that the Maids are disloyal so he will kill them before they can talk. Eurycleia agrees. Penelope prepares herself to look like a model wife...
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Chapter 23: Odysseus and Telemachus Snuff the Maids
Odysseus then told Telemachus to hack the Maids up. However, Telemachus decided instead to hang the Maids from a ship’s rope. Then Telemachus and Odysseus hacked up a goatherd who had betrayed...
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Penelope corrected her, saying that Odysseus had hung the rape victims, the youngest, and the most beautiful Maids. Penelope did not reveal that...
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...if another explanation might be that Eurycleia knew of her Maids’ assignments and wanted to kill the Maids to maintain her privileged position with Odysseus. Penelope still has not been able to confront...
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Chapter 24: The Chorus Line: An Anthropology Lecture
...sex with the Suitors and then purification in their blood to renew their virginity. Their deaths, then, would be a willing self-sacrifice to satisfy Artemis. The Maids tie this reading of...
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...“High Priestess” Penelope. According to the Maids, all together this reading shows that the Maids’ deaths are a metaphor for the overthrow of a matriarchal cult of the moon by a...
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...contest that Penelope initiated would have become King for a year and then would be hanged and have his genitals torn off to ensure a good harvest. However, Odysseus did not...
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Chapter 25: Heart of Flint
...Penelope’s first-person narrative as she describes her feelings after the Suitors and the Maids were murdered. Penelope had pretended not to believe that it was Odysseus who had killed the Suitors,...
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Chapter 26: The Chorus Line: The Trial of Odysseus, as Videotaped by the Maids
...trial for Odysseus. The chapter opens with Odysseus’s defense attorney asserting Odysseus’s innocence in the murders of the Suitors and the Maids. The Attorney suggests that it was justified for Odysseus...
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...ropes around their necks, yell and cause a commotion in the courthouse, alleging that Odysseus hanged them as well. The judge says that this allegation is new, and asks to hear...
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The judge, unsatisfied, asks what they did to be hanged. The defense attorney states that they, the “best-looking” and “most beddable” Maids, had sex without...
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Chapter 27: Home Life in Hades
...him. In response, they only glide away with their feet twitching like they did in death, not touching the floor.
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Chapter 28: The Chorus Like: We’re Walking Behind You, A Love Song
...bed, laughed at his jokes, etc. They then comment on how righteous he felt after hanging them .
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...wherever he goes, tailing him and appearing accusatorily as corpses. They ask again why he murdered them, and then state that it was an “honour killing.” The Maids tease Odysseus, telling...
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