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Margaret AtwoodA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
In the present, Penelope runs into Helen in the fields of asphodel. She, “followed by her customary horde of male spirits,” (153) asks Penelope if she’d like to join her in taking a bath. Penelope points out that they have no need of baths, as they have no bodies, and Helen insists that it’s a “spiritual” endeavor. When Penelope asks if she will disrobe to bathe, Helen affirms that she will, saying that she feels she owes something to the men that died on her behalf. Penelope scoffs at her self-serving means of acquitting herself of guilt, but Helen jabs back, asking how many men Odysseus killed for Penelope, though she’d “long since satisfied herself that the total was puny compared with the pyramids of corpses laid at [Helen’s] door” (156). “‘Maybe you even felt prettier,’” (156) she taunts.
By Margaret Atwood
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