Loyalty is a virtue.
All throughout the nine years of the Trojan War and one year of the journey home, Penelope avoids remarrying because of her loyalty to Odysseus. She is not allowed to rule Ithaca alone, so myriad suitors attempt to woo the queen. She promises to remarry once she finishes weaving a burial shroud that she unravels at night to buy her time.
The hapless Odysseus faces many obstacles before going home to Ithaca. Although his misadventures were caused by Zeus and Poseidon, he remained loyal to the gods. Telemachus also stayed loyal by listening to Athene. |
Love conquers all.
After all the tumult Odysseus went through, it was worth it to be with his son and wife again: "She spoke, and still more roused in him the passion for weeping. He wept as he held his lovely wife, whose thoughts were virtuous [and] so welcome was her husband to her as she looked upon him, and she could not let him go from the embrace of her white arms" (290).
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