"So I cannot tell if the gods will sail me home again
or I’ll go down out there, on the fields of Troy,
but all things here must rest in your control.
Watch over my father and mother in the palace,
just as now, or perhaps a little more,
when I am far from home.
But once you see the beard on the boy’s cheek,
you wed the man you like, and leave your house behind."
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 18, lines 297-304. Penelope repeats to suitor Eurymachus what Odysseus told her before he left for the war in Troy. It is clear that King Odysseus had great trust in his wife to leave her completely in control of his kingdom and household. Twenty years later she is still trying to respect his commands.