Penelope's surprising move looks more like a counteroffensive than a surrender. She told Odysseus that after her work on Laertes' shroud was exposed as a fraud, she could not think of another “deft way out” (ref). The word so translated is mêtis; it is the word that characterizes Odysseus —he is polumêtis, a man of many twists and turns. Penelope is from the same mold as her husband, a worthy partner —and adversary.

Unknown, Homer, Robert Fagles_ Knox,…, loc. 274