The best way to live forever is in the hearts of others. Because to be physically immortal is wearisome and lonely. But to live in someone else’s heart is a form of eternal comfort.
In another life I lived in Tusculum, a lush lovely town in the Alban hills south of Rome. Surrounded by olive trees and vineyards, I spent much of my time growing plants for my beauty creams and medicinal concoctions—ilex for digestives, styrax for perfumes, and acanthus for my painful rheumatism.
Sometimes I would walk in the woods seeking new plants for my cures. It’s there that I first saw her. Although we’d never met, the weave of her cloak was her introduction. She was Penelope, Odysseus’ widow.
Although Penelope was discreet and kept to herself, everyone in town knew who she was. And not as the wife of a deceased hero but as the wife of Telegonus, son of Ulysses and Circe, and the mother of Italos, king of the Oennotrians.
It was an awkward situation as it was just the two of us there in the woods. I could hardly ignore her however, by the same token, it seemed a bit brash just to go up to her and start talking. But it was a useless worry as, once she saw me, she smiled and walked towards me. Introductions were made and then we easily talked about our mutual interest in plants and their magical properties.
After that Penelope and I would frequently search for plants together. And when the weather was cold and aggressive, we’d meet at her home or mine and, with a hot beverage, spend hours talking like we women love to do. That’s how I learned her story.
Penelope was a princess in Sparta as was her cousin, Helen. Helen was very beautiful and had many many suitors and Odysseus was one of them. Helen’s father, King Tyndareus, was a bit overwhelmed by the task of choosing among so many suitors afraid that the losers would rebel and seek revenge. So Odysseus suggested that all the suitors take a vow to protect Helen as well as the man she choose to marry. And (without knowing how her suitors’ vow would lead to the Trojan War) Helen picked Menelaus. Tyndareus, appreciative of Odysseus’ help, offered his niece, Penelope, as a reward.
Despite being her husband’s second choice, Penelope tried very hard to be a good wife. She moved to Ithaca where Odysseus was king and tried her best to love him. But then Odysseus’ ego got in the way. When their son was just a baby, Odysseus, with dreams of becoming a glorious hero, joined Agamemnon’s crusade against Troy. He left Penelope to defend herself and their baby on Ithaca, a small, rugged island with more goats than arable land.
Ten years later the war with Troy was over but Odysseus was nowhere to be found. He’d been gone so long that everyone assumed he was dead so greedy suitors began bombarding Penelope with their proposals to take Odysseus’ place. Although Penelope was the Queen of Ithaca, she had little power to protect herself. To placate them, she agreed to marry once her work at the loom was finished.
So far everything that Penelope had told me was more or less the story I’d always heard. But one evening when we were drinking mead instead of tea, a totally new version of Odysseus’ story came out.
(to be continued)
Bibliography:
Graves, Robert. The White Goddess. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. NYC. 1948.
Walker, Barbara G. The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. Harper Collins Pub. NYC. 1983.
Related: Circe’s Island Is Really about Reincarnation: An Allegorical Reading of Odyssey 10 + The Search for Homer’s Ithaca + Oath of Tyndareus + Spinning and Weaving in Ancient Greece + Absence and Presence of Human Interaction: The Relationship Between Loneliness and Empathy + The complexity of understanding others as the evolutionary origin of empathy and emotional contagion +
The birth of human compassion: Neanderthals ‘had feelings of sympathy and cared for others’ + human evolution + The birth of human compassion: Neanderthals ‘had feelings of sympathy and cared for others’ + The Evolution of Empathy: Learnings from Our Ancestors’ Decision to Work Together +
The Narrative Within 