"Homer’s Odyssey is not the only version of the story.
Mythic material was originally oral, and also local -- a
myth would be told one way in one place and quite
differently in another. I have drawn on material other than
the Odyssey, especially for the details of Penelope’s
parentage, her early life and marriage, and the scandalous
rumors circulating about her. I’ve chosen to give the
telling of the story to Penelope and to the twelve hanged
maids. The maids form a chanting and singing Chorus, which
focuses on two questions that must pose themselves after
any close reading of the Odyssey: What led to the hanging
of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to? The story
as told in the Odyssey doesn’t hold water: there are too
many inconsistencies. I’ve always been haunted by the
hanged maids and, in The Penelopiad, so is Penelope
herself." -- from Margaret Atwood’s Foreword to The
Penelopiad
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