Comparing the Deceitful Women of Homer's Odyssey and the Bible

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The Deceitful Women of Homer's Odyssey and the Bible

Across all barriers, women have always brought pain, suffering, and aguish to the men as demonstrated in both Homer's Odyssey and the Bible. With their beauty and grace, temptresses like the Sirens and Delilah lure men into their grasps, only to later steer them to their ruin. Other times, they use their cunning abilities and deception, as Circe and Jezebel did, in order to entice men into doing things that they normally would never accede to do. Moreover, most tragedies, disasters, and misfortunes are essentially caused by women as demonstrated by Helen, who caused the Trojan War, and Eve, who caused the exile of all mankind from the Garden of Eden and is the mother of all sin. The women of the Odyssey and the women of the Bible, through astute manipulation and seduction, inflict many tribulations, which in due course cause the pains and destruction of mankind.

First, one of the most obvious examples of how seductresses lead men to disaster is the Sirens. The Sirens in the Odyssey are the personifications of temptation and, as Circes puts it, "enchanters of mankind" (Odyssey 12.41-42). They spend their days luring men like Odysseus with their sweat melodious voices, and those men eventually find their deaths upon the feet of the Sirens. "They sit in their meadow, but the beach before it is pile with bone heaps of men now rotted away, and the skins shrivel upon them" (Odyssey12.45-46). Odysseus's immediate, visceral desires for the Sirens distract him from his nostos, or homeward journey. It is only by his foresight from Circes that keeps him and his men from destruction at the feet of the Sirens.

Similarly, in the Bible, Delilah is the rogue ...

... middle of paper ...

... Garden of Eden.

Ultimately, women are the cause of all anguish in the world. With their beauty and charm, they ensnare men into their ruses. They also use their acumen and intelligence to seduce men to their deaths. Plus, women are capable and do cause massive atrocious destruction. The women of the Bible and the women of the Odyssey are lucid examples of how women cause the undoing of mankind.

Works Cited and Consulted:

Diana Buitron-Oliver and Beth Cohen, "Between Skylla and Penelope: Female Characters of the Odyssey in Archaic and Classical Greek Art," pp. 29-58.

Graham, A. J. "The Odyssey, History, and Women," Princeton 1992

Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: 1996

The Bible: The Old Testament. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Ed. Sarah Lawall et al. Vol 1. 7th ed. New York: Norton, 1999. 47-97.

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