Women living in Ancient Greece had limited rights, if any, and were treated as property, owned by either their father or husband. They were never allowed to enter battle and their job was to keep to household in order. However, in Greek stories, women were given a major role and showed strength, wit, and cunning unusual to the stereotypical woman of the time. The Greek writers used women who possessed these traits to progress the plot and evoke the emotions famous in Greek drama and tragedies. In Homer’s “The Odyssey” Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, plays a pivotal role in advancing the plot through her mental strength and wit. While Odysseus is away, Penelope is bombarded by suitors wishing to take his as her husband. Penelope is forced to use her wit in order to ward off the will of the suitors. For example Penelope said that she would choose a suitor after weaving a shroud for her supposedly dead husband. Then, “Every day she would weave at the great loom/and every night she would unweave by torchlight.” (ii. 105-106) This use of wit by Penelope would have been unusual to come across in traditional Ancient Greek women. Homer uses this particular display of wit to cover four years of Odysseus’s absence in Ithaca, and establishes Penelope as a major character in “The Odyssey.” Later in “The Odyssey,” Penelope issues a contest to shoot Odysseus’s bow through twelve axe heads, as Odysseus was able to do. The winner would be the man that she takes as her husband. This is another display of Penelope’s wit, as she is aware that only Odysseus can string the bow, and then shoot through the twelve axe heads. Penelope believes that this contest will be able to hold the suitors at bay, and allow Odysseus more time to come h... ... middle of paper ... ...playwrights of Ancient Greece understood that women played a pivotal role in human society, despite the way they were treated. As such, women were given important roles to play in their respective tales, and displayed unusual strength, wit, or cunning. Even though the development of women’s rights would take several more millennia, these storytellers were among the first to show that women can be just a powerful as men. Works Cited Euripides. Medea. Trans. Diane Svarlien. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. Ed Peter Simon. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2014. 745-781 Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Stanley Lombardo. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. Ed Peter Simon. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2014. 291-581 Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Trans. Robert Bagg. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. Ed Peter Simon. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2014. 666-706
In Ancient Greece, women had little to no freedom in their lives. For instance, they had no role in politics, leaving that completely to men, were expected to stay indoors for the majority of their lives doing household work because they were under the control of a male relative, usually being their father or husband, and they were not allowed to study medicine. These standards were set by great writers such as Aristotle who wrote of women being inferior to men. He believed women were more emotional, which is why they would be useless in politics, and they were more deceptive and mischievous. Because only men were doctors, many women were dying during childbirth due to the fact that they felt uncomfortable about having a man handle their pregnancy.
In the Odyssey, we see further instances where Penelope is consumed with deception, trickery, and cleverness. In book nineteen, Penelope devises a plan to defer the suitors. Penelope’s true love for O...
The Role of Women in Greek Mythology In learning about the feminist movement, we studied the three articles, discussed and reviewed the different authors perspectives on the topic, and learned how important the role of woman in Greek mythology is. In presenting the feminist theory to the class, we analyzed the three articles, Women in Ancient Greece; Women in Antiquity: New Assessments; and Women in Greek Myth, and discussed how although the three articles provided different views on Feminism in mythology, they all essentially are aiming to teach the same basic concept. In order to understand the feminist theory, we have to understand the notion that although myths are invented and that they involve fantasy, the concept of mythology does not necessarily imply that there is no truth of history in them. Some of the humans may have lived while some of the events may have taken place. Most importantly, the social customs and the way of life depicted in the myths are a valuable representation of Greek society.
In the first section of Odyssey, mortal women are presented to us as controlled by the stereotypes and expectations of the culture of the day, and it is only within that context that we can consider the examples Homer provides of women to be admired or despised. He provides us with clear contrasts, between Penelope and Eurycleia on the one hand, and Helen and Clytemnaestra on the other.
Yet, despite the fact that no two women in this epic are alike, each—through her vices or virtues—helps to delineate the role of the ideal woman. Below, we will show the importance of Circe, Calypso, Nausicaa, Clytaemestra, and Penelope in terms of the movement of the narrative and in defining social roles for the Ancient Greeks. 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 evil to mortal men, with a nature to do evil (Theogony 600).
