"So by day she’d weave at her great and growing web –
by night, by the light of torches set beside her,
she would unravel all she’d done. Three whole years
she deceived us blind, seduced us with this scheme."
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 2, lines 115-118. Antinous tells Telemachus how Penelope tricks the suitors who are pressuring her to take a husband. She pretends to weave a shroud for Laertes for the day of his funeral, promising to remarry when it is finished. But each night she secretly unravels the work she does that day. For three years she manages to deceive the suitors, Antinous reveals.