Odysseus and Penelope marriage
Alright I remember still my one and only post that reached over 2000 notes and I am still so happy to see the fantastic comments that people have left to it!
I also remember some random ideas discussed with people like @wolfythewitch at the comments about "what if Odysseus and Penelope were just courting for 10 years" and honestly...I am seriously considering something! You see someone contemporary to Homer, Hesiod seems to have a small idea for the ideal marriage;
When the time comes bring a woman to your house when you are not far off thirty years of age, above or below. And this is the right time for marriage; let your wife mature from puberty four years and marry her the fifth
(Translation by me)
So we know that Odysseus arranged the whole marriage thing while he was asking the hand of Helen in marriage with Tyndareus hence the oath. We also know from stories like Pausanias when he tried to leave Icarius tried to stop them from leaving hence Odysseus asking Penelope to choose marrying him or stay with her father, to which Penelope covered her face with her veil to indicate she is to marry Odysseus.
So what if that is the system followed? What if Odysseus got home Penelope that was around 13-14 years of age and then waited for 5 years till Penelope reached the right age to marry like around 17-18 years old? That would make her in her 30s in the Odyssey which could explain the urgency to remarry. I also imagined Odysseus to be in his late 20s when a suitor of Helen's so if he was around 28-29 and Penelope was around 14 when they met, taken to Ithaca and then married around 4-5 years later that would leave 5 years extra where they are childless Telemachus being born later and either when Telemachus is a few months old or if he is tops one year old almost then Odysseus leaves
Somehow that seems to help more with the association that Penelope was a young bride when left if they are not even 5 years properly married. Food for thought.
