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Loyalty in the Odyessey


            
            
             There are many themes of virtue depicted by individual characters with in the course of The Odyssey. Loyalty is the state or quality of being loyal; faithful to a person, ideal, or custom. One of the most significant themes is that of loyalty. This virtue is exemplified quite often, and by many different characters, within the tale. Throughout Homer's classic epic The Odyssey, one of the most prevalent issues regarding a character's integrity is the moral and personal virtue of loyalty.
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             Penelope, Odysseus" wife, embodies the virtue of loyalty best. With her love and loyalty for Odysseus carrying her through, she faithfully awaits his return for twenty years. Penelope resists the favorable advances of the rich and powerful suitors with her cunning tactics. All the same, her loyalty is at times tested by the doubt and skepticism that he may never return, yet her virtue does not waiver. Penelope weaves a shroud for her father in law, King Laertes. This act is taken very seriously in the Greek tradition and must be done when person of high order dies. .
             "Young men, my suitors, now my lord is dead, let me finish my weaving before I marry, or else my thread will have been spun in vain. It is a shroud I weave for Lord Laertes, when cold death comes to lay him on his bier." (222).
             The suitors must let Penelope finish weaving the shroud in order for her to pick a husband. They think that this will not take Penelope a long time but what they do not know is that Penelope does not want to give up hope that her husband Odysseus is still alive. Every night after Penelope has woven the shroud for the day she undoes all that she has done for the day.
             " But when the season brought the fourth around, one of her maids, who knew the secret, told us; we found her unraveling the splendid shroud. She had to finish then, although then, although she hated it." (223).
             In book five Odysseus is on the island of Oqygqia with the goddess Kalypso.


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