Gender Roles In The Odyssey

Although it is clear women in Homer’s The Odyssey are hierarchically lower than men, and have to follow societal norms and the orders of men, women also have the power to disrupt and distract Odysseus’ journey home.
Men have clear dominance over the lives of women throughout The Odyssey and make choices for them in instances even when they are completely capable. This is evident even with mother-son relationships. Telemachus commands Penelope, his own mother to “go back to [her] quarters. Tend to [her] own tasks, the distaff and the loom, and keep the women working hard as well. As for giving orders, men will see to that, but I most of all: I hold the reins of power in this house” (Odyssey 89). This is such a normal thing, for men to control
When Odysseus returns home, and kills the suitors, he realizes that some of his maids have had sex with the suitors. He characterizes them as “the maids who whored in the suitors’ beds each night” (410) They were doing as they please and didn’t think anything of it. Yet, because they are women, Odysseus, and all men for that matter, believe women should be punished if they have sex with a lot of men, because they aren’t supposed to according to unspoken rules in society. Women are supposed to only lay in bed with the one they marry and stay loyal, one who has sex with others is a disgrace to society. Men on the other hand, have sex with as many women as they like and receive glory for it. This is exactly what happens with Odysseus and Penelope. As Odysseus returns and reunites with his beloved Penelope. They regale each other with what has happened to them. Penelope goes on and on about how she has been loyal but “great Odysseus told his wife of all the pains he had dealt out to other men and all the hardships he’d endured himself – his story first to last – and she listened on, enchanted…” (465) Nothing about his sex with all the other women along his journey. This means that although he has numerous other intimate relationships with women along his journey, he wants to give a semblance of loyalty to Penelope. Although he most likely would
Odysseus is held hostage on Calypso’s island for seven years. Day after day, Odysseus is “alone… his heart set on his wife and his return—Calypso the bewitching nymph, the lustrous goddess, held him deep in her arching caverns, craving him for a husband… Off he sat on a headland, weeping there as always, wrenching his heart with sobs and groans and anguish gazing out at the barren sea through blinding tears. (78, 155) Calypso keeps Odysseus on her island for a whole seven years. This isn’t even half the time he is away from home, but Calypso breaks Odysseus down. Making him feel worthless, and as though he will never return home. This proves that women are a major factor in why Odysseus comes home a broken, changed man, twenty years after the war is over. The same thing happens with Circe on her island. Circe manages to halt Odysseus’ journey for a year. She tempted, offered food and weakened his spirits in getting home. This is how “she enticed and won [Odysseus’] battle-hardened spirit over. And there [on Circe’s island, he] sat at ease, day in, day out, till a year had run its course…” (245) Circe’s purpose in the epic is to stop and prolong Odysseus’ journey home. She not only is good at fulfilling her purpose she exceeds how long most other women Odysseus interacts with prolong his journey. This shows that even the