The significance of female characters in the progressof Homer’s novel

The significance of female characters in the progressof Homer’s novel

The Odyssey

Women are very important figures in Homer's The Odyssey. Athena and

Penelope are the two primary examples. They help Odysseus in his

travels in many ways through the story. They keep the reader

interested so that they keep reading to find out what will happen

next. Throughout the novel, they appear in many different forms.

In this epic, several female characters had a profound effect on the

plot. They wielded their influence through typically feminine skills

and attributes: seduction, supernatural powers, intelligence, and

beauty. Some of the women of The Odyssey influenced the actions of

men, playing key roles in the epics, such as Athena, Penelope,

Calypso, the Sirens, Helen, or Circe; all have been true, and in

actuality, may be an entertaining interpretation of an actual Trojan

War. Since the Trojan War supposedly started because of a dispute

between the gods and mortals, the Trojan War probably started because

of a reason other than the reason Homer gives. If Homer were a woman,

then he would have directed his audience into believing that women

were at a higher level than men were by use of his epics. Ultimately,

Homer would be utilizing his feminine characteristics when telling his

stories with underlying messages of feminine superiority or equality.

As goddess of wisdom and battle, Athena naturally has a soft spot for

the brave and wily Odysseus. She helps him out of many tough

situations, including his shipwreck in Book 5 and the mismatched

battle of Book 22. She does not merely impart sense and safety to her

passive charge, however. She takes an interest in Odysseus for the

talents he already has and actively demonstrates. Although she

reassures Odysseus during the battle with the suitors, she does not

become fully involved, preferring instead to watch Odysseus fight and

prevail on his own.

She also often helps Telemachus as when she sends him off to Pylos and

Sparta to earn a name for himself but she has the most affection for

Odysseus. Athena is confident, practical, clever, a master of

disguises, and a great warrior, characteristics she finds reflected in

Telemachus. Her role as goddess of the womanly arts gets very little

attention in the Odyssey. Penelope works at the loom all the time but

rarely sees Athena, and then u...

... middle of paper ...

...oes. These literature works gave many possibilities

of definition of heroism. The Greeks illustrated heroism to obey the

rules laid down by the gods and goddesses, and those who obey the

rules would gain honor and fame. The Greeks regarded intelligence as

one of the highest gifts that all heroes must posses. The Greeks

required that all heroes must have courage and die a horrible death.

We know him less from what he thought, which was seldom revealed, than

by what he says and did, and his actions follow naturally from his

characteristics. If the cunning of Odysseus is mentioned more than his

courage, it was his courage that gets him into the scrapes from which

his cunning had to deliver him. Odysseus had the all the qualities

that the Greek tradition required of all heroes, which were obey the

rules of gods, posses intelligence, and displayed courage. He was made

a hero thanks to his own characteristics however, with out the

guidance of Athena, his longing to be at home with his wife again and

the intervention of women on his journey, he would only be a hero by

myth not by what he has achieved through the trouble of getting home

due to the women he has encountered.