The Role of Women in The Odyssey
Homer wrote the classic epic The Odyssey more than 2,500 years ago. At that time in ancient Greek society, as well as in the whole of the ancient world, the dominant role was played by men. Society was organized, directed, and controlled by men, and it was accepted that women occupied a subservient and inferior position. Women, of course, were valued, but were expected to possess certain traits and perform certain tasks that men demanded of them. Does Homer's writing in The Odyssey support or refute the common belief of his time regarding women? Homer endorsed the dominating belief of his time concerning women by treating the female characters unequally and differently compared to the male characters in The Odyssey.
By examining the women of The Odyssey one comes to one conclusion about women in Homer's epic. Homer's male characters in The Odyssey consistently treated women differently and unequally throughout The Odyssey. Concurrent with the time's belief that women held a subservient position in society to men, the male characters in The Odyssey often expected certain traits and actions that they didn't expect from men. Also all the societies and lands Odysseus visited that were inhabited by mortals were dominated by men.
In The Odyssey women are unequal, treated differently, and are considered inferior to men. Throughout the epic women are not given an appropriate amount of respect by men. The male characters of The Odyssey expect certain traits and characteristics of women that they do not expect of themselves. Men expect that the women in The Odyssey be loyal to them, and not be adulterous or seductive. When Odysseus returns to Ithaca in disguise, he expects Penelope to be faithful and loyal to him. It is doubtful that Odysseus would have stayed with Penelope if he had found her to be unfaithful and adulterous when he was gone. This was while Odysseus had slept with Circe and stayed with her on her island for one year and then slept with Calypso numerous times on the island of Ogygia. What makes this even worse is that Penelope would have had justification to be unfaithful to Odysseus and remarry. As far as Penelope, and almost everyone else on Ithaca, was concerned Odysseus was dead. Penelope had a strong need for a husband, a companion, a strong man to rule Ithaca in Odysseus' place, and a male presence to help ra...
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... All of Odysseus' maidservants exist to first serve Odysseus, then later to serve Telemachus and the suitors. Circe and Calypso exist in the epic to satisfy Odysseus by pleasuring him sexually, pampering him, and treating him like a God. Helen and Arete serve their husbands as loyal wives.
Almost nowhere in The Odyssey can one find a woman doing the same things as a man. No women went off to fight in the Trojan War. There were no female members of Odysseus or Telemachus' crew, nor do any women participate in the battle against the suitors. The character traits that make a man great; strength, courage, and leadership are lacking in female characters of The Odyssey. Throughout The Odyssey women were given a double-standard. They were expected to act a certain way and exhibit certain traits while men had no such limitations. If women did not live up to these standards of behavior, they would be punished. If men broke these same rules nothing would be done. During the time Homer wrote The Odyssey it was the dominant belief that a society should be dominated by men and that women should be subservient to them. This belief is reflected throughout the writing of Homer in The Odyssey.
Judged by modern Western standards, the treatment of women by men in Homer's Odyssey can be characterized as sexist. Women in Homer's Odyssey are judged mainly by their looks. If important men and gods consider a woman beautiful, or if her son or husband is a hero or has an important position such as king, the woman is successful. The way women in The Odyssey are treated is based on appearance, the things men want from them, and whether the woman has any power over men. During Odysseus' journey to the underworld he sees many different types of women. We hear about their beauty, their important sons, or their affairs with gods. We hear nothing about these women's accomplishments in their lifetime. Odysseus tells how Antiope could "boast a god for a lover,"(193) as could Tyro and many other women. Epikaste was called "that prize"(195) her own son unwittingly married.
Greeks had a misogynistic society, however women still had important roles in the Odyssey. Mortal women's most esteemed roles were either wife or mother. All the mortal female characters in the Odyssey existed to interact with a male, due to their beauty or sex appeal. But, the most powerful female characters in the Odyssey have other qualities such as cleverness which still play a role. Beauty is still one of the most important thing to Homer. For instance he starts a war using Helen of Troys beauty, and makes the two of the biggest obstacles Odysseus has to deal with love interests, Circe and Calypso. If you’ll remember he stayed on Circe's island an extra year longer of his own free will. However, Circe and Calypso are not mortal, so they already have the advantage. Homers non mortal women all have other qualities to them that allow them to help the plot along. Namely, Penelope, Queen of Ithaca and Odysseus bride.
