The main suitor, Antinous, uses the word cunning to describe the queen after she managed to deceive them (Homer 2:97). Penelope did this, first, by blocking her weaving, a task she insisted she had to complete before she was willing to marry any of the suitors. However, Penelope never intended to complete her project, since “'every night by torchlight she carried it out; / and thus for three years he deceived the Achaeans.' " (2. 113-124). Unraveling the shroud - which she had made for Odysseus' father, Laertes - remained incomplete every night, until an unfaithful handmaid revealed her secret to the suitors. Despite being discovered, the ruse of Penelope had managed to block the suitors for three – almost four – years. This would not be the last time she would use her cunning to deceive the advances of her suitors. Towards the end of the play Penelope proposes a challenge to them men, who ever had the ability to string