Treatment Of Women In The Odyssey

From the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Bible, the Odyssey, the Iliad, and Oedipus the King, women in ancient Mediterranean cultures could be looked at as seductresses, the mother figure, and as being weak and stupid. Particularly in the city of Athens Greece, women were probably believed to be weak and inferior because the Philosophers, except for Plato, theorized that women had strong emotions that required guardians. As seen in this quote from Genesis 3:10, “In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children... Thy husband ... shall rule over thee”, women got punished by God with the pains of childbirth and subjection to men because she was tricked by the serpent and then it later talks about how men were punished because Adam let himself be seduced or

In fact, women are credited for ruining, tainting, or damaging the heroes’ journey and later meeting to their failure. An example of this can be seen in the Iliad when Homer chose Helen to be the main cause of the Great War between Troy and Greece which essentially put the blame on her and women in general for causing that tragic event. The point that Homer was trying to show was the distorted Greek view of women by implying or stating directly that a woman was at fault for the Great War whether Helen was abducted or went willingly. Also, when Agamemnon captured Briseis and Chryseis as war prizes for himself and Achilles, is an example of how men treated women as objects. In today’s society, countries are at war over oil, money, and land or other natural resources but in the Iliad, Achilles, Agamemnon’s finest warrior, revolted when against Agamemnon when he tried to take Briseis away from him since Agamemnon had to give Chyseis back. I believe that this was Homer’s way of showing us that women were thought of something that could be traded out or won in a battle. The theme of the Iliad can be seen as a portrayal of the Greek views of women as powerless beings. It can be seen that Homer wants to make this evident by how most of the women in the books read in class are excluded from policy or decision