Through reading the Odyssey and “Medea,” I recognized parallel patterns in the marriages between Penelope and Odysseus and Medea and Jason. Odysseus left Penelope with a newborn baby while he went to war. Meanwhile, many eligible suitors, ready to prove their status and take Odysseus's place as husband, were constantly gathering in the palace. Medea was abandoned and entrusted to another woman of higher rank. The way Medea and Penelope practice deception and trickery differ. Medea and Penelope, both wives whose husbands left them, became women consumed with deceit, deceit and intelligence, while differing in the manner of fulfilling their desires, one through murder and the other through mind games. In the Odyssey, Agamemnon recounts his death and how his wife participated in his murder. He believes there is nothing worse than a lady "who occupies her mind with acts of this kind, as this one did when she thought of this act of dishonor and plotted the murder of her lawful husband” (11.428-430). . Agamemnon gives Odysseus advice on the secrets he should keep from his wife. He explains that it's better to leave Penelope in the dark because no matter what secrets he keeps from her, she will always be by his side. We see this when Agamemnon says: “Yet you, Odysseus, will never be murdered by your wife” (11, 444). We see here that Agamemnon compares his wife to Penelope and both have faced abandoning husbands, Odysseus will always have a place in his palace. In the Odyssey we see other instances where Penelope is consumed by deception, trickery and cleverness. In volume nineteen, Penelope hatches a plan to defer the suitors. Penelope's true love for O...... middle of paper...... and awaits her husband's return. Although the two wives have something in common, their behavior is very different. This could be due to their past and their relationship with their husband. When Odysseus went to war, he promised Penelope that he would come back for her. She never gave up hope of their reunion. Thanks to this promise, she never felt violent towards her husband, because he never hurt her directly. Medea, on the other hand, was completely abandoned and there was no hope that he would ever return. This provoked an anger in Medea that Penelope never felt. Due to Medea's anger, she resorts to the murders of her two sons and her husband's wife while Penelope never felt this anger and never felt the need to resort to murder. Even though their situations were similar, Medea and Penelope handled their feelings in different ways.