Both genders in The Odyssey and The Epic of Gilgamesh have a specific role to play. Women support and guide the men in the epic poems which also portrays them as wise beings. However, men are seen as superior to women and must show their strength and authority over others, even using women to accomplish their
Before we delve into the traits of individual characters, it is important to understand certain assumptions about women that prevailed in the Homeric Age. By modern standards, the Ancient Greeks would be considered a rabidly misogynistic culture. Indeed, the notoriously sour Boetian playwright Hesiod-- who wrote about fifty years before Homer-- proclaimed "Zeus who thunders on high made women to be an evil to mortal men, with a nature to do evil (Theogony 600)." While this view may have been extreme even for the Greeks, they were convinced of the physical and intellectual inferiority of women. Thus, they believed that it was better for all--...
She is loyal, having waited for Odysseus for twenty years, not remarrying, though she thought he was gone for good. She also plays a much more active role in the marriage she has with Odysseus. Perhaps the most defining characteristics attributed to Penelope involve her role as a woman, in marriage and as a presumed “widow”. First, there seems to be a double standard, like described in Calypso’s case, between the loyalty of Penelope and the loyalty of Odysseus. Penelope is physically and emotionally loyal to Odysseus, while Odysseus is only emotionally loyal, meaning he has had sexual relations with other women within the twenty years he has been gone. During this time period in Greek culture, this was not frowned upon and was quite normal, suggesting that women were held to a different standard than men. In addition, as Penelope is presumed to be a widow, at least by the suitors, she is prized solely for her beauty. The suitors speak only of her beauty and none of her intelligence or of her personality or soul. This suggests that marriage was not always about love, and that women were judged and valued merely for their beauty. This idea further proves the act of sexualizing women during this
Homer's great epic, "The Odyssey" was written several thousands of years ago, a time in human history when men played the dominant role in society. The entire structure of civilization was organized and controlled by men; It was an accepted fact that women held an inferior position in society. Society was constructed as if women were around only to serve the men. The involvement of women in any circumstance was almost completely dominated by what the men allowed. The women were valued in society, only they were not given important roles or any decision making power. It is as if they held no power in the ancient Greek society. This is why Homer's Odyssey is very unique, Homer put women into roles that were previously unheard of for women to possess. Unlike in The Iliad, where women served merely as an object to men; female characters of Odyssey are distinctive because they possess personality, and have intricate relationships with the male characters of the Odyssey. By characterizing the women in "The Odyssey", a reader may come to some conclusions about the role of women in this epic. Along with the belief that women played a secondary role to men in society, the female characters displayed certain traits that could not be exhibited by the men. Athena demonstrated the most intelligence and valor out of all the characters in "The Odyssey." The male characters play the most significant roles in this epic, but without the support of the females in "The Odyssey", Odysseus would not have made it through his journey.
“A woman cannot be herself in the society of the present day, which is an exclusively masculine society, with laws framed by men and with a judicial system that judges feminine conduct from a masculine point of view” (Ibsen). This saying also applied to the times of the Odyssey, an epic constructed by the blind, eight century B.C.E. poet, Homer. As one of the few representatives of ancient Greek social order, the blind, Homer witnessed women as substandard to men, regardless of their actions; many of them existed as seductresses, prostitutes, or slaves. He engraved into his poem women’s roles; the roles of women, as mothers, wives, seductresses, and goddesses are exemplified in this epic, when shown in comparison to the men of that era.
Greek women, as depicted in their history and literature, endure many hardships and struggle to establish a meaningful status in their society. In the Odyssey, Penelope’s only role in the epic is to support Odysseus and remain loyal to him. She is at home and struggles to keep her family intact while Odysseus is away trying to return to his native land. The cultural role of women is depicted as being supportive of men and nothing more. Yet what women in ancient Greece did long ago was far more impressive than what men did.
The first major female character introduced in this epic is Penelope. Penelope is the wife of Odysseus, and the mother of Telemachus. She is portrayed as a strong-willed widow, who even after not seeing Odysseus for twenty years, keeps her trust in her husband to return home. The main tool is the rule of law, but even before laws customs could be used” (rwaag.org).
