"This was her latest masterpiece of guile:
she set up a great loom in the royal halls
and she began to weave, and the weaving finespun,
the yarns endless, and she would lead us on:"
‘Young men,
my suitors, now that King Odysseus is no more,
go slowly, keen as you are to marry me, until
I can finish off this web.’"
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 2, lines 104-107. We learn here from Antinous how Penelope uses a masterful trick to keep her suitors at bay. While they have been trying to seduce her into marriage, she remains faithful to her husband. Suitor Antinous reveals how Penelope promises them that she would choose a husband as soon as she finishes weaving a shroud for Laertes’ funeral. But Penelope has no intention of finishing it.