ifetime with desire/ and sorrow, mindful of [her] lord, good man/” (Homer 18:229-230). Even though the pestering suitors were like vulture swarming in on fresh meat Penelope was able to hold them at bay with her faithful devotion to her mighty Odysseus. In order to do this the cunning and wily Penelope lead them to believe that she would marry one of them only to later let them down. She used the weaving of the funeral shroud for Lord Laertes to keep them under control. “So everyday she wove on the loom-/ but every night by torchlight she unwove it;” (Homer 1:110-111). Attestation of Penelope’s loyalty to Odysseus is the unweaving of the shroud because she did not want to marry one of the suitors and had full confidence in her beloved king’s return. The archery test that Penelope purposes is functioning to hold off the suitors, for none are a match for Odysseus, as well as prompting Odysseus to proving himself to her. “Upon Penelope, most worn in love and thought, / Athena cast a glance like a gray sea/ lifting her. Now to bring the tough bow out and bring/ the iron blades. Now try those dogs at archery.” (Homer 21:1-4). Penelope tests Odysseus to make him prove that it is he before she will trust him. The test of the bedpost that she puts to Odysseus once again proves Penelope’s fidelity. “Forgive me, don’t be angry. I could not/ welcome you with love on sight!” (Homer 23:216-217). Penelope’s devotion held strong and she would not accept him until he proved himself. “ Their secret!” (Homer 23:206) shared was Odysseus’s key to her loyalty and her test. Another hint of loyalty in _The Odyssey_ was the treatment Odysseus’s men received from him. Odysseus gave his men his loyalty and to help them to return home he saved them from the lotos eaters. When his men “fell in, soon enough, with the lotos eaters, /… [they became] forgetful...
