Penelope promised to decide which one of the suitors to marry when she finished her death shroud for Laertes. But, she secretly unraveled the parts she weaved every night. This continued until one of her maids, who fell in love with one of the suitors, betrayed Penelope.
distraught
because she tells the suitors that when she finishes she'll pick a husband but at night she un-weaves it to give, really Odysseus more time to get back. Until an un-loyal slave tells the suitors of her doings, and they force her to finish it.
Penelope tells the beggar (Odysseus in disguise) that at night she unravels a burial shroud she is making intended for Laertes every night in order to keep the would-be suitors at bay until her husband returns .
Odysseus asks the swineherd and cowherd to keep his identity a secret and help him plot against the suitors who are courting his wife Penelope.
She told the suitors that when she was finished weaving a particular tapestry, she would marry one of them. She wove the tapesty by day and unravelled it by night, so that it was never completed.
Odysseus told Penelope to take the women and go to the upper chamber and do not talk to any man.
Penelope was a hero for many reasons: 1) She stayed loyal to her husband. 2) She managed to trick the suitors. 3) She questioned Odysseus till the end. She was cautious and proceeded carefully. 4) She managed to raise her son alone and keep her estate.
Penelope pretends to be weaving a burial cloak for Odysseus's father, Laertes. And she tells the men when she is done she will pick her new husband. But every night she would unravel part of it. She kept this up until one of the maids, who fell in love with a suitor, betrayed her.
She was waiting for Odysseus to come home because she knew he was alive and would soon come home to defend her honor. So she prolonged it. Sources: Homer's The Odyssey
Penelope's ostensible offer of marriage and her solicitation of gifts constitute a dolos with a double aim: to keep the suitors off guard and to reassure Odysseus of her loyalty, in the well-founded belief that he has today returned in the guise of the stranger.
Penelope asks the minstrel Phemius to stop singing the song about the Trojan War, as it brings back memories of her husband Odysseus who has been missing for years. She is trying to keep her composure in front of the suitors who are vying for her hand in marriage.
Penelope tells her to move it as another test to see if Odysseus is indeed who he says he is. If he is the her husband, he will know that the bed cannot actually be moved because it is built from the trunk of the Olive tree around which the house has been constructed. Odysseus calls her bluff by noting her orders of Eurycleia to be impossible, which finally convinces Penelope that her husband is home at last.