Penelope, and Her Suitors

"Well, hello there, children. I hope you have finished your chores, because you are about to hear the end of my story."

"I had just reached Ithaca when Athena turned me into an old man and told me to find my pigs. I found them under the care of my old friend Emaeus. Without revealing myself to him, I gathered information about my home and my wife.

Apparently while I was gone, my wife, your grandmother, Penelope gave up hope of ever seeing me again and began looking for a new husband to help her run things. This of course did not make me happy, so I devised a plan.

With the information given to me by Emaeus, I went to my house, still disguised as an old man, and began to wait. While I was there, several people recognized me, including my old faithful dog who died of joy when he picked up my scent. I quickly got them to be quiet and not to talk to anyone about it so that my plan would not be ruined, and there in my house I waited.

My sweet Penelope one day gathered all of the suitors in the main room, and set up a row of twelve axes with a hole in the middle. She held up my old bow, Charlie, and told them that whoever could string the bow and shoot an arrow through all twelve axes would be her new husband. After all of her suitors had tried, and failed, I began to beg that the suitors give an old poor fellow a chance, even though I already knew that I could have shot an arrow through the axe heads with ol' Charlie in my sleep, while riding a horse, blindfolded, and backwards."

"But Grandpa, that would mean that the arrow would have to travel all the way around the world, and if that’s the case, it would have hit you in your back when it returned."

"Nonsense! I could have, and I still can do that today, without being shot in the back. Now, interrupt me again and I will stop telling the story. Anyway, after much begging I was allowed to take a shot with ol' Charlie. The suitors did not want me to take the shot because they were afraid of being shown up by an old beggar, and they were right to be afraid, because I, the great and adventurous Odysseus, was that old beggar.

Once I was given Charlie, my old bow and friend, I strung him with ease, and prepared to fire an arrow. With little effort, I shot and the arrow went threw all twelve of the axe heads and half-way through the stone wall. Immediately after, I revealed myself to the suitors who became afraid and angry. They began to try to attack me, but Athena appeared and turned them all away. I could have taken them, though, with one hand tied behind my back and a blindfold on. They were all worthless and weak.

My sweet little Penelope did not believe what she had seen. She did not believe that I was home. She promptly devised a plan, or rather a test,  something only I would know, and when she was done she called me to the hall. She said she had moved her bed into the hallway and asked if I wanted to rest after such a long journey. She said she had moved my bed! My wonderful bed that I had built the room around out of a mighty tree. I thought, 'Surley she could not have moved a tree; it must not be true.' When I asked her about the bed posts, that were made out of a living olive tree I carved myself, she immediately knew that I was truly home, because no one else knew what the bed in our room looked like.

"Grandpa, what happened to the suitors?"

"Well, I ran them off. All of them, and all of my servants who had sided with them were fired. It is my house, my kingdom, and I will be the one protecting it, and I have ever since. Now that I am old, the task has passed to my son. When he is old, it will pass to you. Keep the kingdom safe; so that all who live here might remember your name in the same way they remember mine... well, in almost the same way. I am pretty hard to beat. Now, I think I will take a nap."


Odysseus and the Suitors
Executed Today

"The Illustrated Odyssey" by Joel Skidmore Website: Mythweb Web Source: The Illustrated Odyssey: Book Fourteen-Twenty Four


Author's Note: This is the final part of the story. Odysseus returns home and reclaims it as his own. I changed a few things. First of all, his son Telemachus is left out. He plays a role in helping his father reclaim what is rightfully his, but I left him out of the story up to this point, and it seemed a little late to bring in a new character with a role like his. Also, in the original, Penelope did not give up hope, but rather the suitors were trying to move in to her house thinking Odysseus was dead. Another change is that I did not kill the suitors at the end. In the original, all of the suitors in the chamber, and all of the servants that had helped and supported them, died at the hand of Odysseus and Telemachus. There is a line talking about the walls dripping with the blood of the suitors, and seeing as how this is being told to children, I thought that I would leave that part out. It seemed too violent for a children's story. I also left out the part about his father and the fathers of the suitors fighting over the deaths. I left this out because in my version all of the suitors were still alive, which I think is appreciated. I hope you all enjoyed listening to grandpa Odysseus tell us his incredible story.

Back to Grandpa's Odyssey