Weaving narratives: Penelope’s tapestry and how it relates to Ovid’s weavers in Metamorphoses, Book 6

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2011
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In Ancient Greece, women were weavers and the literary women were no exception. In literature, weaving was used as a symbol of the story, and as a physical manifestation of a woman’s power. Weaving was the only place where women had control, and three literary women (Penelope, Philomela, and Arachne) embrace the potential in weaving for their own purposes. Penelope weaves a shroud for her father-in-law, but she also creates a delay of her remarriage. Penelope becomes a counterpart to Odysseus because of this trick she employs against her suitors. Penelope and Odysseus are both representations of the poet inside their story, and Penelope’s poetic power stems from her weaving. Similarly, Philomela and Arachne use their weaving as more than simple cloth. Philomela’s tapestry is a means of escape and revenge, and Arachne’s establishes her (albeit momentarily) as equal to Minerva. There is a storytelling capacity within any creation of images, and all three of these women appropriate this capacity for their own. Each woman has been studied individually, but my aim was to bring them together to see that the narrative power attributed to Penelope is not unique to her, but is used as a feature of multiple literary weavers. There are certain aspects to Penelope’s story and weaving through which we see her creative power, and Ovid uses comparable features in the tales of Philomela and Arachne.
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