Sophocles. "Oedipus Rex." An Introduction to Literature, 11th ed.Eds. Sylvan Barnet, et al. New York: Longman, 1997. 800-836.
of the family. This fact not only holds true for The Odyssey but in the ancient Greek way of life, too. For example, women did not have such a meaningful role in Greek drama as the men did. The parts of women would be played by men in the majority of the plays. The reason this took place was because all of the playwrights were men. There were cases in which women were used in plays but they were used solely as models. Nonetheless, all of the types of women that lived in ancient Greece were depicted in all of the playwrights. The women in these plays were depicted by the role of a sinner, saint, poetess, coward, heroine, and
The chief suitor, Antinoos, uses the word cunning to describe the queen after she had been able to deceive them (Homer 2.97). Penelope did this, firstly, by stalling her weaving, a task which she has insisted she must finish before she would be prepared to marry any of the suitors. However, Penelope never intended to complete her project, for “ ‘every night by torchlight she unwove it; / and so for three years she deceived the Akhaians.’ ” (2. 113-124). By unweaving the burial shroud - which she had been crafting for Odysseus’ father, Laertes - each night it was left incomplete, until an unfaithful maid told the suitors her secret. Despite having been discovered, Penelope’s ruse had successfully stalled the suitors for three - almost four - years. This would not be the last time she used her guile to delude the advances of her suitors. Nearing the end of the work Penelope proposes a challenge to these men, that who ever had the ability to string
Through loyalty, cleverness, and patience, Penelope showed her admirable traits at the time in which The Odyssey
Women had very few rights, they lived as prisoners, serving men 24 hours a day. Women were sheltered from society, restricted to their husbands and their husbands houses, crying out for help and justice but there is no one to there to hear their screams. In the play Antigone when the title character had to sneak out of the house to meet up with Ismene. Ancient Greek men ruled a lot like over protective fathers with teenage daughters. Men were also scared of women gaining confidence and begin thinking on their own or worse taking action or speaking out against men, like in the play Antigone where Antigone confronts Creon by burying Polyneices after Creon strictly stated that no one bury him. If someone were to bury him, the whole Polis would stone them to death. When Creon found out that someone buried Polyneices, he did not even consider that it could have been a women that did it.
Women in ancient Greece are an interesting subject and only so much is known about the exact day to day lives of them however from what records remain it would seem that they were kept at a relatively low level on the social hierarchy. Even in Pericles ' Funeral Speech which seems to be an almost utopian discretion of aspects of Greek life Pericles himself states that “Great will be your glory in not falling short of your natural character; and greatest will be hers who is least talked of among the men whether for good or for bad.” Pericles states that the greatest of women should be the ones whom are not noticed but still preform there tasks while not catching the attention of men. Adding to this even the great philosopher Aristotle bags on the women of Greece simply by stating that ”female [souls are] inoperative” With this simple statement Aristotle makes it seem that women are somehow broken and can never live up to the same standards as men. Even Xenophon, The Economist rambles on...
The women in The Odyssey are a fair representation of women in ancient Greek culture. In his work, Homer brings forth women of different prestige. First there are the goddesses, then Penelope, and lastly the servant girls. Each of the three factions forms an important part of The Odyssey and helps us look into what women were like in ancient Greece. The role that the housemaids play in The Odyssey is that of servitude.
Similar to other classic literature, Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey exhibits the human struggle against a greater power, which each person must use their intellect, courage, and morals to overcome. These factors, which can be seen by the epithets and rhetorical questions, are posed to Penelope during the book. The poem is an exultation of man over the glory of the Gods because despite man’s limitations his achievements are obtained through the combination of his intelligence, fortitude and skills not supernatural powers.
Penelope, in Homer’s The Odyssey, fills both the role of the seductress and the loyal wife. This paradox is evident through her relationship with her suitors and her husband, Odysseus. Penelope entices her suitors in case she has to remarry in the future and also she inveigles them into giving her gifts. Penelope simultaneously distances herself from the suitors, delaying them while she waits for her husband to return home. Penelope uses her sexuality, the way that she sensually presents her body and her femininity, to manipulate men’s attraction to her. She maintains the suitors’ attraction both by flirting with, and withholding, intimacy and marriage from them. Throughout The Odyssey, Penelope employs her sexuality as a strategic tool, for
Lawall, Sarah N. “Medea.” The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. 8th ed. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 690-720. Print.