Odyssey 2.91 · Book 2, lines 91–95
The web she set upon the loom
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Antinous — πάντας μέν ῥʼ ἔλπει καὶ ὑπίσχεται ἀνδρὶ ἑκάστῳ ἀγγελίας προϊεῖσα, νόος δέ οἱ ἄλλα μενοινᾷ. ἡ δὲ δόλον τόνδʼ ἄλλον ἐνὶ φρεσὶ μερμήριξε· στησαμένη μέγαν ἱστὸν ἐνὶ μεγάροισιν ὕφαινε, λεπτὸν καὶ περίμετρον· ἄφαρ δʼ ἡμῖν μετέειπε·
She gives hope to all of us, and makes each man a promise, sending him messages — but her mind is set on other things. And in her heart she plotted this other trick: she set up a great loom in the halls and began to weave, a fine and vast web; and at once she said to us:
Word by word
The setting
Antinous is telling the assembly why the suitors have waited so long. Penelope, he says, keeps every suitor in hope while intending nothing of the kind — and here he begins the story of her most famous stratagem, the great web she set up to weave.
A note on this passage
Antinous lays out the mechanism of Penelope's resistance: she never refuses, she postpones. To each suitor she holds out private hope while her real purpose runs the other way. The lines are an accusation dressed as description — she is deceiving them, and he wants Telemachus to hear it named.
The undercurrent is the loom itself. Weaving is the proper, praised work of a good wife, and Penelope turns that very virtue into a weapon. The δόλος here is not a lie but a piece of housework; her cunning wears the shape of duty, which is exactly why it holds for years.
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