Quotes Penelopiad Part A (competition/roles/wisdom/patriarch)

Question 1

Clever not beautiful quote

Answer 1

clever but not overly beautiful

Question 2

Helen showing off quote

Answer 2

I was not like cousin Helen who loved to make conquests just to show she could.

Question 3

Offer instead of beauty quote

Answer 3

I was a kind girl - kinder than Helen, or so I thought. I knew I would have something to offer instead of beauty

Question 4

Clever quote

Answer 4

I was clever…. but cleverness is a quality a man likes to have in his wife as long as she is some distance away from him

Question 5

Helen attention quote

Answer 5

She wanted all the attention for herself

Question 6

Faithful quote

Answer 6

Hadn’t I been faithful? Hadn’t I waited, and waited, and waited, despite the temptation - almost the compulsion - to do otherwise?

Question 7

Stick to beat other women with quote

Answer 7

amount to […] a stick used to beat other women with

Question 8

Restricting/lack of power

Answer 8

I kept my mouth shut […] I didn’t contradict, I didn’t ask awkward questions, I didn’t dig deep.

Question 9

Keeping right doors locked quotes

Answer 9

Happy endings are best achieved by keeping the rights doors locked and going to sleep during the rampages

Question 10

Determined/patient

Answer 10

determined nature, patient

Question 11

Semi-divine birth benefits

Answer 11

it never hurts to be of semi-divine birth

Question 12

Father throws her out to sea

Answer 12

When I was quite young my father ordered me to be thrown out into the sea

Question 13

Whispering quote

Answer 13

it’s hard to know whether the whispering is coming from others or from the inside of your own head

Question 14

Arranged marriage

Answer 14

My marriage was arranged. That’s the way things were done then

Question 15

Important people marriages

Answer 15

only important people had marriages, because only important people had marriages

Question 16

Purpose of marriage children

Answer 16

Marriages were for having children

Question 17

Purpose of having children (2)

Answer 17

Children were vehicles for passing things along

to have a child was to set loose a force in the world

Question 18

Package of meat quote

Answer 18

And so I was handed over to Odysseus, like a package of meat

Question 19

Widow quote

Answer 19

Widows are supposed to be consumed with lust, especially if their husbands have been missing or dead for such a long time

Question 20

Mother’s life sacred quote

Answer 20

a mother’s life is sacred

Question 21

Opening line/dead know everything

Answer 21

Now that I’m dead I know everything. This is what I wished would happen, but like so many of my wishes it failed to come true. I know only a few factoids that I didn’t know before”

Question 22

Death + curiosity

Answer 22

Death is much too high a price to pay for the satisfaction of curiosity.

Question 23

Quote on death nothingness (2)

Answer 23

Since being dead - since achieving this state of bonelessness, liplessness…

It was glorious to feel the blood coursing in our non-existent veins again, if only for an instant

Question 24

Quote about sack containing words

Answer 24

everyone arrives with a sack…each of these sacks is full of words - words you’ve spoken, words you’ve heard, words that have been said about you

Question 25

Making fools Odysseus

Answer 25

What a fool he made of me, some say

It was a speciality of his: making fools. He got away with everything, which was another one of his specialities: getting away.

Question 26

Distrust

Answer 26

It is to this episode - or rather to my knowledge of it - that I attribute my reserve, as well as my mistrust of other people’s intentions

Question 27

Self sufficient

Answer 27

self sufficiency

Question 28

Looking out for self

Answer 28

I knew that I would have to look out for myself in the world. I could hardly count on family support

Question 29

Little power in home quote as wife

Answer 29

After a time I became more accustomed to my new home, although I had little authority within it.

Question 30

Maids responsible for household tasks

Answer 30

running all domestic matters - maids

Question 31

Believing Odysseus

Answer 31

Even I believed him from time to time

Question 32

Tricky and a liar quote (2)

Answer 32

I knew he was tricky and a liar, I just didn’t think he would play his tricks and try out his lies on me

a cheat and a thief

Question 33

Don’t follow example

Answer 33

Don’t follow my example, I want to scream in your ears

Question 34

Immoral Odysseus quote

Answer 34

Of course I had inklings, about his slipperiness, his wiliness, his foxiness, his - how can I put this? - his unscrupulousness, but I turned a blind eye

Question 35

Immoral suitors

Answer 35

The suitors stuff their faces

Question 36

Role as having a child quote

Answer 36

“so you can have a nice big son for Odysseus” - “that’s your job”