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Female representations in the odyssey
Females in the odyssey
Female representations in the odyssey
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There are a few strong female figures in this unit. One of whom being Circe. Circe is fearless, proving this by turning odysseus men into swine and then seducing odysseus. She manipulates and influences Odysseus into staying on the island with her and abandoning his quest. Penelope is also a strong female character. She leads Ithaca alone for many while her husband is gone in an era when women were seen as weaker, or counterparts to their husbands. Penelope, unlike odysseus, waited for her husbands return and stayed faithful despite many suitors. This shows her to be admirable and strong willed, considering it would have been much easier to just take a husband. The two female characters stand out as being powerful and
a man, because he has to choose a wife for his mother, but for Penelope, she. must feel degraded and low. On the other hand, if you look at a goddess like Athena, "the gray eyed" goddess," (many pages) who is actually running the show, she has much more. more power than many men do. For instance, she is able to convince Zeus, ruler of the world. all gods, that Odysseus has suffered enough to set him free.
of a year. It is only after hearing the appeals of his men that Odysseus
Yet, despite the fact that no two women in this epic are alike, each—through her vices or virtues—helps to delineate the role of the ideal woman. Below, we will show the importance of Circe, Calypso, Nausicaa, Clytaemestra, and Penelope in terms of the movement of the narrative and in defining social roles for the Ancient Greeks. Before we delve into the traits of individual characters, it is important to understand certain assumptions about women that prevailed in the Homeric Age. By modern standards, the Ancient Greeks would be considered a rabidly misogynistic culture. Indeed, the notoriously sour Boetian playwright Hesiod-- who wrote about fifty years before Homer-- proclaimed "Zeus who thunders on high made women to be evil to mortal men, with a nature to do evil (Theogony 600).
...ow Greek civilization was founded by women; they were the ones who gave birth to the heroes. Similarly, The Odyssey is a story created by women. The plot revolves around the actions of women. Athena orchestrates all the events. The seductresses, such as Circe, the sirens, and Calypso, attempt to stop Odysseus from reaching home. The helpmeets, such as Nausicaa, Arete, and Athena, aid Odysseus in his homecoming. The wise and virtuous Penelope is the object of Odysseus’ quest. Unlike Helen who forsakes her husband, Penelope remains faithful. Unlike Clytemnestra who assassinates her husband, Penelope patiently waits for Odysseus. She becomes a model of female patience and of female intelligence. Her craftiness is the only one which can match up to Odysseus’. The Odyssey presents a wide array of women and demonstrates the influence that women have in the life of a hero.
In the ending chapters of The Odyssey Homer bring about many interesting points in which would bring us to believe that in fact Penelope had helped to slay the suitors. Penelope did not physically help to slay the suitors when Odysseus had been in the room killing them. It was Penelope’s actions leading up to this scene that may have helped Odysseus in his successful killing spree of the suitors. For the case of the argument we will discuss points in which it is believed that she had recognized him disguised as the old man, which gave her the ability to help Odysseus. On the other hand, the argument that she may have not recognized Odysseus would contribute us into believing that she did not help Odysseus to slay the suitors but that things
The power and influence of women is symbolized in Odysseus’ encounter with the dead in Hades. In the Underworld, Odysseus meets more women than men. He meets his mother and then a “grand array of women” (334). They all were “wives and daughters once of princes” (334). All of them are the legendary women who were the mothers of the greatest Greek lineages. This symbolizes how Greek civilization was founded by women; they were the ones who gave birth to the heroes. Similarly, The Odyssey is a story created by women. The plot revolves around the actions of women. Athena orchestrates all the events. The seductresses, such as Circe, the sirens, and Calypso, attempt to stop Odysseus from reaching home. The helpmeets, such as Nausicaa, Arete, and Athena, aid Odysseus in his homecoming. The wise and virtuous Penelope is the object of Odysseus’ quest. Unlike Helen who forsakes her husband, Penelope remains faithful. Unlike Clytemnestra who assassinates her husband, Penelope patiently waits for Odysseus. She becomes a model of female patience and of female intelligence. Her craftiness is the only one which can match up to Odysseus’. The Odyssey presents a wide array of women and demonstrates the influence that women have in the life of a
Atwood is playing with two levels of myth here: the Homeric myth of ‘faithful Penelope’ and cultural myths about women as either submissive or domestic (Howell 9). After marriage Penelope spends most of her time alone in boredom and Eurycelia, former nurse of Odysseus, often reminds her duties as wife by saying, “So you can have a nice big son for Odysseus. That’s your job” (63). Furthermore, Atwood recounts the vulnerability of alone woman in the male dominated world. To grab opportunity of being king, a number of suitors assemble at Ithaca, to marry Penelope, and she thinks, “They all were vultures when they spot the dead cow: one drops, then another, until finally every vulture for miles around is tearing up the carcass” (103). Moreover, Atwood argues about the partiality of sexual of freedom along with the vexed relationship between man and woman, as the former can do sex with any other woman such as Odysseus’s affairs with the goddess and whores, but the woman is restricted to marriage like Penelope. The foremost fatuous allegation makes on Penelope is about her faithfulness and loyalty for her husband Odysseus, and she defends herself from any sexual conduct in the chapter, “slanderous gossip”. The death of Amphinomus, the politest suitor among all, leaves the question of marital infidelity among the genders.
