In the introduction to The Penelopaid, Margaret Atwood’s retelling of the Myth of Odysseus, she writes: “I’ve chosen to give the telling of the story to Penelope and to the twelve hanged maids. The maids form a chanting and singing Chorus, which focuses on two questions that must pose themselves after any close reading of the Odyssey: What led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to? The story as told in the Odyssey doesn’t hold water: there are too many inconsistencies. I’ve always been haunted by the hanged maids and, in The Penelopiad, so is Penelope herself.”

With The Penelopiad, Atwood has written a fierce, funny, and subversive myth that challenges the patriarchal nature of Greek Mythology.