Source Verification: Penelope

Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.

What the Sources Attest

Who did Penelope marry after Odysseus?

Telegonus, the son of Odysseus by Circe. The story comes from the Telegony, a lost epic by Eugammon of Cyrene, known through Proclus's summary. Telegonus came looking for his father, raided Ithaca and killed Odysseus without knowing who he was. He then carried the body, with Penelope and Telemachus, to Circe's island. Circe made them immortal, and Telegonus married Penelope while Telemachus married Circe. Apollodorus's Epitome agrees on the marriage but ends differently: Circe sends Telegonus and Penelope to the Islands of the Blest. Homer's Odyssey tells none of this.

Source: Apollodorus, Epitome 7.37

Did Odysseus actually love Penelope?

Homer's Odyssey says he did, though he was not faithful to her. On Calypso's island the goddess offers him immortality if he stays. Odysseus admits that Penelope is less beautiful, since she is mortal. Yet he says he longs every day to reach home, and he chooses to go. That same night he lies with the nymph. When Penelope finally accepts him in Book 23, he weeps as he holds his true-hearted wife. She clings to him and cannot let go.

Source: Homer, Odyssey 5.215-224

Are Penelope and Helen related?

Yes, they are cousins in Apollodorus's Library. Penelope's father Icarius and Tyndareus were brothers, sons of Perieres and Gorgophone. Tyndareus married Leda, the mother of Helen. Apollodorus adds a twist: Zeus, in the form of a swan, fathered Helen and Pollux, while Tyndareus fathered Castor and Clytemnestra. So Clytemnestra is Penelope's cousin by blood, and Helen is her cousin through Tyndareus's household. The families were bound in another way too. Tyndareus helped Odysseus win Penelope as thanks for the oath that protected Helen's husband.

Source: Apollodorus, Library 3.10.6

Was Penelope older than Odysseus?

No surviving ancient source says so. Homer and Apollodorus give neither of them an age, and none of the texts cited here compares the two. The Odyssey only suggests that she married young. In Book 11 the ghost of Agamemnon recalls leaving her a bride newly wed, with a baby at her breast, when the Greeks sailed for Troy. In Book 23 Penelope says the gods begrudged the couple their youth together.

Source: Homer, Odyssey 11.444-449

Was Penelope faithful to Odysseus?

In Homer, completely. Agamemnon's ghost praises her as loyally mindful of her husband and says the gods will make a song of her constancy. Later sources told darker stories. Apollodorus's Epitome records that some said Antinous seduced her, so Odysseus sent her back to her father Icarius, and at Mantinea she bore Pan to Hermes. Others said Odysseus killed her because of the suitor Amphinomus. Pausanias saw her supposed grave near Mantinea, where locals said Odysseus had cast her out for bringing lovers into his house.

Source: Apollodorus, Epitome 7.38

How is Penelope related to Odysseus?

She is his wife, and the mother of his son Telemachus. Apollodorus's Library says Odysseus won her with help from her uncle Tyndareus. He advised Tyndareus to bind Helen's suitors by oath, and in return Tyndareus asked Icarius to give Penelope to him. In Homer's Odyssey, Agamemnon's ghost calls her the peerless daughter of Icarius and Odysseus's wedded wife. Later sources gave the couple a second son, named Poliporthes in Apollodorus and Ptoliporthes in the lost Thesprotis cited by Pausanias.

Source: Homer, Odyssey 24.191-202

Where Accounts Differ

faithful or unfaithful
whether Penelope was Pan's mother
how Penelope's story ends
how Odysseus won her
whether Penelope had a second son
who fathered Icarius
an indirect source for the Telegony

Homer makes Penelope the faithful wife: Agamemnon's ghost praises her constancy (Odyssey 24.191-202). Apollodorus (Epitome 7.38-39) reports two contrary stories without endorsing either: that Antinous seduced her and Odysseus sent her to Icarius, or that Odysseus killed her over Amphinomus. Pausanias (8.12.6) records a Mantinean story that Odysseus cast her out for bringing lovers into his house.
Pan's mother is disputed. Herodotus (Histories 2.145) says the Greeks name Penelope and Hermes as Pan's parents, and dates that Pan about eight hundred years before his own time, after the Trojan War. Apollodorus (Epitome 7.38) places the birth at Mantinea after her disgrace.
Her end differs by source. Proclus's summary of the Telegony has Circe make Penelope and Telemachus immortal, with Telegonus marrying Penelope. Apollodorus (Epitome 7.37) keeps the marriage but has Circe send Telegonus and Penelope to the Islands of the Blest. The Mantineans showed Pausanias her grave on the road to Orchomenus and said she died in Mantinea (8.12.5-6).
How Odysseus won her is told two ways. Apollodorus (Library 3.10.9) makes her a reward from Tyndareus for Odysseus's advice about Helen's suitors. Pausanias (3.12.2) heard that Icarius held a foot-race for her suitors and Odysseus won it.
A second son appears in later sources: Poliporthes in Apollodorus (Epitome 7.35), Ptoliporthes in the lost Thesprotis cited by Pausanias (8.12.6), and Acusilaus in Eustathius's report of the Telegony.
Icarius's father is given two ways by Apollodorus himself. Library 3.10.3 makes Icarius and Tyndareus sons of Perieres and Gorgophone; 3.10.4 records that some call them sons of Oebalus by the nymph Batia. Either way, the two are brothers.
The Telegony survives only in Proclus's prose summary and a few quotations, so its account of Penelope's marriage to Telegonus is indirect.

Sources

Primary sources

Homer, Odyssey 1.328-364
Homer, Odyssey 2.85-128
Homer, Odyssey 5.215-224
Homer, Odyssey 11.444-449
Homer, Odyssey 19.124-163
Homer, Odyssey 19.203-212
Homer, Odyssey 19.535-581
Homer, Odyssey 21.1-79
Homer, Odyssey 23.153-230
Homer, Odyssey 23.231-240
Homer, Odyssey 24.191-202
Apollodorus, Library 3.10.3
Apollodorus, Library 3.10.4
Apollodorus, Library 3.10.6
Apollodorus, Library 3.10.7
Apollodorus, Library 3.10.9
Apollodorus, Epitome 7.31
Apollodorus, Epitome 7.33
Apollodorus, Epitome 7.35
Apollodorus, Epitome 7.36
Apollodorus, Epitome 7.37
Apollodorus, Epitome 7.38
Apollodorus, Epitome 7.39
Pausanias, Description of Greece 3.12.2
Pausanias, Description of Greece 3.20.10-11
Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.12.5-6
Herodotus, Histories 2.145
Herodotus, Histories 2.146