Women In The Odyssey
Exploring the Role of Women in Ancient Greece Through Homer
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.
Homer exaggerates many feminine qualities to teach his audience lessons. He uses the Sirens to very effectively create …show more content…
The very first thing we learn of her is that she is a “dire beauty” (10,149) We see her “while on her loom,” (10,241) and Homer uses weaving as a recurring image of femininity. We see it here, and later we see the “sirens weaving a haunting song over the sea” (XII,191). However, all is not what it seems. Kirke feeds them, twisting a moral virtue and kindness, because she is actually poisoning them with a wine containing her own “vile pinch” (X,260) to make them lose all interest in returning home. She distracts them from their heroic adventures like the Sirens. She goes further, bringing out the heroes’ worst nature, by turning them “[into] swine” (X,381). So we see that though on the surface, she appears to be a kind woman, she is actually a witch who distracts Homer’s manly heroes from their goals. Homer is showing us that women in Ancient Greece were very distracting and set men back from doing whatever made sense to …show more content…
Homer was clear in stating the role of women, that the man was more dominant that the women, and was more important for the most part, and it was the general consensus as well for awhile. Aristotle quoted that “the man is by nature more superior to the female and so the man should rule and the female should be ruled” (Aristotle, Politics). That was said over 500 years after Homer had died, showing that the general thought of women in ancient times were that they were distracting, seductive, and got in the way, but there is a small minority of them such as women like Penelope that were faithful, loyal, and
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.
Homer exaggerates many feminine qualities to teach his audience lessons. He uses the Sirens to very effectively create …show more content…
The very first thing we learn of her is that she is a “dire beauty” (10,149) We see her “while on her loom,” (10,241) and Homer uses weaving as a recurring image of femininity. We see it here, and later we see the “sirens weaving a haunting song over the sea” (XII,191). However, all is not what it seems. Kirke feeds them, twisting a moral virtue and kindness, because she is actually poisoning them with a wine containing her own “vile pinch” (X,260) to make them lose all interest in returning home. She distracts them from their heroic adventures like the Sirens. She goes further, bringing out the heroes’ worst nature, by turning them “[into] swine” (X,381). So we see that though on the surface, she appears to be a kind woman, she is actually a witch who distracts Homer’s manly heroes from their goals. Homer is showing us that women in Ancient Greece were very distracting and set men back from doing whatever made sense to …show more content…
Homer was clear in stating the role of women, that the man was more dominant that the women, and was more important for the most part, and it was the general consensus as well for awhile. Aristotle quoted that “the man is by nature more superior to the female and so the man should rule and the female should be ruled” (Aristotle, Politics). That was said over 500 years after Homer had died, showing that the general thought of women in ancient times were that they were distracting, seductive, and got in the way, but there is a small minority of them such as women like Penelope that were faithful, loyal, and