Who was the faithful wife of Odysseus?

Penelope was the faithful wife of Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey.

She was queen of Ithaca and the daughter of Icarius of Sparta. Odysseus was absent for twenty years: ten years fighting in the Trojan War and another ten years struggling to return home. During that time, Penelope faced 108 suitors who sought to marry her and take control of Ithaca.

Her best-known delaying tactic involved weaving a burial shroud for Laertes, Odysseus’s elderly father. She promised to choose a husband after finishing it, but secretly unravelled part of the work each night. When her trick was exposed, she devised another test involving Odysseus’s famous bow.

Penelope is often remembered simply as a model of marital loyalty, but the Odyssey also portrays her as intelligent, cautious, and politically capable. Even after Odysseus returns disguised as a beggar, she tests his identity by referring to their immovable bed, whose central post was made from a living olive tree.