Some people may think that the objectification of women is only a thing of the past. They are wrong. Whether it’s through the treatment of women in advertising, the depiction of women in media, or the widely prevalent rape culture in this country—It’s ingrained in us from a very young age, whether we acknowledge it or not, that women are only here for male consumption. And while feminism has helped our society make great leaps in working towards gender equality, it doesn’t account for this stigma. Why are little boys given toys for building and learning while girls are given makeup and dolls with unachievable body types? This gender discrepancy is also reflected in the world of Homer’s, The Iliad, an account of the Trojan war, which was a decades long battle over a war prize. A human, female war prize. In The Iliad, Homer uses Helen, among other female characters, to examine the implications of treating women as objects. Helen is only seen as a source of beauty by the men around her. When Helen comes out to see Menelaus and Paris fight, some old chiefs of Troy watch her and comment on the fighting, saying, “Who on earth could blame them? Ah, no …show more content…
When Hera and Athena get involved, Homer spends a significant time describing their armor, stating, “Athena, child of Zeus [...] over her brows placed her golden helmet fronted with four knobs and forked with twin horns, engraved with the fighting men of a hundred towns” (188). Because the only warriors in this time period were men, describing Athena’s armor in detail is inherently masculine. Her helmet is even adorned with those male warriors, implying that she has the strength equivalent to hundreds of armies. It may be that Athena is only able to gain power this way since she is a god, therefore seen as less of an object by the Greek people, but it still demonstrates that there is more than one way to gain power as a
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.
In The Iliad, the gods and goddesses have completely different roles. The females are usually the ones in the battle fighting, while the male gods are putting courage into hearts, but that isn’t to say that is all that they do. This is a completely different role than the mortals have. While the men are out in battle, the women are knitting and cooking. The women are also described so that it seems like they are property and not humans, and that they don’t have any feeling. Where the female gods act and are treated as if they are equal, if not ranked higher.
Calypso feels that her sexuality makes her susceptible to unfair treatment by the gods. This further proves the point that women were objectified, sexually and otherwise, in Greek culture. It is important to note that Odysseus’ relationship with most goddesses throughout The Odyssey involves the act of sex. Athena, on the other hand, personifies both feministic and non-feministic traits, although they are not necessarily masculine traits. This is quite strange, however, as most women are represented as solely feminine and completely inferior to men. Athena is the goddess of wisdom and war. According to Homer, in the Iliad, Athena is portrayed as a fierce and ruthless warrior, characteristics that women were not generally assigned during this time period. At the same time, Athena is illustrated as being emotional, acting on her emotions. She has a
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.
The Odyssey by Homer tells the account of the celebrated king Odysseus and of his great feats on his way back to Ithaca, much like the Epic of Gilgamesh expresses the feats of the great king Gilgamesh and his friend Endiku. These male characters are exemplified in their incredible feats and capabilities. However, many of these deeds would not be possible without the help of the female characters. The seemingly perfect male characters have their greatest weakness in women and many of their pitfalls are a result of encounters with women. The female characters in both the Odyssey and The Epic of Gilgamesh show how even though women both mortal and immortal are subservient to men in society, whenever women are pitted against men, women almost
The Iliad by Homer and the Women of Troy by Euripides are both Greek works of literature that look at the Trojan War from different perspectives. Book 6 of the Iliad illustrates that the ultimate glory is to fight for the city with no regard to the impact on the family. The Women of Troy focuses on the negatives that war causes, especially towards the soldier’s wives and children. Whereas the Iliad focuses on the battle itself and centers on the warriors, the Women of Troy focuses on the wrath the war brings upon the families left behind. The central theme in both the works is the Trojan War and they both offer perspectives of the duty of a person, the role of predetermined fate, and the role of women.
If Homer were a woman, then he would have directed his audience into believing that women were at a higher level than men were by use of his epics. Ultimately, Homer would be utilizing his feminine characteristics when telling his stories with underlying messages of feminine superiority or equality. As goddess of wisdom and battle, Athena naturally has a soft spot for the brave and wily Odysseus. She helps him out of many tough situations, including his shipwreck in Book 5 and the mismatched battle of Book 22.
