who was penelope in greek mythology?

I know her as Ulysses' long suffering and stay-at-home wife, delineated in the Odyssey. He was fallaling around for a LONG time and at home, presumed dead. Penelope had many suitors and promised to choose one as soon as her weaving was done. All day, she sat at the loom and at night, ripped out her work, thereby stalling everyone (who must have had brains the size of peas) until Ulysses (or Odysseus to his Greek friends) finally decided to come home. Penelope has become synonymous w. the ideal of the faithful wife.

There may have been a precurser to this saga, but this is all I know. Ulysses fought in the Trojan war, had many adventures, had a lot of fun, slept around, resisted the sirens, watched Circe turn his men into swine, passed through Sylla and Charybdis, and met the Cyclops. Penelope sat around, supervised the servants and made scarves...or at least parts of one...a pre-feminist tract. But worth the read.

To be fair, given the times, Penelope was considered to be very clever and devious.

Google brings up this:

Penelope Odysseus patient wife, daughter of king Icarus of Sparta and mother of Telemachus. Helen was her cousin. After almost twenty years of waiting for her husband to return to Ithaca, Penelope was forced to agree to wed one of the many suitors that had occupied her palace, and promised to make a decision once she had finished weaving a shroud for Laertes. Weaving during the day, she stayed up tearing it up at night to delay the moment, but was discovered and just about to make the choice when Odysseus finally turned up, killing or chasing away the suitors. A later version tells us that Penelope was made immortal by Circe and wed to Telegonos, Circes son with Odysseus.

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