“Great Goddess Diana, daughter of Jove, drive an arrow into my heart and slay me; or let some whirlwind snatch me up and bear me through paths of darkness till it drop me into the mouths of overflowing Oceanus, as it did the daughters of Pandareus.”
~ The Odyssey - Book XX (Samuel Butler Translation. p296)
In Book 20 of The Odyssey, Ulysses wakes up, is upset with the sound of giggling women, and worries that he may be unable to fight all the suitors; Minerva consoles him. Penelope wakes up, is overcome with despair, and prays to Diana to take her life. Ulysses sees Penelope crying and asks Zeus for a sign of his victory against all the suitors. Later in the day, Melanthius, the goatherd, again scolds Ulysses, and one of the suitors throws a hoof at him. The suitors continue to feast, but there is a foreboding that something terrible will occur.
I want to discuss Penelope being overcome with despair and wanting to end her life. Her state of mind highlights the psychological impact of being sad for so long and also not knowing whether to mourn or to hope. I feel that if suitors had not been harassing her for so long, she might have gone into a state of despair long before. Having an enemy or having something to fear sometimes does not allow one to dwell on sadness since the mind is occupied with anger. Maybe if one dwells on sadness for too long, one could go deep into hopelessness and suffer more in the mind. One single moment of being in such a deep, hopeless state is enough for one to take one’s own life. Even though a sad person might want to be left alone, maybe we should not leave them alone for too long. That’s why close friends or community is crucial for people’s general survival.