Women's Role In The Odyssey

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Recommended: Homer's portrayal of women in the Odyssey

Since the beginning of time, men have always been portrayed as stronger and beyond more powerful than women. Throughout the epic poem, The Odyssey, women's role in society is made clearly evident. Homer wrote the poem somewhere between 1200-500 B.C.E in Ancient Greece. During that period, women weren’t seen and treated extremely differently than they are today. In the Odyssey, the women had minimal power in society. They were expected to maintain household jobs while the men do the more meaningful jobs. For example, Penelope once complains about some music being played and her own son responds by telling her to do her tasks such as “distaff the loom and keep the women working hard” (Dover). This was normal behavior in Homer’s time, but today that would be unacceptable. In modern society, children are taught to respect their parents and obey their orders not visa versa. Most significantly, men are taught to respect women and what they offer. If a man doesn’t respect a woman today, they are perceived as a douche bag. Although men didn’t respect the women in their towns they did have a respect for female goddesses. Athena was dominant towards Odysseus. She helps guide him home and teaches him who he should be as a man. (Dover). The major change in how society views …show more content…

In the time of the Odyssey, men and women still loved each other vastly. Odysseus fought ten years to come home to his wife Penelope, and she fought off suitors for ten years waiting for him to return home (Dover). Today you grasp the same concept with army spouses, who wait patiently for their spouse’s return. Although women now have power in society, majority of women are still viewed beneath men, comparable to the Odyssey. Like the Odyssey there are times in society that a woman is seen above a man. If she’s a lawyer, doctor, police officer or has any career with high standing society views her above the average

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