Double Standards In The Odyssey

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Double Standard for Women of the Odyssey

Odysseus plans to tiptoe back into his hall through various schemes, one of which is to become beneficial and amiable to the maidservants. With this motivation, he offers to guard the hearth so that the fire won’t dwindle, but the response he receives is more than unwelcoming. Melantho, a beneficiary of Penelope, spurns him saying:

You must be crazy, punch drunk, you old goat.

Instead of going out to find a smithy—or a tavern bench—you stay

putting your oar in, amid all our men.

Numbskull not to be scared! The wine you drank

has clogged your brain, or are you always this way,

boasting like a fool? Or have you …show more content…

(18.405-15).

Unexpectedly and unconventional for his character, Odysseus says: “One minute: let me tell Telemakhos how you talk in hall, you slut; he’ll cut your arms and legs off” (18.416-20). “This hard shot took the women’s breath away and drove them quaking to their rooms, as though knives were behind: they felt he spoke the truth” (18.421-23).

From the perspective of Melantho, her reason to believe the hungry bellied pariah, Odysseus, seems unclear. There seems to be a lapse in her reasoning. Since the old beggar’s arrival at Odysseus’ estate, Telemakhos—not ever publicly acknowledging the hunched-over man's entry—appears to wholly neglect him. Intimidated by the suitors’ death threats and revealing Odysseus’ identity, the only way out for Telemakhos, the sole means of retaining influence over his mother’s suitors, is to distance himself from the man whom he would want most to be close to, his father. More than merely a survival tactic, however, it is a strategy for Odysseus to find loyalists among the group. Thus the main focus of Telemakhos in this scene is not to side with his father, not to stand up for his guest, but to stay alive, to remain aloof and unobtrusive, and to allow Odysseus’ plan to come into …show more content…

Compounding her disgraceful spectacle involving Eurymakhos and her lack of compunction for her mistress, Melantho, in particular, and the remaining slave women, who corrupted Penelope’s suitors, feel self-consciousness for their deeds. During most of the moments of the day, they envision the ax that will soon end their lives. When Melantho hears Odysseus’ threat, she realizes that Telemakhos will “cut her arms and legs off” not simply owing to this beggar’s accusation, but because she already treads in deep water and any inadequacy or faux pas on her part will assure her death. For Melantho, her speech is merely the key that finally seals her self-subverting fate.

Claiming that Melantho presumed Telemakhos to consider Odysseus a “guest” in terms of ancient Greek hospitality and custom and, therefore, the women “felt he spoke the truth” would downplay Homer’s legendary depiction of personality shift and character mutability of Odysseus in The Odyssey. According to Okham’s Razor there is a large possibility that all the aforementioned interpretations are for naught, if the simple answer is best and final. The careful reader, however, will disregard Okham momentarily to pursue more than meets the

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