[Ulysses Returns Home and Kills Penelope’s Suitors] · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: [Ulysses Returns Home and Kills Penelope’s Suitors]
Period: 1450-1500;
Geographic: Ancient Greece; Ithaca
Description: This image illustrates Ulysses arriving home to Ithaca after twenty years of absence due to the Trojan War. Ulysses is depicted on the right side, holding onto a spear with both of his hands. He is the only man in the image with facial hair. The figure standing beside Ulysses holding a sword is his son, Telemachus. One of their slaves is the least visible figure beside Telemachus. The three of them are attacking the man whose arms are in the air in shock. This is a suitor who had been attempting to marry Penelope, Ulysses wife. Penelope is seated in a chair, looking away from the scene as she is holding her weaving spindle and shuttle. Penelope had remained chaste for the twenty years that her husband was gone and rejected every suitor that approached her.
Image Creator: Anonymous (Illuminator)
Type: Text; Illumination
Identifier: mta:11994
Language: frm
Source Name: De la louenge et vertu des nobles et cleres dames [Of praise and virtue of the noble and clergy women]
Parent Collection: 1493 Paris; 1493 Paris
Image: mta_11994_OBJ.jpg
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Important Queens; Penelope; Ulysses; The Trojan War; Greek Mythology; Important Women