Why does Penelope summon Odysseus ?
Penelope’s ostensible offer of marriage and her solicitation of gifts constitute a dolos with a double aim: to keep the suitors off guard and to reassure Odysseus of her loyalty, in the well-founded belief that he has today returned in the guise of the stranger. The suitors’ plot against Telemachos disqualifies them categorically, and Penelope must hope that her son will elude assassination and return from his voyage with positive news. When he does so, her outlook is transformed, for the testimony of Menelaos carries more weight than travellers’ tales, and Odysseus is now declared, by a seer under Telemachos’ protection, to be present on the island. Theoklymenos thus puts the queen on alert, and the same day an unknown vagrant calls on the Furies to punish Antinoös, a prayer no outsider has the standing to make. Through Eumaios, Penelope summons the stranger to her quarters, and as the queen names Odysseus, they hear Telemachos sneeze resoundingly in the hall. Penelope laughs, for thi
