I was thinking about Penelope and Anastacius, and I remembered this panel from chapter 23:
What caught my attention was the spider, I never really gave it too much thought, I only saw it as some ✨aesthetic✨ but then I remembered these kind of details always have a specific purpose or meaning.
The spider web can symbolize fate, destiny, and the way life had a crazy way people cross paths in life’s web. Spider webs draw our attention to our life choices. They have a way of showing us how we often manipulate our thinking in order to get what we want in life. We can view this as our lives being our home and how we weave our way in our jobs, houses, relationships. We go through life making decisions, forging relationships, and trying to get ahead. All this to try to get what we want, to go where we want in life. (Source here)
In my opinion, this is quite accurate with Penelope. She knew what she wanted and she decided to get it. She was incredibly decisive and she wove her own destiny with her actions.
About the spider, it seems like a Zebra spider (You can see the spider here. Seeing it gives me chills so I won’t add the picture sksksk)
I didn’t find that many info about the symbolism behind these kind of spiders. I only found two meanings:
White/Black Striped Spider Meaning: Dualism, yin and yang, balance, understanding a situation with a higher perspective. Sometimes bad things lead to positive outcomes. (Source here)
Black and white spider, like a zebra meaning: Alternation of lies and truth. (Source here)
Maybe this is also regarding Penelope, she had a high perspective of the situation. The bad thing would be cheating her fiancee, but the positive outcome would be getting power and wealth by having a relationship with Anastacius. But it could be related to Anastacius too, for him, the “bad thing” would be seducing his brother’s fiancee, but the positive outcome would get to steal something from him.
An alternation of lies (they were acting as if they wanted to seduce each other) and truth (they were using each other to get what they wanted)
Finally, the flowers. Apparently, those are tree peonies:
In China, it is generally known as the “king of flowers”, symbolizing honor, wealth, and aristocracy, as well as love, affection, and feminine beauty. (Source here)
“Honor, wealth and aristocracy”, that’s what Penelope was trying to get through Anastacius. And she used her feminine beauty to get it.
Since these flowers also mean love and affection, I wonder if it could be also a hint that they felt affection or even love for each other at some point. I’m quite interested in them too. I hope we get to know more about their relationship.
