Penelope: Did you mean...?

Portrait of an Elizabethan lady, thought to be Penelope Devereux, Lady Rich (1563-1607); sister to Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex and muse of the poet Sir Philip Sidney, who used her as inspiration for his sonnet sequence Astrophel and...

Homer's Odyssey is an epic poem written in the 8th century BCE which describes the long voyage home of the Greek hero Odysseus. The mythical king sails back to Ithaca with his men after the Trojan War but is beset by all kinds of delays and...

Statue of Penelope, marble copy of the bronze original, found in Persepolis in 1936, dated to c. 450 BCE. National Museum of Iran, Tehran, acc. no. 1538 This marble torso of a seated woman in sophisticated drapes, with a height of 85 cm...

Head of Penelope (the faithful wife of Odysseus), from Rome, now on display in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen. Hadrianic copy of a Greek original from the 5th century BCE.

Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) was an English poet, scholar, soldier, and courtier, one of the most prominent figures at the court of Queen Elizabeth I of England (r. 1558-1603). During his lifetime, he was revered as the ideal Elizabethan...

Odysseus (Roman name: Ulysses) was one of the great pan-Hellenic heroes of Greek mythology. He was famous for his courage, intelligence, and leadership. Odysseus' resourcefulness and oratory skills were instrumental in the Greek victory in...

Award-winning writer Madeline Miller's newest novel, Circe, tells the story of a sorceress who was once the onetime lover of the wily Odysseus. The heart of the novel is, nonetheless, that of a woman's yearning for self-discovery, purpose...

Circe (also spelt Kirké) is a powerful sorceress and goddess in Greek mythology with an exceptional talent for mixing drugs. She was the daughter of the sun god Helios and the Oceanid Perseis. Circe's home was found on the wooded island of...

Love, sex, and marriage in ancient Greece are portrayed in Greek literature as distinct, yet closely intertwined, elements of life. For many upper-class men, marriages did not take place for love, and other relationships, be it with men or...

Greek mythology was used as a means to explain the environment in which humankind lived, the natural phenomena they witnessed and the passing of time through the days, months, and seasons. Greek myths were also intricately connected to religion...