Goddesses in the Dust: Ithaka and Me, the Reverse Penelope

Unearthing the divine feminine, one archetype at a time...

Northern Ithaka, view of a beach while reading

Legend has it that Penelope waited twenty years for her husband, Odysseus, to return to Ithaka from the Trojan War.

For the past twenty plus years, I have been pulling a reverse Penelope. In fact, I felt for many years I identified more with Odysseus than I ever have with Penelope.

Or have I? 

I guess I can relate to both - after all, themes of longing for one's homeland are not privy to just heroic male characters and not all women relate to Penelope's long-suffering character. 

In her book, The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood reverses the theme, telling the story of The Odyssey through the eyes of Penelope. Misunderstood and frustrated with a millennia old narrative as the faithful and patient wife, Penelope offers a retelling of the legendary myth from her point of view. She has her own opinions about her husband's absence and exploits as well as the unfair treatment and murder of her handmaidens by Odysseus upon his return. 

I have lived my own hybrid take on The Odyssey, and can relate to the emotions of both characters. As an archaeologist who began working on Ithaka after graduate school, I have a deep history with the island. Like Odysseus, I've longed to (and have) returned over the past two decades, while cultivating the patience of Penelope during the times I could not return.

In the intervening years 

the island has changed....

and so..... 

have I.....

But no matter how old I grow, I will always be that same girl, standing at the back of the ship, watching the island retreat from my view...

part Odysseus 

 and part - eternally - a reverse Penelope.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind....

Constantine Cavafy