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.…
Athena continues to show her care giving side after pleading with her father Zeus to free Odysseus which he does after he sent Hermes to tell Calypso to free him and she does which shows that she has a sense of decency despite her sexual ambitions to keep him on her island. After building a raft and sailing out to sea, he continues to receive bad treatment from Poseidon after he conjured up a storm that knocked him down into the water. Watching him being tossed like a rag doll around in the sea, a goddess named Ino, like Athena, showed a caring side for protecting Odysseus by providing him a scarf and with it he abandoned his raft and belongings and “dove headfirst into the sea, stretched his arms and stroked for life itself” (Book V, 411-412). While swimming toward the shore, he also had assistance from Athena who calmed Poseidon’s storm and stopped the winds by “commanding them all to hush now, go to sleep” (Book V, 423) and eventually he would make it toward land.…
Throughout the Odyssey, women are used as a symbol of temptation and seduction. Odysseus finds himself trapped on an island Ogygia by the nymph, Calypso. Life on Calypso’s island is paradise to Odysseus but, after seven years of Odysseus being caught in Calypso’s seductive ways, the gods began to pity Odysseus.…
Women were a very big important part of the Odyssey. They were involved in almost every single important thing in The Odyssey. The women that played a huge part were Athena, Penelope, and Calypso. All the women were related to helping Odysseus get things done. I will tell you all about the women in the story.…
In The "Odyssey", Homer depicts women during his time period by describing how they behave in society, what their roles are, and shows things from women's prospectives. During the dark age, when this poem was written,…
“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.…
In the world people put other people into categories. This happens especially with women, some of the categories that people use today are: beautiful, ugly, good, bad, innocent, whore, loyal, and unloyal, those are just a few. In Homer’s The Odyssey you see that there are different roles and types of women. I will prove that there are 5 main roles assigned to women: the good wife, the bad wife, the goddess, the monster, and the seducer, and these many times are related to each other.…
Most of the women in the book of Odysseus were deceiving to the men and trying to betray them but there was one woman who was not like that, Penelope---- Odysseus wife. She waits on him patiently and faithfully for him to return home no matter how hard it got. “Oh, yes indeed, she remains in your halls, her heart enduring the bitter days and nights. But the honor that was yours has not passed to any man” (Odysseys, book 11,…
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,…
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 women in the Odyssey by Homer and the Aeneid by Virgil are from different ethnic backgrounds and eras. The women in the Odyssey are from the Greek tribe and are controlled by their men. They live by the instructions of their husbands as dictated by their customs. The women in the Aeneid are free and empowered. They are respected by their men and are able to exercise their rights. Hence, they contributed to the development of the Roman Empire.…
The Iliad of Homer, showed women as being items of exchange for the men who had possessed them. They are shown in their social roles as mothers and wives. He states stereotypical characterizations of them. The reader understands that women are being treated as prizes, and that the male hero has to win or he'd have to resist fulfilling his heroic destiny. The characters of Hera and Athena, who are among the immortals, they are certainly strong women. Hera is the wife of Zeus and queen of the Olympians. She tricked her husband so that she is able to play with in the affairs of the Trojan War. The goddess of wisdom, and war, Athena attacked Ares two different occasions and still had to have him flee to Mount Olympus in defeat.…
The Odyssey is mainly about men and their heroic triumphs and mighty deaths, which cast a shadow over the strong women. Most of the women are thought to be either motherly figures or romantic interests, but in truth, they are so much more, just like in present day society. Perhaps the most strong of all mortal characters is Penelope, the loyal wife of Odysseus. Although she is bombarded with suitors who stay at her house, she has managed to not give in.…
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.…
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.…