<P> The origin of her name is believed by Robert S.P. Beekes to be Pre-Greek and related to pēnelops (πηνέλοψ) or pēnelōps (πηνέλωψ), glossed by Hesychius as "some kind of bird" (today arbitrarily identified with the Eurasian wigeon, to which Linnaeus gave the binomial Anas penelope), where - elōps (- έλωψ) is a common Pre-Greek suffix for predatory animals; however, the semantic relation between the proper name and the gloss is not clear . In folk etymology, Pēnelopē (Πηνελόπη) is usually understood to combine the Greek word pēnē (πήνη), "weft", and ōps (ὤψ), "face", which is considered the most appropriate for a cunning weaver whose motivation is hard to decipher . </P> <P> Penelope is the wife of the main character, the king of Ithaca, Odysseus (Ulysses in Roman mythology), and daughter of Icarius of Sparta and his wife Periboea . She only has one son by Odysseus, Telemachus, who was born just before Odysseus was called to fight in the Trojan War . She waits twenty years for the final return of her husband, during which she devises various strategies to delay marrying one of the 108 suitors (led by Antinous and including Agelaus, Amphinomus, Ctessippus, Demoptolemus, Elatus, Euryades, Eurymachus and Peisandros). </P> <P> On Odysseus's return, disguised as an old beggar, he finds that Penelope has remained faithful . She has devised tricks to delay her suitors, one of which is to pretend to be weaving a burial shroud for Odysseus's elderly father Laertes and claiming that she will choose a suitor when she has finished . Every night for three years, she undoes part of the shroud, until Melantho, one of twelve unfaithful serving women, discovers her chicanery and reveals it to the suitors . </P> <P> Because of her efforts to put off remarriage, Penelope is often seen as a symbol of connubial fidelity and we are reminded several times of her fidelity . But due to Athena's meddling, who wants her "to show herself to the wooers, that she might set their hearts a-flutter and win greater honor from her husband and her son than heretofore", Penelope does appear before the suitors (xviii. 160--162). As Irene de Jong comments: </P>

Who reveals penelope's ruse to the suitors