"They rush the marriage on, and I spin out my wiles.
A god from the blue it was inspired me first
to set up a great loom in our royal halls
and I began to weave, and the weaving finespun,
the yarns endless, and I would lead them 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…
so my weaving won’t all fray and come to nothing.’"
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 19, lines 152-160. If Odysseus is a master of tactics and cunning, his wife Penelope is a match for him in cleverness and wiles. She tells the many suitors who want to marry her to wait until she finishes weaving a shroud for her father-in-law. Little do they know that she doesn’t intend to finish it.