Penelope - A Painting Inspired by The Penelopiad

After reading Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad, I was left deeply moved by the voices that have long gone unheard—the voices of Penelope’s twelve maids. In this reimagining of Homer’s Odyssey, Atwood writes from Penelope’s perspective and gives voice to the maids who were hanged, shifting the lens from heroism to injustice.

This painting was born from that

In it, Penelope sits draped in white, surrounded by ducklings—her maids, as she affectionately calls them: “my ducklings, my cherished companions.” They nestle close, symbols of innocence and loyalty, quietly echoing the haunting injustice of their fate. Around her bloom asphodel flowers—referenced in the novella—ghostly and dreamlike, evoking the fields of the afterlife in Greek mythology.

One quote from the book stayed with me:

“Water does not resist. Water flows… But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it.”

This became the emotional undertone of the painting—a quiet persistence, a reclaiming of space.

Atwood’s novella reminds us how mythology has long favored the male narrative. Odysseus returns a celebrated hero, while the brutal execution of the maids is treated as a footnote. The Penelopiad demands that we look again—and listen.

You can watch the painting process on my Instagram (click on the QR code)