Penelope plays a key role in The Odyssey because without her unwillingness to accept a suitor, Telemachus would never have gone on his journey to find his father. Fifteen years after the Trojan War ended, Penelope's husband Odysseus, still hadn’t come home. Throughout this time many suitors had come asking for her hand in marriage. She decided she would choose one suitor to marry once she finished weaving her father-in-law’s burial shroud.
But every night she would unweave a little bit to postpone the decision. Eventually, Athena decides to convince Penelope's son, Telemachus to find Odysseus so his mother wouldn’t have to choose a suitor. Athena tells Telemachus, “...and mother… she neither rejects a marriage she despises nor can she bear