Penelope
Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics
BBC
4.8 • 598 Ratings
🗓️ 7 June 2020
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Natalie Haynes tells stories of Penelope, the clever woman and perfect wife behind The Odyssey.
Penelope fends off a hundred idiot would-be suitors with an exhausting programme of weaving and un-weaving; is the ideal single mother for most of her marriage and devises a cunning trick to make sure her husband is really who he says he is. Also she must have been a looker because Odysseus preferred her over her cousin Helen, who was objectively the most beautiful woman in the world.
Natalie finds new ways of thinking about ancient myths in this locked-down version of her stand-up show, with the help of Professors Edith Hall and Llewelyn Morgan.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | Hello and welcome to Natalie Haynes stands up for the classics for one season only, involving me sitting down for the classics instead. Also, for one season only, we have ditched history for myth. We decided everybody needed a little escapism and that's what you're going to get. So today I am |
| 0:21.3 | sitting down for Penelope. We know Penelope best from Homer's Odyssey, where of course she |
| 0:28.9 | waits for her husband Odysseus to return from the Trojan War. The war lasts for 10 years |
| 0:34.4 | and then it takes him another 10 years to get home. So Penelope's story is usually |
| 0:39.6 | presented to us as one of endurance and fidelity. In some of our other ancient sources, she's a |
| 0:45.6 | little bit more human, maybe a little bit more interesting than a model of wifely perfection |
| 0:50.9 | against whom all other women fall short. I should tell you that quite a lot of the men who talk about Penelope as a model of wifely perfection against whom all other women fall short. I should tell you that quite a lot of the |
| 0:55.5 | men who talk about Penelope as a model of wifely perfection are basically doing it to slag off their |
| 1:00.1 | own wives. Yes, Ghost of Agamemnon, I do mean you from the final part of the Odyssey. Although to be |
| 1:06.3 | fair, that is why you're in the underworld. Let's start with how Penelope and Odysseus meet. |
| 1:11.6 | He comes to Sparta to try to marry Helen, as everybody does at that point. |
| 1:15.8 | But when he sees Penelope, he decides that actually she is the one for him. |
| 1:21.2 | Penelope's father, Icarius, organizes a foot race for her suitors. |
| 1:25.4 | This is the original fun run, I suppose. |
| 1:29.4 | And Odysseus wins that. |
| 1:36.3 | Odysseus and Penelope set out to travel to Ithaca, his island home. But Icarius, Penelope's father, doesn't want to lose her. Firstly, he tries to persuade Odysseus that they should stay in |
| 1:41.3 | Sparta. And then when that doesn't work, he trails after them both. |
| 1:45.3 | He follows their chariot as they leave. The story is in Pazania, I think, the Greek travel writer. |
| 1:51.5 | Odysseus gives Penelope the choice, stay or go. She replies by veiling her face. Her father understands her perfectly. |
| 2:01.7 | He accepts this as an indication that she loves Odysseus and wants to be with him, |
| 2:06.6 | but she doesn't wish to be immodest and say so. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.