Essay On Powerful Women In Homer's Odyssey

Even though some powerful women in The Odyssey are portrayed as good, greek standards show that women with power are dangerous through traits of cunning, lustfulness, and macabre.

Powerful women are dangerous in the Odyssey because of the guile used in the characters Penelope and Calypso. In Calypso’s house, she tries to entice Odysseus to stay by saying “But if you only knew, down deep, what pains are fated to fill your cup before you reach that shore, you’d stay right here. Preside in our house with me and be immortal”(5. 228-231). Calypso is showing cunningness towards Odysseus by saying “if you only knew” because she is trying to make Odysseus question his journey back to Ithaca. She also tries to lure him by with promising immortality

if he stays with her, that gives Odysseus a difficult decision to make. What makes Calypso dangerous, is not the that she is a goddess, but that she is stopping Odysseus the hero of the story from proceeding his adventure. Which if people are too look at it from the perspective of the Greeks, then this makes Calypso seen as an obstacle in the story. When Telemachus ends his speech in the assembly of Ithaca, Antinous defends the suitors by saying “It’s not the suitors here who deserve the blame, it’s your own dear mother, the matchless queen of cunning… she’s played it fast and loose with all our hearts, building each man’s hopes dangling promise, dropping hints to each”(2. 94-99). Antinous refers to Penelope as “the matchless queen of cunning”, which then is followed by his complaints of her loom trick where she would “by day she’d weave, at her great and growing web by night, by the light of torches set beside her, she would unravel all she’d done”(2. 115-117). This shows guile because it shows Penelope's resourcefulness of trying to deal with all of these suitors. It makes her dangerous because her actions through the perspective of the suitors, make guile look like a negative trait to have as a powerful woman. Calypso and Penelope cunningness towards men, show that women with power are considered dangerous by greek standards. This is shown by the suitors outraged by being tricked, and Calypso interference with the hero.
Even though some powerful women are considered good in the Odyssey, powerful women who show lust for Odysseus are considered dangerous.

While Odyssey is retelling his encounter with the sirens he says “So the sent their ravishing voices out across the air and the heart inside me throbbed to listen longer. I signaled the crew with frowns to set me free- they flung themselves at the oars and rowed on harder”(12. 208-211). The sirens show lust by the description of their voices. Also shows that Odysseus’ was tricked by their songs and wanted to be set free. They are dangerous because Odysseus is the only one allowed to hear the songs, while his men have beeswax in their ears, so that Odysseus is the only one who gets to hear their song. Odysseus exclaimed as he was describing his interactions with Circe “The goddess herself was move and, standing by me, warmly urged me on-- a lustrous goddess now”(10. 441-442). Odysseus uses an epithet to describe Circe, which reflects the greeks values that powerful women are bad because the hero is referring back to when Circe treated him. Circe is dangerous goddess because of her power and lust for the hero Odysseus. Circe had tricked his men which made Odysseus mad when she turned his men into swine. Circe and the sirens both show lust for the hero Odysseus, and makes them dangerous because their lust for the hero of the story is challenging Odysseus’ struggle for home and

family.
Terrifying and powerful women including Charybdis and Scylla show that greek society values women with power as a dangerous thing.

Odysseus depicting his story with Scylla says “So I shouted. They snapped to each command. No mention of Scylla--how to fight that nightmare?--for fear the men would panic, desert their oars and huddle down and stow themselves away(12. 241-244). Scylla is terrifying by the interactions Odysseus has with his crew. The reason why is because Scylla is so scary that his warriors, would be so scared if they knew what they were about to face that they would stop rowing the boat and slow the boat down. That is also what makes Scylla so dangerous and powerful is the fear that is caused from this 6 headed beast. Her powers to make Odysseus doubt his men if they see Scylla. Odysseus describing his interactions with Charybdis says “Now wailing in fear, we rowed on up those straits, Scylla to starboard, dreded charybdis off to port, her horrible whirlpool gulping the sea-surge down, down but when she spewed it up.. Terrible, deafening. Ashen terror gripped the men”(12. 253-262). The way Odysseus describes him and his men as wailing in fear shows that Charybdis is terrifying because he and his men are warriors and probably are not usually wailing in fear. Her terrifying account is also why she is so considered dangerous and powerful because of how power she has over Odysseus and his men. This shows that greek social standards has powerful women who can

manipulate the hero in a story are considered dangerous because they are rarely any weak women who manipulate men in the hero in a story.