Apart from helping him gain victories in battles as well as overcome temptations, Penelope plays a key role in influencing Odysseus to gain victory over close to a hundred suitors who were seeking Penelope’s hand in marriage. Notably, after the end of the war and the return of most of his comrade back to Ithaca, Odysseus remained incommunicado with his family and the entire kingdom of Ithaca, which led many to speculate that he was dead. For example, in answering the son of Eupeithes, Antinous, Telemachus notes that, “But there are other kings of the Achaeans, many of them here in sea-girt Ithaca, young and old, one of whom could well be king, since lord Odysseus is dead, but I will rule our home and slaves, battle spoils which brave Odysseus won for me” (Homer 23). Note Telemachus’ response to Antinous, one of his mother’s suitors, indicates that he had been led to believe that his own father was dead. With this in mind, when Odysseus returns home, he finds suitors fighting for his wife’s hand in marriage. To end their persistency in asking her to choose one of them to become her husband, Penelope sets a competition for them so that whoever won would marry her. The competition involved an archery contest with Odysseus’ bow. One of the things to note is the fact that this bow belonged to Odysseus, who had gotten it from Iphitus, and as such, he was the only one who was capable of stringing it (Homer 411). Odysseus had concealed his identity for fear of the suitors’ wrath and as a result, even Penelope was not aware that he had come home. Therefore, Penelope ignorantly gives Odysseus undue advantage over other suitors through introducing his bow in this contest, which enabled him to kill all the suitors, have his revenge and reunite with his wife.
除了帮助他在战斗中取得胜利以及克服诱惑外，佩内洛普在影响奥德修斯战胜近百名寻求佩内洛普结婚的求婚者方面发挥了关键作用。值得注意的是，战争结束后，奥德修斯的大部分战友返回伊萨卡，奥德修斯与家人以及整个伊萨卡王国保持着单独的联系，这导致许多人猜测他已经死了。例如，在回答尤佩斯之子安提努斯的问题时，泰勒马科斯指出，“但还有其他亚西亚人的国王，他们中的许多人在伊萨卡海围，无论老少，其中一人很可能成为国王，因为奥德修斯勋爵已经死了，但我将统治我们的家园和奴隶，这是勇敢的奥德修斯为我赢得的战利品”（荷马23）。注意：泰勒马科斯对他母亲的求婚者之一安蒂诺斯的回应表明，他被引导相信自己的父亲已经死了。考虑到这一点，当奥德修斯回家时，他发现求婚者在为他妻子的婚姻而战。为了结束他们坚持要她选择其中一个做她的丈夫的做法，佩内洛普为他们安排了一场比赛，这样无论谁赢了都会娶她。比赛包括一场用奥德修斯弓的射箭比赛。需要注意的一点是，这把弓属于奥德修斯，奥德修斯是从伊菲图斯那里得到的，因此，他是一个能够把它串起来的人（荷马411）。奥德修斯因为害怕求婚者的愤怒而隐瞒了自己的身份，结果连佩内洛普都不知道自己已经回家了。因此，佩内洛普在这场比赛中引入了他的弓箭，无知地给了奥德修斯比其他求婚者不应有的优势，这使他能够杀死所有求婚者，复仇并与妻子团聚。
Whereas Penelope had a significant influence on Odysseus’ triumphs against different enemies as well as against the tests from the god, she was also a significant contributor to his downfall. To begin with, there is a need to observe that before marrying Penelope, Odysseus made a plan to Tyndareus to help him devise a plan that would prevent with the suitors of his daughter, Helen (Hansen 244). In return, Tyndareus would help Odysseus marry Penelope. However, after marriage, Helen is abducted and Odysseus is forced to leave his family and join others in wars in order to bring her back. Notably, whereas the decision to marry Penelope provided a platform for him to ascend to power as the King of Ithaca, it also came at a high cost in the sense that Odysseus was forced to stay away from his motherland for a significant portion of his adult life. This later almost caused him to kill almost a hundred men in order to regain his wife and his marriage. Furthermore, his epic wars and his relationship with Circa, the goddess of magic, during his war journeys, led to the birth of his son, Telegonus, who later killed Odysseus when he attacked Ithaca (Ahyan 213). Therefore, one can conclude that his marriage to Penelope laid a foundation for his own death later in life.