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.
Sexism has occurred throughout history and has impacted women significantly.The Odyssey follows the narrative of a man and looks at love from the perspective of a man. The famed poem was written by an ancient greek man and until recently, has always been translated by a man. For these reasons, The Odyssey provides a great example of how love, women, and marriage have been perceived by society, especially men, in the past. By examining the sexist undertones and the perception of women and love from the men in the epic and comparing those to criticisms made today we can truly understand how far we have come as a society.
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.
Women 's roles in the Iliad and Odyssey the seem to differ from the roles of men. Women were depicted as possessions to the men. Athena seems to stand out the most when it comes to both of these books Athena is the goddess of wisdom and war. Not only was Athena the goddess of wisdom and war, she played the role of the protector. Athena is one of the main female characters that truly show out throughout the Iliad and the Odyssey. An ancient history website states that “Athena was a major protagonist in Homer’s account of the Trojan War in the Illiad where she supports the Achaeans and their heroes, especially Achilles, to whom she gives encouragement and wise counsel." Athena beings to first show in the Illiad when Agamemnon threatens to go to Achille’s
In the film Troy, directed by Petersen, the audience grasps that there is a fair alignment in the making of the storyline to the more ancient poem of The Iliad by Homer. It is with the gods that the Trojan War is believed to have started through the craft of Hera and from the help of Aphrodite and her traits of love and desire. It is in The Iliad that we understand the importance of the Gods on the Trojan War and how they manipulate the terms of war, we often see the Gods turn a battle from the lust and desire of a man to the hatred of a lost love one on the behalf of Patroclus and his dearest companion Achilles. It is a common theme of the three storylines, The Iliad, Troy and Ransom that the woman takes control and with her lustful ways to influence the terms of decision making by men in particular to give them what they are perceived to want. The viewer see this repeatedly during the film and books and seize to imagine that women are the most influential beings in the making of the Ancient Greek storylines, just as when Paris quotes to Helen in the film Troy, “Everything is more beautiful because we are doomed,” meaning that the man does not care of his own life, his love that he has towards his woman is more important than anything else in his life.
Homer, Iliad is the narration of the Trojan war. The Trojan war was one of the most important and significant wars of Greek mythology, Homer described how the war was triggered by the abduction of the most beautiful women known as Helen. This paper will argue how the traditional view of this poem is accurate because it indeed was Helens beauty and her selfishness that sparked the Trojan war. Although Helen was not happy about the outcomes of her mistakes. This paper will present how Helen faced many forms of self judgment, how she created many relationships with significant characters, such as Paris, Priam and Aphrodite. Homers portrayal of this significant women was remarkable as we were able to feel her pain and anguish, the readers were
"So please go home and tend to your own tasks, / the distaff and the loom, and keep the women / working hard as well" (6.585-587). From this we see Hector's view of women, which is a theme that is echoed throughout the rest of the Iliad. Women are mentioned relatively few times in the Iliad in comparison with the books devoted solely to the men. Nevertheless, there is clear evidence that the role of women in this society was that of a servile follower.
The poem “Iliad,” by Homer, is known for its violence between men during a war, but under that violence, is the different type of women who play a significant role in the poem (Homer 189). This poem’s narrative seems to show a male dominated world between the Greek commanders. This male dominated world cannot happen on its own, thus the different background roles of women are needed in order to make sense of all this rage. As the University of Michigan article How Do Women Make Their Way Into This Cycle states, “They are seen as the objects of both lust and domesticity, yet they are also used to excuse war, cause conflict, and display the power of men” (www.umich.edu). The focus in this poem steers towards the rage between the men, but this rage most of the time is inspired and initiated by a woman. The women of Iliad play a significant role in the poem such as war prizes, male hero partners, and women gods.