Mortal Women In Homer's The Odyssey

Greeks had a misogynistic society, however women still had important roles in the Odyssey. Mortal women's most esteemed roles were either wife or mother. All the mortal female characters in the Odyssey existed to interact with a male, due to their beauty or sex appeal. But, the most powerful female characters in the Odyssey have other qualities such as cleverness which still play a role. Beauty is still one of the most important thing to Homer. For instance he starts a war using Helen of Troys beauty, and makes the two of the biggest obstacles Odysseus has to deal with love interests, Circe and Calypso. If you’ll remember he stayed on Circe's island an extra year longer of his own free will. However, Circe and Calypso are not mortal, so they already have the advantage. Homers non mortal women all have other qualities to them that allow them to help the plot along. Namely, Penelope, Queen of Ithaca and Odysseus bride.

Penelope is the most significant woman in

The Odyssey, and consequently there is more to her than beauty. While beauty remains one of the most important things, Penelope also possesses traits such as loyalty and cleverness, which are two traits Homer values in this book particularly. Penelope uses these traits or loyalty and cleverness to react to the trouble she faces. She uses her cunning to devise a plan to hold of the suitors. She weaves a bridal shroud for 3 years, deliberately unweaving it to waste time. Later, near the end of the poem, Penelope concocts another scheme-a contest with Odysseus old bow. Whoever can string it and send the arrow through 12 axes will finally be allowed to be her husband, but Penelope knows that only Odysseus can complete this challenge, so the suitors can try and try but they would never win. Using her wits, Penelope is able to keep the suitors at bay and remain loyal to Odysseus. Perhaps Homer created her to be an example to other greek woman of that time, a role model to look up to and aspire to be like. Another example of a clever mortal woman could be Princess Nausicaa, the Phoenician Princess. She had the foresight to tell Odysseus to go in the castle at a different time so people would not think badly of her, or him. She told him exactly what to do with her parents, and how to win their favor. She was clever, and very helpful and kind. She is also very brave, thanks to Athena. When Odysseus comes stumbling upon her group, she is the only one who stands her ground and talks to him. “Something filthy and caked in sea-salt which fairly terrified them: away they scampered...Only the young princess stood her ground…” Without Nausicaa Odysseus would have not gotten home to Ithaca, at least not without much more hardship. Not to mention Helen, Queen of Troy, though. Her beauty and actions sparked the war that was the plot of the Iliad, and the whole reason Odysseus was away from home in the first place. Her actions were the most important actions, for without them there wouldn’t of been an objective the poem needed to complete. But even so, there is more to her than her beauty. She is very cunning and smart also. In book 4, she put drugs in the glasses of Menelaus and Telemachus to put everyone at ease. “But the admirable Helen had a happy thought. She lost no time but put something into the wine they were drinking, a drug potent against pain and quarrels…” (pg 49) Homer even goes so far as to call her Admirable.

Nevertheless, Homer had faithless, dishonorable women characters too. The servants at Odysseus’s Palace that slept with the suitors was an example of that, and of how women who were unfaithful got their reward. “Those women all died in honorless ways, making a very strong point. The mortal women of Homer’s book are one of two very strong sides. They are either represented as admirable and good, or faithless and bad. The women who were bad got what Homer thought they deserved, and they were never a major character. All the woman with bad morals were minor characters, or linked to a worse male character, which made them bad. (The unfaithful maidservants who slept with the suitors)

The mortal women in The Odyssey were represented as characters, and they had plot lines and in some cases (such as Penelope) character development.

The women were generally less defined than the men, but that is due to the fact that none of the women could be considered main characters, except perhaps Penelope. The woman all served a point, and were there to add to the plot or to compliment another character, like Penelope and Odysseus’s connection. Homer wrote women to help the plot along, but not be a major point or character themselves. The women are very important to the Odyssey, and the poem would not of been able to read the way it did if the women played no role. The poem illustrates women as important people, but only for the sake of a man. Homer wrote according to the greeks pyramid of social standing, where women were lower than men, but he still allowed women greater roles, and even gave them important tasks to fulfill, like Penelope and her suitors, or Helen and her elopement with Prince

Paris.