In "The Odyssey," why does Odysseus' wife have suitors?

Odysseus'
wife, Penelope, has suitors because she is physically attractive and possesses great wealth. In
other words, she is both beautiful and rich.

There is another reason Penelope
has suitors, and it is cultural in nature. The ancient Greeks viewed marriage as both a
necessity and privilege for women. Young women of childbearing age were expected to marry. For
their part, suitors wanted wives who were fertile and who came equipped with adequate
dowries.

Widows were in a more precarious position. Bereft of their husbands,
they were expected to remarry. If they chose to remain single, their sons (as in
) would become their de facto guardians.

So, another reason Penelope has suitors is because she is expected to remarry. At the
beginning of the story, we are told that Penelope has not made her intentions clear to the
suitors. She is still in mourning and is likely in shock. Penelope has been given the news that
Odysseus is dead. However, she has difficulty accepting this. Of course, Odysseus is not really
dead, but Penelope does not know this.

At this point, Penelope has little
appetite for courting. So, her suitors have chosen to take advantage of her reticence on the
matter.

"...heaven has laid sorrows upon me of yet
another kind; for the chiefs from all our islands, Dulichium, Same, and the woodland island of
Zacynthus, as also all the principal men of Ithaca itself, are eating up my house under the
pretext of paying their court to my mother, who will neither point blank say that she will not
marry, nor yet bring matters to an end; so they are making havoc of my estate, and before long
will do so also with myself."

Now, Penelope has not
made her intentions clear for two reasons:

1) She is in mourning and has
little appetite for courtship to any of her thoughtless suitors.

2) She knows
that she is expected to abide by conventional norms to remarry. However, she does not desire
remarriage and has little appetite for the social disapproval that will result from her
decision. So, she is choosing to bide her time. In the meantime, she chooses to accept
Telemachus' authority over her.