Respuesta :
In Book Eight of The Odyssey, when Odysseus is at the royal court of the Phaeacians, he asks the bard Demodocus to sing a song about Troy. The bard does so, and Odysseus responds by “clutching his flaring sea-blue cape in both powerful hands, [drawing] it over his head and [burying] his handsome face...” It seems that Odysseus is overcome with grief, but he is the one who asked for the song in the first place. It seems like he is crying just so King Alcinous would ask him to tell his story to the assembled crowd. In contrast, in “An Ancient Gesture”, the author provides Penelope’s point of view, weary and plagued by grief. As Penelope unweaves the shroud each night, she “suddenly bursts into tears” because “there is simply nothing else to do”. Penelope has been weaving and unweaving night after night to avoid marrying one of her many suitors while Odysseus has been living with goddesses and enchantresses on his long journey home. The reader is left wondering if Odysseus’s tears in the Odyssey are authentic compared to Penelope’s tears.
In the Odyssey the reader gets to know about Odysseus journey, but not Penelope's experience. Millay supplements this absence, and let the reader know that everybody griefs and goes through pain and difficult times.
