Penelope Unweaving Her Work At Night

Send in your questions for Dora Wheeler's 1886 weaving to dearmercury@substack.com

I wrote this about the myth of Penelope unraveling her work at night. In Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey, Penelope spends 20 years weaving and unraveling a burial garment and fighting off 108 suitors while waiting for her husband Odysseus to return from the Trojan War. I thought the old story could use a new telling. Speaking as Penelope to the reader I start by saying:

My Friend,

Odysseus is not a man but an aspect of myself who has gone out to sea. My grieving self. As Penelope, I can tell you that the suitors were not people either—but distractions from the grief I have been using my performance of threadcraft to attend to.

What questions do you have for Penelope? Or for her thread companions? Send them in to dearmercury@substack.com and tune in at the end of the week for answers.