This study explores the patronage and significance of the five sixteenth-century fresco scenes illustrating the reunion of Ulysses and Penelope designed by Francesco Primaticcio in the no longer extant Galerie dUlysse at Fontainebleau. Correlations are drawn between the imagery represented in the frescoes and two other works of art from Primaticcios oeuvre: the tomb of King Henri II and Queen Catherine de Medici of France and a painting titled Ulysses and Penelope in the Toledo Museum of Art. Also examined in relation to the frescoes are Catherine de Medicis efforts to create a positive public image of herself as Regent of France following the death of Henri II. It is argued that Homers Penelope was a suitable mythological character with whom Catherine de Medici could identify; and that the Galerie dUlysse frescoes of Ulysses and Penelope were a means of public propaganda for the recently widowed queen-regent.