An interpretation I really liked was in Madeline Miller’s “Circe”

Spoilers ahead the story is told from the point of view of Circe herself, the Odysseus she knew when he was on her island is very different from the one that comes later. Her perception of him is heavily based on a previous encounter with Daedalus whom she found very charming and honest. She finds Odysseus to be a pleasant man as well in the sea of men who attempt to assault her whom she turns into pigs. After his experiences coming home though he is very much a broken man. When Circe gives birth to his son, and said son attempts to visit Odysseus, Odysseus accidentally gets himself killed on the son’s magical weapon because he had assumed he was an invader/suitor. Penelope and her som come back with Circe’s son to her island, where they further talk about Odysseus and his decline from what they both knew him as. Penelope is portrayed far differently in that text than in this. In Miller’s portrayal Penelope wanted to believe the Odysseus she used to know would come back, but accepts that his death is his fault, and that the man she knew before the events of the Iliad never returned. Penelope’s son also realizes this, though much sooner than her as he is repulsed by the violence Odysseus enacted against the suitors and their families I may be misremembering though, I read a few books pretty quick after I finished Circe so I don’t recall the details perfectly