In the epic poem, it gives images of Penelope and Clytemnestra that helps to interpret what an ideal woman Penelope was in Ancient Greece. Penelope is represented as the ideal woman because she remains trustworthy to Odysseus, even though he has been gone for several years. Penelope also embodies the ideal Greek woman because she is a faithful wife to Odysseus, a great hostess, and rejects all moves upon her from the suitors in her house. One quote at the end of the book that shows she’s been loyal for this long time period is when the book states, “ The more she spoke, the more deep desire for tears welled up inside his breast—he wept as he held the wife he loved, the soul of loyalty, in his arms at last” (Homer, Odyssey, Book 23, Line 259-261). On top of that she shows a sense of intelligence being able to scheme and deal with the suitors around her all the time. Another great quote that represents her loyalty is when Penelope says “they court me against my law, they lay waste in my house (Homer, Odyssey, Book 19, Line 148)”, which is when she [Penelope] herself is basically explaining how she remains loyal even though there are several men making advances towards her in her own
Odysseus on numerous occasions, is unfaithful to Penelope. Penelope however, remains loyal to Odysseus and she is praised by greek society for it while Odysseus is never seen as adulterous for his disloyalty. However, one could argue that Odysseus’s relationship with Calypso is non-consensual, as she used her power over him as a goddess to control him and keep him on the island. In the end, however, Penelope and Telemachus are the main reasons Odysseus continues his journey home to Ithaca. The other marriage we are introduced to is the relationship between Agamemnon and his wife Clytemnestra. When Agamemnon returned from war, his wife and her lover murdered him. He sees this as a cruel act of deceit, despite the fact that he killed their daughter. Agamemnon views Clytemnestra, and other women as evil and untrustworthy. In book eleven he tells Odysseus, “So, there’s nothing more deadly, bestial than a women set on works like these, what a monstrous thing she plotted, slaughtered her own lawful husband!” Agamemnon makes this generalization and doesn’t take into consideration that he also cheated on his wife and probably murdered numerous
Penelope is the most important female character in the epic because Odysseus ' homecoming is centered on reconnecting with her. Ten years has past and Odysseus has still not returned from the war and is seemingly dead. Many suitors desire to replace him, by taking Penelope 's hand in marriage and Odysseus ' property. While unsure of Penelope 's attitude towards these suitors, readers are constantly reminded of her faithfulness to Odysseus. Although Odysseus does not know whether Penelope remains faithful to him, he still yearns to come home. “The expectations and limitations of the male and female roles in the Odyssey are accepted and never questioned”. (Whittaker 40) Society expects women in Penelope’s position to remain devoted to their significant other even after all these years and not knowing whether or not he is alive but are more forgiving to men who commit adultery like Odysseus. This situation once again brings up the question of a double standard modeled in The
The Odyssey: Portrayal of Women How does Homer portray women in the epic, The Odyssey? In order to answer this question you must look at woman and goddesses as two separate groups of people who are "people". This is because they are portrayed in two separate ways. You see, a regular woman like Penelope is looked at as beautiful but has.
The role that the housemaids play in The Odyssey is that of servitude. They are expected to serve the suitors and put up with their rude demeanor. During the course of the ten years that the suitors are there, many of the housemaids sleep with them. Upon returning to Ithica, and slaughtering the suitors, Odysseus makes the housemaids who slept with the suitors clean up their dead bodies. After this he hangs them by the neck, with this gesture he indirectly calls them “harlots”. This indicates one of many feelings toward women of that time.
Women play an influential role in The Odyssey. Women appear throughout the story, as goddesses, wives, princesses, or servants. The nymph Calypso enslaves Odysseus for many years. Odysseus desires to reach home and his wife Penelope. It is the goddess Athena who sets the action of The Odyssey rolling; she also guides and orchestrates everything to Odysseus’ good. Women in The Odyssey are divided into two classes: seductresses and helpmeets. By doing so, Homer demonstrates that women have the power to either hinder of help men. Only one woman is able to successfully combine elements of both classes: Penelope. She serves as a role model of virtue and craftiness. All the other women are compared to and contrasted with Penelope.