Oppression Of Women In Homer's The Odyssey

In the epic tale, The Odyssey, it is evident to see how women have evolved up to present time. In the book, women are shown as evil temptresses, through characters such as Circe. As well as having characters like Calypso who crave the love of Odysseus, and depend on him, or rely on him to marry her and stay with her. And Penelope, Odysseus’s wife, shows a typical mortal woman in the book, which is someone who cleans, cooks and runs errands all day. In Homer’s The Odyssey, women are viewed and portrayed differently compared to modern day society, including factors such as independence, manipulativeness, and beauty, showing how women's roles have developed. The relationship between man and woman in The Odyssey proved that previously, women
In Book 5 of The Odyssey, Calypso manipulates and tempts Odysseus to stay with her, thus causing Odysseus to stay with her for 7 years, delaying his journey. Calypso uses seduction and her beauty to influence Odysseus, wanting him to forget about Penelope and Ithaca, for her own selfish needs. Homer portrays Calypso, along with other women, for being powerful, yet wicked, leading men astray, even Penelope who seems innocent uses divine wiles, tricking men to thinking she will pick the suitor with the best gifts. Looking at modern day, women still try to get what they desire, but that’s not only women, it’s human nature to yearn for something. The true difference between the two times is that women do not hold such power, and abuse it, nor do people, in our culture especially, believe in such magic or tempting factors such as desirable beauty. Not to mention, over the past centuries women have gone through suffrage, protests, hardships, and have almost reached a point of full equality with men. Previously, women were shown as emotional, manipulative and subordinate, where men were shown as strong, daring figures. Women being seen near equal to men shows that women are no longer defined as beautifully tempting, or nefarious, but complex and
From dependence on men, to wickedness, to perspectives and views on beauty, aspects on women has changed, for the better. Seeing how much women have grown throughout the years, and how equal they are to men now days, in the future genders will be fully equal, and not to mention thoughts on beauty will change, creating a society that will involve not as harsh judgements concerning looks and stereotypes (such as woman not being strong). Though there are still conflicts involving women rights and equal pay, the goal of equality is close to being met, seeing how much has been overcome and the evolution of portrayals of women, the roles of women will keep changing in the future. The differences of women's roles in The Odyssey and modern day shows the growth of women coming from being subordinate to being seen as an equal, compared to men, thus showing how much can be accomplished in the near future for women all around the