Read the passage from The Odyssey - Penelope.

Question

Ruses serve my turn
to draw the time out—first a close-grained web
I had the happy thought to set up weaving
on my big loom in the hall. I said, that day:
'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.
The country wives would hold me in dishonor
if he, with all his fortune, lay unshrouded.'
I reached their hearts that way, and they agreed.
So every day I wove on the great loom,
but every night by torchlight I unwove it;
and so for three years I deceived the Akhaians.

Which line from the passage best shows that Penelope is clever?

I had the happy thought to set up weaving
The country wives would hold me in dishonor
So every day I wove on the great loom
and so for three years I deceived the Akhaians

Answer 1

The line that best shows that Penelope is clever is:

"and so for three years I deceived the Akhaians."

This line directly indicates her cunning ability to trick the suitors and delay her remarriage through her clever ruse of weaving and unwinding the shroud.