On Faithfulness (Odyssey)

In the tumultuous years of modern life, we have always wanted someone who could stand by and for us. Someone who would respect and view us as partners and not just mere servants or the like. Most of us, if not all of us, look for that someone who would be true and faithful to us. But how do we define faithfulness? Is it the ability to resist any form of temptation? Or, it is the ability to bear in mind the existence of our significant other? Does the definition of the word change through time?

Odysseus is loyal as he puts it. He came to live with Circe and Kalypso. He had enjoyed his years of stay with these two women. Now, isn't loyalty and faithfulness tied with one another? If they are, can we then consider Odysseus to be faithful still to Penelope? If they are not, then what is the difference between loyalty and faithfulness?

Faithfulness Defined (Iliad)

People who are in love and who are planning to be in love have different expectations regarding relationships. They imagine or come up with different sets of standard, but one thing certain all of them include FAITHFUL as one of the adjectives describing the man/woman they would love. Here are some quotations of faithfulness.

Confidentiality is a virtue of the loyal, as loyalty is the virtue of faithfulness.
Edwin Louis Cole

Marriage has a unique place because it speaks of an absolute faithfulness, a covenant between radically different persons, male and female; and so it echoes the absolute covenant of God with his chosen, a covenant between radically different partners.
Rowan D. Williams

Nothing is more noble, nothing more venerable than fidelity. Faithfulness and truth are the most sacred excellences and endowments of the human mind.
Marcus Tullius Cicero

*** all three quotations were retrieved from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/faithfulness.html

If the above quoted statements are the idea of the quoted geniuses, i wonder what your personal definition of faithfulness is.