Penelope at the Loom Watching the War

Penelope at the Loom Watching the War

No-one can imagine in the year 2023— how it is to be Penelope, time suspended in an antique, soviet tragedy.

Counterbalance revisionist aggressions by weaving invocations of protection, beauty for the eyes of he who faces the aftermath of annexation.

Failed Trojan horse—wooden tank full of little, green men, planted and paid separtist proclamations, passportizations, the veil was always thin.

War in the digital age, a cheerful selfie! Still, growing in our surreal destiny. Sang you lullabies on New Year’s Eve, firecrackers in the background could deceive, but were no threat to me, while the sky lit up over you with no reprieve. I never imagined myself praying of all things, on my knees.

In case you were cold, I knit the heaviest blanket—it was my only outlet. To shield me, you tell me only ever the half of it. Our hands—still clasped on the bus in Truskavets.

Frozen memories, angels at High Castle in the snow, strategies of frozen conflict, and mines where fields should grow. Meditating magic and alchemizing anxiety into safety through what I draw.

This winter, it felt like solidarity to leave the hot water heater broken. In the spring, to make you smile– me in the rain, drenched, simply soaking. Giving only our best to each other, and leaving much unspoken.

Photos on your birthday, I made you red-velvet cake. Coloured naturally with heart-beets—everything that is at stake. Orange-colored hugs in a dream, stay in bed to remember after I wake.

Carry a bloodstone—the last thing I gave you, invariably with me. In the place where your parents now reside, I offered more of them to the sea. My tears fall into your green tea, this stone is always in my sheets, even now you are free.

The story of Queen Penelope of Ithaca

Penelope was known for her beauty, intelligence, faithfulness, and virtue. She is a thinker, a person who is effective in facing her problems by thinking her way out of them. She was married to Odysseus (Ulysses in Roman mythology), they lived together in Odysseus’ small island kingdom of Ithaca and had one son, Telemachus.

When Odysseus went to fight in the Trojan War, Penelope awaited his return for twenty years—the ten years of war, and another ten as Odysseus was tossed about at sea trying to get home. During this time, many suitors sought after her, under the assumption that Odysseus had already died. In her attempt to stave off the suitors, she promised to remarry when she finished weaving a burial shroud. 

She would weave by day to keep the many Suitors of Helen at bay, and by night, she would unravel the progress. She used the weaving to buy herself time, and the weaving itself stands as an image of time. Time is a weaving and an unweaving; in it’s making and unmaking of people and relations.

Penelope does eventually get found out, and appears before the suitors, however ambivalent, even asking Artemis to kill her. In this time, Odysseus also returns, although disguised as an old beggar, with the idea of testing Penelope’s fidelity. She announces to the suitors (disguised Odysseus included) that whoever can string Odysseus’s bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axe heads may have her hand. When the contest begins, none of the suitors are able to string the bow, but with one easy movement the bow was strung, and shortly afterwards arrows were being unleashed by the disguised Odysseus. Ody, along with Telemachus proceed to slaughter the other suitors, and revealing himself in all his glory. Yet, Penelope cannot trust that her husband has actually returned, fearing that he is some god in disguise, she tests him by ordering for her bed to be moved to the bridal chamber. Odysseus protests that the bed is unmovable since he had made the bed himself and knew that one of its legs was a living olive tree. Penelope finally accepts that he truly is Odysseus. They are like-minded in their intellect, patience, strength and cunningness. Homer implies that they, with Telemachus live a long, happy life together, wisely ruling the kingdom, enjoying much success and wide respect. 

The etymology of the name Penelope has been disputed since antiquity, some have attempted to derive the name Penelope from the Greek word πήνη (pḗnē), meaning “weft” or “loom,” this would make Penelope “the weaveress,” (and the meaning we are going with, as opposed to the other argument which claims pēnelops is a kind of duck) 😉