I write this last letter to you, my love, sharing my deepest and darkest secrets and my adventures. First I started my journey fighting the battle in Troy against the Trojan. Then I my journey to get back home to you and Telemachus. We traveled past Ismarus and the Lotus eaters, finally reaching our real challenge, meeting the cyclopes Polyphemus. We ventured into his cave and found ourselves eating cheese. However, the monster soon returned to his lair, trapping us within it. He grew angry, devouring two of our men. We intoxicated him, then punctured his single eye. We found a way out in an intellectual way by hiding under the sheeps and going out in the morning. Unfortunately, I became a
Greek women, as depicted in their history and literature, endure many hardships and struggle to establish a meaningful status in their society. In the Odyssey, Penelope’s only role in the epic is to support Odysseus and remain loyal to him. She is at home and struggles to keep her family intact while Odysseus is away trying to return to his native land. The cultural role of women is depicted as being supportive of men and nothing more. Yet what women in ancient Greece did long ago was far more impressive than what men did.
She is a testament to women of this era in that she is not pushed around by men. The unknown writer for a website that analyzes the role of women in the art of ancient Greece writes this about Penelope,” One of the points that can be made of the story is that even though women are weaker than men there are tools available to keep them from being overpowered. The main tool is the rule of law, but even before laws customs could be used” (rwaag.org). Her tactics finally pay off in the end of the epic, when Odysseus returns from his voyage and she once again proves her intelligence by hosting the archery contest to prove Odysseus is
Through the telling of Homer’s epic, “The Odyssey,” Homer goes to great lengths to portray the personality of Penelope. Penelope, Odysseus’s devoted and patient wife, is most impressively shown by her determination in waiting almost twenty years for the homecoming of her husband from the Trojan War, rather than losing optimism and marrying another. She seems to be discouraged in the opening books of the epic, as she has to worry about the safety of her son Telemakhos, all the while her husband has not returned from the war and believed to be dead. To make matters worse, her palace is overrun with bigheaded suitors, killing her cattle for their feasts and consuming all of her wine, demanding that she remarries. However powerless Penelope might seem, she shares the traits of intelligence and cunningness with her husband Odysseus, which shows why these two are meant to be together.
Line 261 relays this particular opinion of women “Once they’d drained the bowls she filled, suddenly she struck [them] with her wand, drove them into her pigsties, all of them bristling into swine - with grunts, snouts - even their bodies.” Circe is mysterious and powerful, it is interesting that she first shows hospitality to Odysseus’ men and then curses them violating the greek value of xenia, effectively placing Circe in the (non-greek) non-human category of ancient creatures. A functionalist interpretation of Circe says that women’s sphere of influence is the home (singing, and weaving), however when Circe curses Odysseus’ men, she demonstrates the concept that women are mysterious and can never be fully trusted. The final attribute exhibited by Circe is submission. Once Odysseus’ withstands her spell she crumbles and submits to him, illustrating her craving for male dominance. The surrender of Circe displays the greek ideal that every woman ought to submit to her man because his wily intelligence will ultimately be superior. However it also demonstrates the important quality of men taking charge, and having the ability to care for his woman. Ultimately a functionalist interpretation of Circe from The Odyssey, exhibits the ancient greek ideals of what a woman is, a mysterious
When Penelope defends the beggar, treats the beggar exceptionally well, and when secrative epithets are used to describe Penelope in The Odyssey, Homer is portraying that Penelope is informed Odysseus is disquised as a beggar. Penelope stands up for her guest by remarking “How impolite” and “how wrong” while defending her guest as Antinuous attempts to prevent the beggar (Odysseus) from attempting the challenge given by Penelope (21: 351-352). Remarks like these spotlight Penelope’s awarness, because throughought the book Penelope does not have the reputation of standing up for others, but when a poor beggar arrives she defends him, which shows she is aware the beggar is Odysseus. Penelope showcases her knowledge of Odysseus disquise while
The ancient Greeks were no different in their approach of adding in moral lessons to their epic poems and the archetypes of epic heroes in them. In fact, what makes an epic hero, an epic hero, is having the ability to successfully show multiple traits of cultural morality, in essence: being a “good” Greek citizen that exhibits numerous characteristics that are held in extreme importance in this specific ancient civilization. Now the archetype of an epic hero can expand and include many more aspects other than just being a “good” Greek male, these qualities of heroism can also apply to female characters in an epic as well. The term to refer to these brave women could be called an epic heroine, nonetheless the gender of said epic hero or heroine does not matter when it comes to their role in the epic poem. A prime example of this in the ancient Greek canon is Homer’s characterization of Penelope, mother of epic-hero-in-training, Telemakhos and beloved wife of the main epic hero of The Odyssey, Odysseus. Although, Penelope is a woman and thus breaks the standard of being the stereotypical male hero that is associated with Greek fiction she does indeed share many of the same qualities as her husband in
Although The Odyssey is mainly about Odysseus, a hero trying to make his journey home after 20 years; there are many strong female leads that aid Odysseus. Each contributes to the plot in their own ways. During Homer’s time women were not seen as strong characters and were there solely to take care of and nurture the male members of their family. Though both Penelope and Athena take on this role towards Odysseus, their characters have more depth. This makes them useful and unique. The female characters in The Odyssey contribute to positive and negative viewings of women because of each character's strengths and weaknesses. Penelope, Athena and Calypso add to the perception of women in this story whether positively or negatively.