Living in Deep Time
Gaining perspective through the Goddess in a post-Kavanaugh world
In her short but powerful book Women and Power, Mary Beard notes that Homer’s Odyssey — an epic poem considered a classic and still taught in schools today — includes the presumed first recorded example in Western history of a woman being told to “shut up” by a man. Penelope, Odysseus’ long-suffering and extraordinarily patient wife, is the lucky recipient of such treatment.
For those who need a refresher, The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus, the Greek war hero who triumphs in the Trojan War but ultimately spends years trying to make it home, facing a variety of nasty trials and tribulations along the way. Meanwhile, his wife, Penelope, has been faithfully waiting for her husband’s return while also trying to fend off a host of suitors who desire Odysseus’ wealth as much as they desire her.
When Penelope finds a singer entertaining a group of would-be suitors in her house with a particularly dreary song, she requests a cheerier one, only to be told to shut her trap by her own son, Telemachus, who proclaims, “Speech will be the business of men, all men and me most of all; for mine is the power in this household.”
Well then.
