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Traditional Roles Of Women In The Society
Portrayal of women in greek and roman mythology
Women in ancient literature
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What would you expect to be the role of a woman in the society? Most of us will believe that women play an important role in our society. They give birth, take care of the family, listen to and are loyal to their husbands. This is how we usually think of women. However, Ancient Egyptian Literatures bring us to the complete opposite view of woman. They believe that women cause many troubles to their husband and society. They are treacherous and unacceptable. Women are portrayed as troublemakers, as shown through Eve from Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, who caused her husband got into trouble; Clytemnestra from The Odyssey, who betrayed her husband; and Ishtar from The Epic of Gilgamesh, who wanted to kill her lover when he didn’t accept her love.
Women break the rule and cause trouble for their husband. In Genesis, God created a
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A little story of Agamemnon and his wife - Clytemnestra in The Odyssey shows the image of the unfaithful woman in the ancient time. Agamemnon was a great warrior and leader of the Greek forces in the Trojan. During Agamemnon’s ten years at war, Clytemnestra fell in love with Aegisthus and betrayed her husband. They murdered the great warrior when he returned home from the war. “Take Aegisthus now. He marries Agamemnon’s wife and murders the man on his return”(The Odyssey, Page 333). Agamemnon’s son – Orestes then avenged his father by killing his mother and her lover. “Orestes killed his father’s murderer, the treacherous Aegisthus, and, having killed him” (The Odyssey, Page 360). This shows that women are disloyal to their husbands and destroy their family. Clytemnestra should take care of the family when her husband went to the war. She should be faithful and wait for him to come back, but she didn’t. She betrayed him and ruined the whole family. The value of women was portrayed as less important in the ancient time. Women were portrayed this way in order to affirm the crucial value of men in the
Judged by modern Western standards, the treatment of women by men in Homer's Odyssey can be characterized as sexist. Women in Homer's Odyssey are judged mainly by their looks. If important men and gods consider a woman beautiful, or if her son or husband is a hero or has an important position such as king, the woman is successful. The way women in The Odyssey are treated is based on appearance, the things men want from them, and whether the woman has any power over men. During Odysseus' journey to the underworld he sees many different types of women. We hear about their beauty, their important sons, or their affairs with gods. We hear nothing about these women's accomplishments in their lifetime. Odysseus tells how Antiope could "boast a god for a lover,"(193) as could Tyro and many other women. Epikaste was called "that prize"(195) her own son unwittingly married.
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).
The women presented throughout The Odyssey provide a respectable representation of women in ancient Greece in general. There are several women introduced in The Odyssey, all of various backgrounds and social classes. The most notable women or type of women in this epic include goddesses, Penelope, and the housemaids and servants.
Homer's great epic, "The Odyssey" was written several thousands of years ago, a time in human history when men played the dominant role in society. The entire structure of civilization was organized and controlled by men; It was an accepted fact that women held an inferior position in society. Society was constructed as if women were around only to serve the men. The involvement of women in any circumstance was almost completely dominated by what the men allowed. The women were valued in society, only they were not given important roles or any decision making power. It is as if they held no power in the ancient Greek society. This is why Homer's Odyssey is very unique, Homer put women into roles that were previously unheard of for women to possess. Unlike in The Iliad, where women served merely as an object to men; female characters of Odyssey are distinctive because they possess personality, and have intricate relationships with the male characters of the Odyssey. By characterizing the women in "The Odyssey", a reader may come to some conclusions about the role of women in this epic. Along with the belief that women played a secondary role to men in society, the female characters displayed certain traits that could not be exhibited by the men. Athena demonstrated the most intelligence and valor out of all the characters in "The Odyssey." The male characters play the most significant roles in this epic, but without the support of the females in "The Odyssey", Odysseus would not have made it through his journey.
Clytemnestra falls into the horrible double standard that women hold in our world and her reputation is tarnished by the misinformation given about her. In Homer’s epic Odyssey Agamemnon labeled Clytemnestra as his ”accursed wife” (Homer 463) who is accused of killing him to be with her supposed lover Aegisthus, but in Aeschylus’s Agamemnon she reveals unapologetically her reasoning for killing her husband, which changes the whole perspective of her character. It is revealed in the play Agamemnon that Agamemnon killed Clytemnestra’s daughter, Iphigeneia, and she seeks revenge on Agamemnon for the death of her child (Agamemnon 1385-1386). Clytemnestra is perceived as evil and cold-hearted in the Odyssey but the information that you gather in
Women were treated with excellent conditions in the cultures mentioned in documents 1 & 2. The Pueblo American Indians treated women well because they considered their creators to be two women (Document 1). The Egyptians had a great treatment of women by giving them the right to participate in court sessions and other legal activities (Document 2). Egypt’s treatment of women according to legal documents is due to their influence from Sub-Saharan Africa, a matrilineal culture that had multiple impacts in Egyptian culture.
