![]() ![]() The Latin word “destino” means “that which is woven,” fixed with cords and threads, “bound to happen,” says Barbara G. The Moirai, Greek goddesses of fate, constantly spin the thread of life. ![]() John William Waterhouse, “Penelope Weaving” In the Odyssey, weaving is presented as a preoccupation of the goddess, notably of Circe and Calypso, also Athena, who was an accomplished weaver. There is pathos and glory in her character, which is very human, but it is weaving which puts her on par with the goddess. She is as cunning as Odysseus having developed a strategy to trick the suitors through weaving a burial shroud for Laertes, Odysseus’ father and undoing it at night to buy herself more time. She also guards the marital bed, which in the Odyssey is constructed upon a sturdy pillar, keeping all the suitors at bay and awaiting Odysseus, her husband and soul mate. “Down to our day, the feminine vessel character, originally of the cave, later of the house (the sense of being inside, of being sheltered, protected, and warmed in the house), has always borne a relation to the original containment of the womb.” ![]() She is the giver of shelter and protection: She accepts presents from her suitors to replenish Ithaca’s wealth. She tends the hearth, which is the centre of the house and the original altar. Also, we may say that her husband is getting in touch with his feminine, lunar side while she needs to develop her archetypal, solar/masculine side to restore harmony to her troubled kingdom.īut Penelope is also, and perhaps first and foremost, the ultimate woman. In the previous posts of the series, I linked Odysseus’ ever changing adventures with him being a personification of the moon it seems to me that his alchemical spouse, Penelope, in her constancy may be associated with the Sun. Penelope is not unlike a goddess herself, being full of dignity and displaying a truly regal demeanor. A winged goddess, so well-known in many mythologies, descended from the heavens to bring culture and civilization through transforming nature. ![]() According to Barbara Hand Clow, the author of The Pleiadian Agenda, aquatic birds are linked to the stars of the Pleiades birdsong being the sound and vibration connected with the Harmony of the Spheres and the creation of the universe. A bird, particularly aquatic bird, is an important aspect of the Mother Goddess, who in many myths, notably the Syrian one, is born out of an egg brought up from the watery depths by a fish and brooded by a bird. Her name is hard to trace back etymologically, but apparently, and very significantly, it is connected with aquatic birds (species of a duck) and weaving. The three epithets that Homer uses to describe her most frequently are “urbane”, “mentally present” and “thoughtful” or “wise.” While Odysseus sinks deeper and deeper into the inner world of his fantasy, she remains his anchor, a constant, a beacon, the safe harbor he hopes to reach one day. At times she gives way to despair but she has an enormous ability to pull herself together and stay sober and level-headed amidst all the chaos and disarray of the suitors taking over her kingdom. She is left to run the kingdom of Ithaca alone. While Odysseus, cursed by Poseidon, cannot find his way home and lives through a series of fantastical adventures, his wife Penelope is experiencing a deep wound of longing and despair. ![]()
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