The depiction of women in The Odyssey displayes the negative protrayel and thoughts of women at the time. Even Telemachus who was raised by women his whole life speaks to his mother as though he believes he is superior to her. “So mother go back to your quarters tend to your own tasks, the distaff and the loom, and keep the women working hard as will. As for giving orders, men will see to that, but I most of all. I hold the reins of power in this house.” Penelope, a strong woman who is constantly overlooked as weak in the odyssey is the main reason why Odysseus has a kingdom to return to. Still, Penelope’s hard work is completely overlooked by Telemachus because he believes that she is too unfit to handle power and orders her to simple tasks.…
During the sixth century BCE, women were given very small roles in the Greek community. The female duties were glorified in literary such as Antigone and The Odyssey. The typical housewife was made to have children and take care of the home while the men worked and fought. Women were given very few rights and didn't have an input in political issues. Women could exercise very little power in Ancient Greece due to literary, social, and political ideals.…
Living things have evolved into three categories of closely related organisms, called "domains": Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukaryota. Life as we see it each day — including plants and animals — belongs to the third domain, Eukaryota. Eukaryotic cells are a more complex opposed to prokaryotes (simpler based cells), and the DNA is linear and found within a nucleus. Organelles are small structures within cells that perform specialized functions. They are found within the cytoplasm (a semiliquid substance that composes the foundation of a cell) Just as the name indicates, you can think of organelles as small organs. There are a dozen different types of organelles commonly found in eukaryotic cells.…
In a fantasized world like The Odyssey, women can threaten the power of the patriarchy, but in a modernized world like The Catcher in the Rye, women cannot threaten men because they do not hold tangible power. In The Odyssey, women like Helen, have the capability and desire to gain power; Helen exemplifies how women can manipulate men through the use sexulaity to do anything desire, even start a war. Her power over these men not only causes death and destruction, but it also causes endless nights of men missing their wives and just longing for a woman. Unlike The Odyssey, The Catcher in the Rye presents models of women who appear subordinate to men. The average woman in the 1940’s cleans the house, cares for the children, and cooks the dinner. Her life is in the home, leaving her unable to gain power from men. The two situations contrast,…
Women in Ancient Greece were often seen as inferior and unintelligent, they quite rarely made impacting decisions. Women were not allowed to own property or have a job that could earn them real money, they legally belonged to their father or husband. Despite the lack of power women had in Ancient Greece, Homer did not take that into account while writing. In The Odyssey, women are critical to Odysseus’ trials, and successes.…
In the vast tellings of Homer’s The Odyssey, many character comparisons can be made. Few are more pressing however, than the heroism of Odysseus and his wife, Penelope. Although both Penelope and Odysseus displayed heroic characteristics in The Odyssey, Odysseus was more of a hero than his wife was in the epic. Penelope, while somewhat of a heroine, simply was not depicted by Homer to be the hero that her husband was.…
“The Odyssey” is a story about a King named Odysseus, who goes off to lead a war and is separated from his family and kingdom for 20 years. While he is away for so many years his son grows up into a man and helps his mother; Odysseus’ wife, Penelope rules the kingdom. After many years of Odysseus being gone, suitors or “wooers” arrive trying to win over the queen. When Odysseus gets back he brutally slaughters everyone who was involved with the suitor’s plans, including the innocent servant women, who were working in his castle at the time.…
Many people regard Homer's epics as war storiesstories about men; those people often overlook the important roles that women play in the Odyssey. While there are not many female characters in the Odyssey, the few that there are, play pivotal roles in the story and one can gain a lot of insight by analyzing how those women are portrayed. Homer portrays the females in contradictory ways: the characters of Athena and Eurykleia are given strong, admirable roles while Melantho, the Sirens and Circe are depicted in a much more negative way. Penelopethe central female characteris given both negative and positive attributes.…
