One in long series of me claiming unsuspecting icons (such as Mark Zuckerberg) as Classics wins, and me loving on Tina Fey.
I’m geeked that Tina Fey named her new kid Penelope Athena. Fey is half-Greek, which probably plays into it, but I’d also like to think she knows her mythology ’cause those are two super-cool namesakes.
Penelope was Odysseus’ wife, and she was as smart as him — no, Classics nerds, it doesn’t quite say that in the Greek, but her epithet is “think-y”* (pretty damned good for an ancient, misogynistic society) so everybody shut up. And Athena is the goddess of war strategy and wisdom, whose awesomeness nobody can deny. Come to think of it, I’d love to see Tina Fey play her. Look, I don’t even have to Photoshop this one:
Now, I’m not sure if Athena would like people naming their kids after her, or comedians dressing up like her, or me suggesting that someone should play her. Classically (ha!) the gods are pretty testy about this stuff.
Which can only mean one thing: libations!
*Yes, really, it’s periphrôn, so maybe more like “think about it” — and here marks the only moment I’m glad I wrote a tremendously boring scholarly article so I know all about it
PS If anyone sees “Penelope Athena” trending, screencap that shizzle.
Wish I’d thought of Penelope. I went with Latin, though, in naming my daughter Cecilia Livia.
Livia is my favorite, no matter how much Tacitus disses her!
Penelope Athene was also the name of one of the detectives (an anthropologist working with an archaeologist) in Margot Arnold’s Penny Spring/Toby Glendower mystery series. It’s a really good series, even without the classical allusions (of which there are many). Highly recommended!
Hmmm, maybe I should look into this as another addition to my “classicists who’ve made it” series. Thanks for the tip!
Non-lit-scholar seeks expert guidance: I always thought “clever” when I thought of Penelope. And my brain always has trouble with what I see as a contradiction between that Penelope, and the one who scuttles back the very minute her husband or son step on the scene. I’d think that strong, resourceful, determined, clever Penelope would smack teenage Telemachus upside the head — or maybe just give him a really significant look — when he basically told her to keep to her knitting.
If I were a fiction writer, I’d write an interior monologue for Penelope, much like Atwood’s short “Gertrude Talks Back.”
She is a contradiction because she has to be: she’s the ultimate faithful wife, but in order to remain so in the face of the suitors, she has to be devious, tricky (which Greeks kind of though women were anyway) and also disobedient, at least in terms of social norms. But she can’t smack Telemachus because him ordering her around is part of his heroic journey to becoming a man yadda yadd yadda. Scholars have tried to justify this contradiction (and indeed, the older ones are not thrilled with her tricksy ways) but frankly I think it’s better to just leave it alone, especially since the articles are so godawful boring! Though there are plenty if that’s what your really want…
Personally, I think it’s more interesting that she tricks Odysseus. She TRICKS the wily one, to test that it’s really him, by pretending she’s moved their marriage bed, which can’t be moved because it’s a tree. When he gets all upset (which demonstrates it’s really him) they reunite and stay up all night talking. It is, quite honestly, one of the most positive portrayals of marriage in the ancient world.
If you want the ancient version of Penelope’s inner dialogue, check out Ovid’s Heroides 1 (written in her voice); and Atwood actually did write a Penelopeiad — good on her!.
Oh, this is great! I’m actually using book 1 of the Odyssey as discussion fodder in a women’s history class this fall. I’ve used it before, but your reply gives me a good way to ask some very pointed questions. Thanks!
[...] Penelope Athena! Tina Fey! Classics Win! August 14, 2011 wopro [...]
Of course classics win with Tina Fey. This is the woman who brought us “The Fabian Strategy.” (Conveniently, while we were studying the Second Punic War, so a discussion of the episode took up a surprising amount of class time)
Ah, I’d forgotten that one, it made me laugh at lot. And there’s been Latin on the show too…and Tina Fey did go to UVA, which is way into carrying on Thomas Jefferson’s classical thing. Maybe she needs to be the one promoting the humanities!
I mean, personally I love her best for the Habsburg thing back in the first season (Defenestration of Prague!!), but luckily there’s room for all kinds of references in Tina Fey-dom.
I have always favored Clytemnestra as a heroine over Penelope but Penelope probably makes a nicer name. I tried to persuade my husband to let me name our daughter Antigone, as a middle name even. No go. He is cute, although not well read.