虽然佩内洛普对奥德修斯战胜不同的敌人以及上帝的考验有着重大影响，但她也是奥德修斯垮台的重要原因。首先，需要注意的是，在与佩内洛普结婚之前，奥德修斯向廷达罗伊斯制定了一个计划，帮助他制定一个计划，防止与他女儿海伦（汉森244）的求婚者发生关系。作为回报，廷达罗伊斯将帮助奥德修斯与佩内洛普结婚。然而，结婚后，海伦被绑架，奥德修斯被迫离开家人，加入其他人的战争，以便把她带回来。值得注意的是，与佩内洛普结婚的决定为他作为伊萨卡国王登上权力宝座提供了一个平台，但奥德修斯也付出了高昂的代价，因为奥德修斯在成年后的大部分时间里被迫远离祖国。后来，为了夺回妻子和婚姻，他几乎杀害了近一百名男子。此外，他史诗般的战争以及在战争旅途中与魔法女神Circa的关系导致了他的儿子Telegonus的诞生，他后来在袭击伊萨卡时杀死了奥德修斯（阿扬213）。因此，可以得出结论，他与佩内洛普的婚姻为他晚年的死亡奠定了基础。
Apart from Penelope, another woman who had a significant impact on the fate of her husband is Jocasta. Jocasta, the daughter of Menoeceus, was married to King Laius of Thebes, and later on to her own son, Oedipus. To begin with, there is a need to observe that after their marriage, Laius and Jocasta are given a warning that they must refrain from bearing children since doing so would lead to the birth of a son who would later kill his father and marry his mother (Brockett, Ball, Fleming and Carlson 72). The ancient people had a great respect to prophetic utterances and oracles and one would expect that after receiving this utterance, both Laius and Jocasta would have taken measures to ensure that they do not conceive a child. However, this is not the case. On the contrary, when Laius gets drunks, he lies with Jocasta and she conceives. Notably, whereas it would seem cruel, Jocasta had an opportunity to kill the child when he was born but she does not do so and neither does she encourage her husband to execute the child. Instead, the child was given to a servant with the hope that he would kill him but instead, the child was taken to another kingdom where he grew up under the care of foster parents. Speaking from this point of view, had Jocasta not conceived, the fate of her husband of dying under the sword of his own son would not have come true. One of the issues that emerge in this case is the fact that Jocasta had no regard for prophecy and as such, knowing that the king was drunk and their intimate relationship could lead to the birth of a child, she still slept with him.
除了佩内洛普，另一位对丈夫命运有重大影响的女性是乔卡斯塔。约卡斯塔是梅诺西厄斯的女儿，嫁给了底比斯国王莱厄斯，后来又嫁给了自己的儿子俄狄浦斯。首先，需要注意的是，莱乌斯和乔卡斯塔在结婚后收到警告，他们必须避免生育，因为这样做会导致一个儿子的出生，而这个儿子后来会杀死他的父亲并娶他的母亲（布罗克特、鲍尔、弗莱明和卡尔森72）。古人非常尊重先知的话语和神谕，人们会期望在收到这一话语后，莱乌斯和约卡斯塔都会采取措施确保他们不会怀孕。然而，情况并非如此。相反，当莱厄斯喝醉时，他和乔卡斯塔上床，她怀孕了。值得注意的是，尽管这看起来很残忍，但乔卡斯塔有机会在孩子出生时杀死他，但她没有这样做，也没有鼓励丈夫处决孩子。取而代之的是，孩子被交给了一个仆人，希望他能杀了他，但取而代之的是，孩子被带到了另一个王国，在那里他在养父母的照顾下长大。从这个角度讲，若乔卡斯塔没有怀孕，她丈夫死于自己儿子之剑下的命运就不会实现。本案中出现的一个问题是，乔卡斯塔根本不在乎预言，因此，她知道国王喝醉了，他们的亲密关系可能导致一个孩子的出生，她仍然和他睡觉。
