Women of the Iliad

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Women of the Iliad

In the Iliad we saw women as items of exchange and as markers of status for the men who possessed them (Chryseis and

Briseis, whom Agame mnon and Achilles argue over in Book I). We saw them in their normal social roles as mothers and wives

(Hecuba, Andromache in Book VI). We saw stereotypical characterizations of them as fickle (Helen in Book VI), seductive,

and deceitful (Hera in Book XIV). We see them as an obstacle that the male hero has to overcome or resist to fulfill his heroic

destiny (Andromache's entreaties to Hector in Book VI).

In all, the few times women show up in what is basically a story told in the male sphere, the story is nothing that subverts or calls

into question the structure of the society that is being portrayed... or is there?

To the extent that the Iliad has a moral lesson to impart to its readers, part of it would have to be that the behavior of Agam

emnon and Achilles in the first book (and beyond) is excessive. Both men are so fixated on their own images as heroic warriors

that they end up bringing woe upon themselves and the rest of the Greeks. Part of that behavior is the way they treat the wome

n not as human beings but as emblems of their own status and martial prowess. Look carefully at what Agamemnon says to the

prophet who declared that he had to give back Chryseis (Page 62):

Now once more you make divination to the Dana ans, argue

forth your reason why he who strikes from afar afflicts them,

because I for the sake of the girl Chryseis would not take

the shining ransom; and indeed I wish greatly to have her

in my own house; since I like her be tter than Klytaimestra

my own wife, for in truth she is no way inferior

To those who already knew the stories of the Trojan War heroes (which all of the original Greek audience of the epic would),

these words would be ominous ones. They would know that Agamemnon had angered hi s wife Klytaimestra (Clytemnestra),

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