' This is helpful later on when Polyphemus cries for help and his friends believes it's a hoax when 'nobody' is attacking him: 'Nobody's killing me now by fraud and not by force.' His wit and intelligence bail him out of dire situations and these are all features of great heroes. He is seen as the archetypal hero, loving husband and father whose only wish is to return home. On the other hand, the Penelopiad depicts Odysseus as a sly and deceptive man. Penelope professes her 'inklings about his (Odysseus) slipperiness, his wiliness, his foxiness his unscrupulous'. The accumulation of negative qualities leaves a different impression of Odysseus than that of the Odyssey. The contradictory nature of Odysseus' character is expressed in the Odyssey and Penelopiad. .
Penelope is the wife of Odysseus who is not only trying to raise their surly teenaged son, Telemachus, but also simultaneously fending off the persistent advances of the hordes of suitors who now assume that Odysseus is dead and want to take over his kingdom and wife. In the Odyssey, Penelope is seen as the typical Ancient Greek dutiful and devoted wife. This is evident when she cries for her husband, 'Oh, How I long for my husband-alive in memory." The use of dialogue in the statement shows that despite Odysseus being gone for so long, Penelope's love for her husband is resilient. This juxtaposes the Penelopiad, where Penelope's character expands from the model of being the faithful, prudent wife to a figure that that is flawed and just as morally ambiguous as Odysseus. When Odysseus returns, Penelope discloses that she never 'thought of betraying his gigantic bed with its wondrous bedpost by sleeping in it with any other man.' Hyperbole is employed to exaggerate their simple bed, which implies that Penelope is hiding something probably concerning her fidelity. Additionally, Penelope creates an impression that she never truly trusted her husband and found herself compelled never to question him.