The society in which classical myths took place, the Greco-Roman society was a very patriarchal one. By taking a careful gander at female characters in Greco-Roman mythology one can see that the roles women played differ greatly from the roles they play today. The light that is cast upon females in classical myths shows us the views that society had about women at the time. In classical mythology women almost always play a certain type of character, that is to say the usual type of role that was always traditionally played by women in the past, the role of the domestic housewife who is in need of a man’s protection, women in myth also tended to have some unpleasant character traits such as vanity, a tendency to be deceitful, and a volatile personality. If one compares the type of roles that ladies played in the myths with the ones they play in today’s society the differences become glaringly obvious whilst the similarities seem to dwindle down. Clearly, and certainly fortunately, society’s views on women today have greatly changed.
In the era of Homer, women played a very specific role in society, and even in literature. Women of this time were basically put in a box, and expected to never step out of line. If they did go against the arbitration of men, then they were faced with serious consequences. However, female characters play a huge role in both aiding, and delaying Odysseus’s journey home. I will proceed to analyze, and interpret the actions and intentions of every major female character in The Odyssey.
Women play an influential role in The Odyssey. Women appear throughout the story, as goddesses, wives, princesses, or servants. The women in “The Odyssey” dictate the direction of the epic. Homer the blind creator may have contrived the story with the aim to depict a story of a male heroism; but the story if looked at from a different angles shows the power women have over men. The Sirens and women that posses the power of seduction when ever they are encountered take the men off their course, and lead many to their death. The power women in the Epic pose can be seen from the goddess all to the wives. From The nymph Calypso who enslaves Odysseus for many years posses all the way back to Penelope who many argue is of equal importance to
The Odyssey exemplifies a society organized and controlled by men where males consistently treated women unequally depriving them of true freedom. Homer’s male characters often saw women as second-hand citizens who had not true voice in society. One example of a women who is oppressed by men in the text is Odysseus’ wife Penelope. Although Penelope is queen of Ithaca her power in the kingdom is limited. Her life is controlled by her son Telemachus and the Achaean suitors who have been taken advantage of the kingdom for several years. At one point in the text Telemachus tells his mother “Words are for men, for all, especially for me; for power within this house rest here” (Homer, 7). This shows how men regarded themselves as the ones with power over society while they...
The Odyssey: Portrayal of Women How does Homer portray women in the epic, The Odyssey? In order to answer this question you must look at woman and goddesses as two separate groups of people who are "people". This is because they are portrayed in two separate ways. You see, a regular woman like Penelope is looked at as beautiful but has.
The women in The Odyssey are a fair representation of women in ancient Greek culture. In his work, Homer brings forth women of different prestige. First there are the goddesses, then Penelope, and lastly the servant girls. Each of the three factions forms an important part of The Odyssey and helps us look into what women were like in ancient Greece.
Women play an influential role in The Odyssey. Women appear throughout the story, as goddesses, wives, princesses, or servants. The nymph Calypso enslaves Odysseus for many years. Odysseus desires to reach home and his wife Penelope. It is the goddess Athena who sets the action of The Odyssey rolling; she also guides and orchestrates everything to Odysseus’ good. Women in The Odyssey are divided into two classes: seductresses and helpmeets. By doing so, Homer demonstrates that women have the power to either hinder of help men. Only one woman is able to successfully combine elements of both classes: Penelope. She serves as a role model of virtue and craftiness. All the other women are compared to and contrasted with Penelope.
Similar to the biblical story of Adam and Eve, Eve like the many women in the Odyssey brings about pain and suffering for mankind. Contrary to the depicting of women as roots of evil, the reader sees the other traits of women that are most desirable. The roles
Walcot, P. “Greek Attitudes towards Women: The Mythological Evidence.” Greece & Rome 2nd ser. 31.1 (Apr., 1984): 37-47. Cambridge University Press on Behalf of The Classical Association Article Stable. Web.