The literature of this sort of masculine society, of which the Iliad and Odyssey are examples, aptly illustrates these social conventions. The themes of these works are subjects which are of interest to men; warfare, hunting, the problems of the warrior and ruler, and so forth. That which would concern women, such as domestic affairs, is not involved in this literature, or is dealt with only casually. Keeping in mind this important attribute of epic poetry, which is the direct result of its social and intellectual environment, one cannot help noting the great difference between the Odyssey and all other epic poems. No other literary work of this period, or of a similar cultural background, gives such a prominent position to women. No reader of the Odyssey can help having vivid memories of the poem’s outstanding female characters. There are many women in the Odyssey and all of them contribute in mean-ingful ways to the development of the action. Furthermore, they are treated seriously and with respect by the poet, as if there were no difference between his attitude toward them and his feelings toward the chieftains for whom his epic was composed. Among the memorable women in the poem are Nausicaa, the innocent young maiden; Arete, the wise and benevolent queen and mother; Circe and Calypso, the sultry and mysterious temptresses; Penelope, the ideal of marital devotion and fidelity; Helen, the respectable middle-class matron…
Although women in ancient Greece are often portrayed as meek and weak, this is not the case in Homer’s epic; The Odyssey. Instead, women in the Odyssey are often described as either cunning, intelligent, sexually alluring, or powerful, dangerous and fatal. Some of the most typical female characters are Athena, Circes and Penelope, where Athena is a powerful goddess and a skilled warrior, Circes is a cunning witch who tricked Odysseus’ men into drinking her potion and turning into swine, and Penelope, the extremely clever, yet loyal wife of Odysseus who outsmarted the suitors for 20 years. Most of these female characters fall under the category of “femme Fatale”, Latin for fatal-woman, which perfectly portrays their powerfulness and how lethal they are.…
They were at sea making their way back home when they had to sail pass the Sirens’ “…those creatures who spellbind any man alive, whoever comes their way. Whoever draws too close, off guard, and catches the Sirens’ voices in the air-no sailing home for him, no wife rising to meet him…” (pg. 272). This shows women as evil, and alluring. The men had to fill their ears with wax in order to resist the voices of the Sirens’ and Odysseus was bound to the boast so he could resist the Sirens’ as well. Another example from the Odyssey other than the Sirens’ in the book, would be of women being represented as vindictive and lustful. In the Odyssey when Odysseus and his men end up on Circe’s island, she says “…lest go to bed together, mount my bed and mix in the magic work of love…” (pg. 240) and he stays on the island for months before she lets him go. Circe had distracted Odysseus of his quest to go back home. She distracted his attention to make him focus on her, causing him to neglect his duties and neglect his…
In Homers masterpiece, The Odyssey, women are depicted in a certain way. They each display some part of three characteristics: Loyalty, wisdom, and beauty. Two women that represent these three qualities are Penelope and Athena.…
In Homer's Odyssey, the women are portrayed in many different ways, some are said to be wise while others are cruel, but many are treated differently from the opposite gender. One of the women in the story, Penelope, was portrayed as very wise but because of her gender she was expected to obey many of the men. Similarly to Penelope, Arete, queen of the Phaeacians, was equally wise but was viewed almost as an equal to the men. In contrast to the other two women, Melantho was very malicious and was treated similarly to the men in the end of the book.…
In The Odyssey, Homer creates characters that embody many aspects of human nature to reflect his observations about his world and society. Many of the characters have personalities that define them to be heroic, or borderline evil. Throughout Odysseus’ return home from Troy, he meets important women of both kinds. Homer portrays some women that are ideal, and more women that are immoral. Through Homer, we learn that women in Ancient Greece could be assumed to use their beauty and seductiveness for unjust purposes, whereas the rare faithful ones were to be treasured.…
The Iliad and The Odyssey are tales written by Homer centered on the drama of the Trojan War. First poem deals with the time during the end of the war, while the latter, which occurs roughly ten years later, explains the disastrous journey of Odysseus fighting his way back home. The character of women in the Odyssey is to exhibit the many and diverse roles that women play in the lives of men. These functions vary from characters such as the goddess ' that help them to the nymphs who trick them. Women in the Iliad exhibit their significance in the lives of the ancient Greeks because they are so prominent in a world so dominated with military relations.…