Penelope in Three Movements: A Reading of Dorothy Molloy’s ‘Waiting for Julio’

Abstract

This essay is a close reading of Dorothy Molloy’s poem ‘Waiting for Julio’ under the spotlight of the classical characters of Penelope and Ulysses. In Molloy’s text, the constant emphasis on clothes and textiles will add an important layer of meaning to the palimpsest of readings of the Greek myths. Although feminist interpretations of Penelope are numerous, the reading of strong gender asymmetries into Homer’s plotline—what we could call ‘victim narratives’—has been pervasive both in criticism and in artistic revisions of the myth. Thus, the critical assessment of this poem will be enriched by the tradition of interpretative frames for the Homeric story. I will also place Dorothy Molloy’s poem in an international context of revisionist myth-making and, specifically, will connect it with a long list of Penelopes recreated by contemporary Irish women poets. This close reading will be structured in three sections that account for the three themes that are paramount both in Molloy’s contemporary text and in the related episodes in the Odyssey: the institutionalization of love, the long wait with its strong relationship to clothes and textiles and, finally, the return of the hero.