Immortal Women In The Odyssey

The women in Ancient Greek were amazing and powerful immortals and mortals alike. Women during that time didn’t do much as mortars but changed the world and destinies changing as immortals. You’re probably asking what’s the difference between immortals and mortals. For one, immortals can’t dies and mortals can but most importantly immortal women are very powerful and everyday they changed and decide the lives of mortal women.
Mortal women were different from the immortal women in the sense that they could die but also that the mortal women didn’t have much power or a great sense of being. While the immortal women decided the fate of humans back on earth and lived everyday with not care in the world. Immortal women sometimes wished for

the simple life of mortal women but the mortal women also wished to be someone who had so much power and mattered so much. Even in Ancient Greece the grass was greener on the other side.
There are many women that are mortal in The Odyssey but the best example of the perfect mortal women is Penelope.

She is Odysseus’s kind, beautiful, smart, prideful and loyal wife. Most mortals loved the Gods because the Gods mainly were trying to help them but Penelope sometimes struggled with the idea that the Gods had all the power. “Eurymachos, all my beauty and figure were ruined by the immortals at that time when the Argives took ship for lions and with them by husband, Odysseus. If he were to come back to me and take care of my life, then my reputation would be more great and splendid.” (18.521-255). Penelope had no control over her mortal life because all the immortals were trying to control it and she really had a hard time with that. Being mortal Penelope couldn’t do much but pray to the Gods and hope that Odysseus would come back to her soon. A life where you have no control is not a life at all, so I guess you say that maybe Penelope really wasn’t living at

all.
Another mortal women who really captured the Greeks idea of the ideal mortal women was Eurycleia, Odysseus’s old nanny and now Telomachos’s.

Eurycleia was old, wise, prideful and very loyal. “I knew it all, I gave him all he asked for, bread and mellow wine but he made me take a binding oath that I, I wouldn’t tell you no, not till ten or a dozen days has passed or you missed the lad yourself and learned what he’d done.” Eurycleia was the only one who knew that Telemachus had gone to find his father and she was loyal to him and didn’t tell his mother Penelope. Loyalty was something that was of great importance to the Greeks and Eurycleia was one of the most loyal mortal women in the story. Even when the other maids were having affairs with the suitors Eurycleia stayed loyal to the family she had been a part of for many years and grown to love. Odysseus trusted her with his big secret when she found out it was him when she was washing his feet but she didn’t say anything because his trust meant more to her then anything. Going through life constantly thinking about if someone’s going to figure out that you have been lying and disloyal wasn’t a life most mortal Greek lived and Eurycleia was not one of those women, in fact she was quite the

opposite.
Another mortal women that was hospitable and helped Odysseus on his journey was Nausikaa, beautiful daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of the Phaeacians. She was a princess so she really didn’t have to do much but the one day she went to the river to wash her clothes she met Odysseus when he was on the beach totally naked. She had never seen this man before and they talked for a bit and then she said “But now, since it is our land and our city that you have come to, you shall not lack for clothing nor anything else.” (6.191-193). She was so sweet, caring and willing to help this random man who she had never seen before. She took him to her home and she let him stay with her and her family and when it was time for him to leave she along with her family helped him build a boat sent him on his way with luck anything else he needed. The mortal women during Ancient Greek prided themselves on being kind, loyal and the perfect women and each and every one of the three women were in their own different ways.
Immortals are everywhere in this book some men some women and others monsters and more. They hide themselves so they can go around in the mortal world, they help Odysseus on his long and dangerous journey and some try to keep in hostage and these immortals are all women. Immortal women are powerful and sometimes more nasty then the immortal men. These women do not confront to accept standards of mortality; they will never die nor be forgotten.
The best example of an immortal is the Goddess of Wisdom Athena. Athena is the daughter of Zeus (the king of the Gods) and she was born straight from his temple. She is very smart and one of the most powerful Goddesses. All throughout the Odyssey she was trying to help Odysseus get home but Poseidon the God of the ocean really was making it hard for him to get home. “Hear us Poseidon, who circle the earth, and do accomplishment of all these actions for which we pray you.” Even though Athena is a powerful and beautiful Goddess sometimes she still needed help from the other Gods. Athena is prideful and very stubborn when it comes to getting her way and we see this all throughout the book. She loves to get involved in the mortals day to day life and we see this when she goes in disguises into Odysseus’s town and helps Telemachus and she also goes to Penelope in a dream to make her stop crying about Odysseus and go to sleep. Athena like any other immortal got bored with her life because she had lived for so long she found life with Odysseus and his journey and now she like The Odyssey will live throughout history.
Another immortal who really shows what immortals are is Calypso a beautiful and smart nymph who held Odysseus hostage for seven years with her on her island. She would have kept Odysseus with her forever if it had not been for Zeus telling Hermes to go Calypso to let him go. “Son of Laertes, versatile Odysseus, after these years with me, you still desires your old home? Even so, I wish you well. If you could see it all, you face before you go all the adversity you face at sea, you would stay here and guard this house and be immortal.” Calypso was deeply in love with Odysseus but all he wanted to do was get home to his wife, son and old life and Calypso couldn’t let that happen so she held him hostage for seven years. She fed him amazing meals, made him great clothes, her island was beautiful and she offered him immortality (which any man would have taken in a hart beat) he said no because is love for his wife was just too great. So when she finally let him go with a gentle breeze after helping him build a raft she was so sad. Living forever seems great to you and me but to Calypso and the other immortals life gets old pretty easy. Calypso like the other immortal women involved herself in the life of a mortal man and ended up getting her heart broken. Some people might paint her as a bad person but to me she was just someone who needed love and company.
The last immortal women who was a huge reason why Odysseus got home, and the ideal immortal women would be Ion, the beautiful sea nymph. After Odysseus left Calypso and her island he got stuck in the ocean and Ion helped him get to dry land. “Poor man, why is Poseidon the shaker of the earth so bitterly cranked against you, to give you such hard time? And yet he will not do away with you, for all his anger. But do as I say, since you seem to me not lacking in good sense.” (5.339-344). Ion could have just let him drown and not cared but she did. Like any other immortal she lived for the chance to get involved in a mortals life and apically when that mortal is someone that looks like Odysseus. She was sweet and caring but still serous and very powerful. A nymph is different from a God is the sense that a nymph is only part God and part human and part of nature. Even though Ion was not a full Goddess she still was one of the best immortals to show how the Greeks portrayed themselves and their Gods.
The Odyssey is filled with all different types of women but the best way to sort them would be to talk about the mortal and immortal women. Ancient Greece was a place of wonder and home of the best stories and ideas. The Ancient Greeks believed in many things but their biggest and most interesting thing they believed in was that there were immortals that determined their lives. These immortals were Gods, monsters and anything in the middle. The immortals affected the mortals’ everyday life in more ways then you think. Even though these two types of women were very different they still had some similarities, they are loyal, beautiful and would do anything in the name of love.