Penelope’s web - Пряжа Пенелопы

Penelope’s web is work that never progresses. Penelope, a celebrated princess of Greece, w as the wife of Odysseus (the Romans call him Ulysses), a king of Ithaca, famed for his cunning, wisdom and eloquence. One day Odysseus went off to take part in the siege of Troy. The siege of Troy lasted for ten years, and ten more years the sea-god Poseidon kept Odysseus from home. All told, he was away for so long that everybody thought he must have been killed. The princes of Ithaca and many near-by islands wished Penelope to marry one of them; but Penelope, still hoping that her husband would return, rejected their proposals. To put off her suitors she told them that she could not marry again, even if Odysseus were dead, till she had finished weaving a shroud for her aged father-in-law. All day she worked at the loom, but at night she unravelled all she had woven. She had done this until one of her maids had betrayed her to her suitors, and Penelope was forced to finish her weaving. Fortunately Odysseus returned home just in time to prevent the marriage and to punish the suitors.

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Выражение пряжа Пенелопы, употребляющееся в значении ‘нескончаемый труд’, восходит к поэме древнегреческого поэта Гомера «Одиссея». Во второй песне «Одиссеи» рассказывается о том, как Пенелопа, верная жена Одиссея, старалась отвадить многочисленных женихов, которые во время долгих странствий Одиссея добивались ее руки. Пенелопа заявила женихам, что выйдет вторично замуж лишь тогда, когда закончит начатую работу. Целый день она проводила за тканьем, а ночью распускала все, что наткала за день.