Odyssey 2.115 · Book 2, lines 115–120
Athena's gifts — a cunning past compare
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εἰ δʼ ἔτʼ ἀνιήσει γε πολὺν χρόνον υἷας Ἀχαιῶν, τὰ φρονέουσʼ ἀνὰ θυμόν, ὅ οἱ πέρι δῶκεν Ἀθήνη ἔργα τʼ ἐπίστασθαι περικαλλέα καὶ φρένας ἐσθλὰς κέρδεά θʼ, οἷʼ οὔ πώ τινʼ ἀκούομεν οὐδὲ παλαιῶν, τάων αἳ πάρος ἦσαν ἐυπλοκαμῖδες Ἀχαιαί, Τυρώ τʼ Ἀλκμήνη τε ἐυστέφανός τε Μυκήνη·
But if she will go on vexing the sons of the Achaeans a long time, minding in her heart those gifts which Athena gave her beyond all others — skill in beautiful handiwork, and a noble mind, and cunning wiles, such as we never yet have heard of any, not even of the ancients, of those Achaean women who were fair-tressed of old — Tyro and Alcmene and fair-crowned Mycene —
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The setting
Antinous presses his case: if Penelope keeps holding out, she is trading on the very gifts that make her formidable — the handiwork, wit, and cunning Athena granted her beyond any woman before, even the famed heroines of old.
A note on this passage
Antinous ends by praising exactly what he resents. Penelope's excellence is real and god-given: Athena herself endowed her with craft, sense, and κέρδεα — cunning beyond any woman named in legend. He ranks her above Tyro, Alcmene, and Mycene, the great heroines of the old catalogues.
The undercurrent is the backhandedness of the praise. In the suitor's mouth, Athena's finest gift becomes a grievance: her cleverness is what keeps them starving at the door. He means it as a complaint, but the poem hears it as tribute — Penelope belongs among the legendary women, and the goddess who arms Odysseus with cunning has armed his wife with the same. Her mind, not her weaving, is the true web.
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