I keep thinking about Penelope alongside Helen — not as opposites, but as divergences.

Two girls shaped by attention in very different ways.

One learns to be watched. One learns to watch.

I don’t think Penelope becomes a queen all at once.

I think she learns it in fragments — in moments where being a girl stops being enough.

I’m interested in those moments.

The first time caution feels necessary. The first time silence feels useful.

I don’t think Penelope’s anger looks loud.

I think it looks like restraint sharpened into something deliberate.

The kind that waits because it has to — not because it forgives.

What does “waiting” actually mean In a world where women couldn’t leave?

Is it patience — or constraint?

Marble, olive, bronze.

The goddess of wisdom does not shout. she endures.

I don’t think Penelope survives by being still.

I think she survives by thinking faster than the story expects her to.

Of course I’m thinking about Penelope. I’m writing a book about her — before the Odyssey ever begins.

Not the waiting. Not the weaving.

But the parts of her life the epic never needed to name. The choices she made before she was someone’s wife.

Everyone talks about Odysseus like he’s the point of The Odyssey.

But Penelope is the one who:

• holds a kingdom together for twenty years

•outwits powerful men without ever being. allowed to openly challenge them

•survives by patience, intelligence, and social maneuvering rather than violence

And yet she’s so often reduced to “the faithful wife.”

So I’m curious

What do you think Penelope’s greatest strength actually is?

Her patience?

Her intelligence?

Her emotional endurance?

Her ability to play a long game in a hostile court?

Or do you think there’s something people consistently overlook?