Odyssey

The legend of The Odyssey tells the fortunate homecoming tale of the Trojan war hero, Odysseus. In the poem, there were similarities, yet many contradictions. There were many great women that had conflicting personalities and adverse motives, but also they were alike. There were many great men that hold successful fortune, but here were also ones that failed. With these oppositions they helped Odysseus to get back home to Ithaca, whether they wanted to or not. These women from the novel that have opposing qualities, yet help Odysseus get home and finish off the suitors, are Penelope and Clytemnestra, Circe and Calypso, and Eurycleia and Melantho.

This similarity of situation: Agamemnon = Odysseus; Orestes=Telemakhos.

Clytemnestra is a disloyal wife and a cruel woman, while Penelope is a devoted spouse and a wonderful lady. When King Agamemnon goes away to fight at Troy, his wife, Clytemnestra, has an affair. When he returns, she kills him, not even letting him see his son after ten long years. “…Poseidon did not drown me in the sea, no enemy struck me down on dry land; but Aigisthos plotted my death with my accursed wife…”(132). Meanwhile, when Odysseus goes to Troy, his wife Penelope is loyal for twenty years. Clytemnestra also kills all of Agamemnon’s friends and followers, while Penelope had rude suitors in her house and she never once harmed them for the three years that they ate her out of house and home. The one thing that the two women has in common was that they are both very witty and smart; Clytemnestra for planning the massacres and Penelope for the weaving of the shroud. “…I used to weave the web in the daytime, but in the night I unravelled it by torchlight. For three years I kept up the pretence, and they believed it…”(216). With their conflicting personalities the women did help Odysseus to return. When Agamemnon told Odysseus Clytemnestra’s tale in the Underworld, it makes him think about what his wife is doing and it gives him an extra push to get home. In Penelopeia’s case, Odysseus hopes that she would remain faithful and he wants to get home to his loyal wife. Both women have many conflicting personality traits, but their actions give Odysseus a reason to hurry up in his homecoming.

Although Circe and Calypso are both goddesses and both keep Ody...

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... knowledge she passes on to him, was a factor in his decision making of the death of the suitors. Melantho shows Odysseus how cruel men can be and she makes him aware of all the traitors within the household. With these two opposite influences of the women he decides to kill all the suitors and the disloyal maidservants.

There were many women in “The Odyssey” who helped Odysseus make it back to Ithaca and end the tribulation in his household, but these were the most important ones. Without their influences and their different approaches on dealing with him, he might not have handled the situation like he did, or even worse, he might have never made it home. The women play a strong role in “The Odyssey” and they deserve recognition. Women in this time are a lot like the women in ancient Greece; they have more freedom and play a more predominate role in society.

illustrates the culture patriarchal of male and female equality in ancient Greece. On one hand, men of the mortal world and Zeus and the other male gods can get away with promiscuous behavior, while on the other hand society expects females to be faithful at all times. The poet introduces two types of heronic homecoming.