Masculinity In The Odyssey

In the epic, the seductress is almost always a woman, except for the suitors who try to seduce Penelope. They “trooped in with all their swagger” (Od. 1.169) as a way to show off their bravado to Penelope and her son Telemachus. This is a way for them to portray their masculinity to the woman they are trying to seduce. They are only seducing Penelope so that they can receive the title of king and govern over Ithaca. The suitors wait three years for Penelope to declare her decision about who she will marry; however, Penelope is able to divert their attention by promising them her hand in marriage once the loom is done being woven. When the suitors find out about this scam they made Penelope, “against her will/ we [they] forced her” to finish

She waits patiently for her husband to return home even though it is highly likely that he is dead and she rejects all of the other offers that the suitors have given her. She remains fiercely faithful to Odysseus for twenty years while he is off at war. However, Odysseus fails to remain monogamous with Penelope and he sleeps with “several women on his way home” (Barnes 137). Even though Penelope is cherished by Greek society more than the other seductresses, she is still considered an untrustworthy woman because of her weaving scheme to trick the suitors. Odysseus is valued by Greek society, yet he has all of the characteristics that make most of the female temptresses hated by society. The reason why Odysseus can be polygamous and untrustworthy, but still hold the high title of hero is because he is a male. Whereas Penelope is monogamous and cunning, yet she is still not viewed with such high esteem as Odysseus because she is a female. This minute physical difference completely alters the way the audience perceives the characters because there is a huge cultural difference. This cultural difference between the two sexes is based solely on human

One sexist idea present in religion was the belief that a woman who died a virgin “was often said to become a symbolic ‘bride of hades’ and thus to acquire in death the marriage that would have given full meaning to her life” (Fantham 15). This exhibits that females’ lives were only important if they were married. Having women depicted as being unfulfilled without marriage implies that children and men are the only reasons for women to feel like their life is important; without children or a man women are seen as void. Another way religion justified women being less than men was through the story of how the first women came to be. It was believed that the first man named Prometheus had stolen fire from the gods so it could be given to mankind. In turn Zeus punished Prometheus with the creation of the first woman who would release the ills of humanity into the world. Women were considered a punishment by the gods instead of being seen as a reward from the gods. Women were predestined to be viewed as nuisances who would ultimately be the demise of the world since Pandora opened her box filled with the ills of