Jocasta’s disregard of the utterances and oracles of the prophets is also evident in the way she deals with her own son later in life, who at that particular point was her husband. From the play Oedipus Rex, rather than seeking to help her husband, who was deeply concerned that he might have killed his father, Jocasta dismissed the oracles and prophesies concerning their lives and instead points to the notion that it is impossible to foretell a person’s life. On the contrary, she insists that life events occur only by chance. “Why should a man whose life seems ruled by chance live in fear—a man who never looks ahead, who has no certain vision of his future?” (Sophocles 1161-1164). In so speaking, Jocasta undermines the calamity that was about to befall to her husband. Furthermore, her insensitive talk lead Oedipus to seek for more evidence on whether he was the one who killed his father. On her part, despite learning that there could be a possibility that her young husband could be her son, she still goes ahead and calls the only surviving servant of her late husband, who saw how Laius was killed. The new revelation leads Oedipus to gouge out his own eyes, while Jocasta cannot stand the shame and as such, she ends her own life (Coussa e65).
乔卡斯塔对先知的话语和神谕的漠视在她晚年对待自己儿子的方式上也很明显，在那个特殊的时刻，儿子就是她的丈夫。从戏剧《俄狄浦斯·雷克斯》中，乔卡斯塔没有寻求帮助她的丈夫，她深深地担心他可能杀死了自己的父亲，她驳斥了有关他们生命的预言和预言，而是指出不可能预测一个人的生命。相反，她坚持认为生活事件只是偶然发生的。“为什么一个人的生活似乎是由偶然决定的——一个从不向前看的人，一个对自己的未来没有明确愿景的人——生活在恐惧中？”（索福克勒斯1161-1164）。这样说来，乔卡斯塔破坏了即将降临到她丈夫身上的灾难。此外，她麻木不仁的谈话导致俄狄浦斯寻求更多的证据，证明他是否是杀害他父亲的人。就她而言，尽管她知道她年轻的丈夫有可能是她的儿子，但她仍然继续打电话给她已故丈夫幸存的仆人，她看到了莱厄斯是如何被杀的。新的启示使俄狄浦斯挖出了自己的眼睛，而乔卡斯塔无法忍受耻辱，因此，她结束了自己的生命（库萨e65）。
In conclusion, Jocasta and Penelope played a significant role in influencing the fate of their husband. Whereas this is the case, one of the notable aspects concerning these women is the fact that one contributed significantly to the triumph of her husband while the other was the played a direct role in the fall of her husband. In particular, an analysis of Penelope reveals a woman who was endowed with patient and wisdom and as a result of this, her husband fought many battles and temptations and triumphed just to be with her. On the other hand, due to her disregard of the oracles, Jocasta led to not only the death of her first husband, Laius, but also contributed to the fall of her husband, Oedipus, who was also her son, from the throne. Therefore, whereas both women influence their husband’s fate, Laius and Oedipus’ fate is filled with shame and defeat while Odysseus fate is filled with triumph.
总之，乔卡斯塔和佩内洛普在影响他们丈夫的命运方面发挥了重要作用。尽管如此，这些妇女值得注意的一个方面是，其中一个对她丈夫的胜利作出了重大贡献，而另一个则在她丈夫的垮台中发挥了直接作用。特别是，对佩内洛普的分析揭示了一个女人，她被赋予了耐心和智慧，因此，她的丈夫经历了许多战斗和诱惑，并成功地与她在一起。另一方面，由于她对神谕的漠视，乔卡斯塔不仅导致了她的任丈夫莱厄斯的死亡，而且也导致了她的丈夫俄狄浦斯（也是她的儿子）从王位上倒下。因此，尽管两位女性都影响着她们丈夫的命运，但莱厄斯和俄狄浦斯的命运充满了羞耻和失败，而奥德修斯的命运充满了胜利。