Queen Penelope sat alone at her great wooden loom.

Over one hundred rude men demanded that she choose a new husband.

She promised the suitors she would choose a husband once the shroud was finished.

For three years she tricked them, weaving the shroud by day and unweaving it by night.

Day after day, the suitors feasted in the palace of Odysseus.

They slaughtered his cattle, drank his sweet wine, and wasted his wealth.

Young Telemachus, the king's only son, could only watch in quiet sorrow.

Then Athena, the goddess of wisdom, arrived disguised as Mentes, an old friend.

She whispered to Telemachus, 'Your father is alive on a distant island.'

Her words filled the young prince with the courage of a warrior.

Telemachus stood before the suitors and told them to leave his home.

The suitors laughed in his face, but he refused to back down.

That midnight, Telemachus sailed into the dark sea to seek his father.