After years of struggling with the gods, Odysseus returns home and avenges himself against the suitors who have coveted his wife during his absence. He is disguised as a beggar in rags but his son, Telemachus, knows it is his father. When her nurse comes to inform Penelope, Odysseus’ wife, that her husband has returned, Penelope refuses to believe her and thinks the gods have turned her senses. Sparing the nurse a beating because of her old gray head, Penelope tells her to go. At this point the nurse informs Penelope that it truly is her husband. Penelope is concerned that while it may be her husband, who has this man, who has been gone for so many years and experienced so many atrocities, become? As we read “One moment he seemed…Odysseus, to the life-- / the next, no, he was not the man she knew, / a huddled mass of rags was all she saw” (Kass and Kass 548).
Penelope is chastised by her nurse for having little trust, and Telemachus berates her for her cold heart because she appears to be aloof from her returned husband “What other wife could have a spirit so unbending? / Holding back from her husband, home at last for her / after bearing twenty years of brutal struggle - / your heart was always harder than a rock” (Kass et al. 550). Penelope explains she is merely stunned with wonder. She explains to her son that she and Odysseus share a secret language known only to them “We two have secret signs, / known to us both but hidden from the world” (Kass at al. 551). One of these signs is the scar on Odysseus’ foot, which the nurse has seen when bathing Odysseus. For some odd reason, though she is his wife, Penelope appears not to know he has a very distinct scar on his foot.
However, there is a secret sign known only to them which she is aware of as a form of proof, the marriage bed and bedroom. After being reproached by Odysseus for her unbending ways, Penelope agrees that he appears as her husband. ...