also i once heard a take that penelope had it easy waiting for odysseus.
had it easy??? the metaphor i'd use to describe penelope in those twenty years is suspended animation. yeah the journey home is hard, but you have a goal to work towards, you are still moving.
do you know how hard it is to wait for something you're not sure will ever come?
(this isn't even including the threat of the suitors, which i also heard a take where someone said the suitors aren't a threat at all to penelope in the poem-- which i don't think this person knows what ancient greece is like...
they said that the only person explicitly in danger was telemachus because of the plot... i dont think this person knows what the logical next step would be for a suitor after telemachus is dead 💀💀💀)
but yeah most people think that waiting is the easiest shit... it's not. again, penelope didn't know if he was dead. and it's really easy to just jump to that conclusion... and if you love someone that much... wouldn't you try to follow them?
and if people don't understand this, try to say that she should 'move on', her entire story is literally around the point that she cannot...
it's hard to wait for someone. it's hard to hold on. when you hold on to something, you get tired, don't you?
it's not easy to wait, to keep holding on for an unknown amount of time. there is a reason why 'forever' is not something that most people can keep. but if you can, it will be a challenging road, full of hardship and pain-- but it will be the sweetest joy you will know.
(anyways fuck the people who had those bad takes. they actually pissed me tf off. i'm writing this at 4am, that's how angry i am)