Maids In The Odyssey

922 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Portrayal of women in the Odyssey

Throughout history women have been segregated against, and early history would show that women were nothing more than objects, something men owned. This idea was supported by the media through newspapers, and books. Specifically in classical literature women are seen as sexual objects, or property. In popular books these women, Penelope’s maids, Circe, and Gwynevere are all seen as sexual objects used by men especially by the main characters. The maids in The Odyssey, by Homer, are treated as nothing more than property, both by Odysseus and by the suitors, they are used and then thrown out like trash. After Odysseus massacres all the suitors, except two, he realizes that he has made a mess of the great hall, then Eurycleia tells Odysseus …show more content…

Chairs and tables-scrub them down with sponges, rinse them clean. And once you’ve put the entire house in order, march the women out of the great hall-between the roundhouse and the courtyard’s strong stockade-and hack them with your swords, slash out all their lives-blot out their minds the joys of love they relished under the suitors’ bodies, rutting on the sly! (Homer 453).
Even if they were maids being forced to clean up a dirty mess right before you were to be slaughtered is sick, and sadistic, and all they did was sleep with someone they may or may not have wanted to. To further the point, the suitors were the ones who forced the maids to sleep with them by objectifying the maids as property and saying that they need to serve the guests of the house (the suitors). The Odyssey is a famous book that many have read and for it to include these ideals of objectifying women is awful no matter what time it was. Along with the maids in The Odyssey, another woman known as Circe was used as a sexual object for a whole year by Odysseus. Soon after landing on Circe’s island Odysseus gets word that his comrades have been taken by Circe, Odysseus decides to confront her by himself. However before he goes into Circe’s home, Hermes, the giant killer appears, telling him that Circe’s magic can be avoided using special herbs which Hermes gives to Odysseus. After eating the herbs and confronting Circe, Circe asks one favour of …show more content…

After being treated badly by his peers, King Arthur determines that he needs to marry. King Arthur and Merlin are talking about who to pick for his wife when King Arthur mentions Guinevere:
‘I love Guenevere, the daughter of King Leodegrance of the land of Cameliard, who holdeth in his house the table round that ye told me had been given to him by my father Uther. And this damsel is the most valiant and fairest lady that I know living, or yet that ever I could find.’ ‘Sir,; said Merlin, ‘as of her beauty and fairness she is one of the fairest alive (The Marriage of King Arthur).
This might not be as bad as The Odyssey however the fact that King Arthur barely knows anything about her besides that she is attractive, and that she owns the round table, shows that King Arthur is merely using her to get to the round table. Both Arthur and Merlin agree that she is one of the fairest damsels, but even after warning from Merlin that the kingdom will fall if he chooses Guinevere as his Queen he still chooses her because of her

Show More
Related

  • Treatment of Women in Homer's Odyssey

    882 Words  | 2 Pages

    Judged by modern Western standards, the treatment of women by men in Homer's Odyssey can be characterized as sexist. Women in Homer's Odyssey are judged mainly by their looks. If important men and gods consider a woman beautiful, or if her son or husband is a hero or has an important position such as king, the woman is successful. The way women in The Odyssey are treated is based on appearance, the things men want from them, and whether the woman has any power over men. During Odysseus' journey to the underworld he sees many different types of women. We hear about their beauty, their important sons, or their affairs with gods. We hear nothing about these women's accomplishments in their lifetime. Odysseus tells how Antiope could "boast a god for a lover,"(193) as could Tyro and many other women. Epikaste was called "that prize"(195) her own son unwittingly married.

    Read More

  • I Saw Guinevere There as Well

    843 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...Thomas Malory, present Guinevere, Arthur's queen, as one of the causes of the fall of Arthurian empire. Guinevere is described as a wicked and unfaithful wife, whose behavior triggers the fall of her husband's rule. And although other factors, such as people's jealousy and evil, influence the outcome of the legendary empire, Guinevere's unfaithfulness is the primary cause of the fall of King Arthur and his Round Table.

    Read More

  • The Nature of Women Portrayed by Circe and Calypso in The Odyssey

    660 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Homer's composition, The Odyssey, the roles women play are very significant. The best examples of the true nature of women occur when Odysseus encounters Circe and Calypso. These two characters illustrate the thoughts and feelings of how women how a woman feels and how they think. As the quote states, Circe and Calypso illustrate how women really can be crafty, intelligent, sneaky, disloyal, and cruel. In contrast to battles with men, Cyclops, or animals, sexual battles with women are sometimes much more difficult to win.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Guile In The Odyssey

    718 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Odyssey by Homer tells the account of the celebrated king Odysseus and of his great feats on his way back to Ithaca, much like the Epic of Gilgamesh expresses the feats of the great king Gilgamesh and his friend Endiku. These male characters are exemplified in their incredible feats and capabilities. However, many of these deeds would not be possible without the help of the female characters. The seemingly perfect male characters have their greatest weakness in women and many of their pitfalls are a result of encounters with women. The female characters in both the Odyssey and The Epic of Gilgamesh show how even though women both mortal and immortal are subservient to men in society, whenever women are pitted against men, women almost

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Camelot

    1813 Words  | 4 Pages

    Camelot, the musical adaptation of The Once and Future King, allows for an interesting twist on the portrayal of Guinevere’s personality, mindset, and desires. The use of song and excellent acting allows for a unique display of the different aspects that make Guinevere a complex and strong character. Analyzing “The Lusty Month of May” shows Guinevere as a woman driven by her desires for the fantastical aspects of romance. However, contrasting “The Lusty Month of May” with other songs paints her as a more dynamic character and explains her relationship dynamic with Arthur, Lancelot, and other men in the court. This verse by verse analysis characterizes Guinevere as a woman driven by feelings of dissatisfaction and destiny.

    Read More

  • Role of Women in the Odyssey

    1575 Words  | 4 Pages

    “A woman cannot be herself in the society of the present day, which is an exclusively masculine society, with laws framed by men and with a judicial system that judges feminine conduct from a masculine point of view” (Ibsen). This saying also applied to the times of the Odyssey, an epic constructed by the blind, eight century B.C.E. poet, Homer. As one of the few representatives of ancient Greek social order, the blind, Homer witnessed women as substandard to men, regardless of their actions; many of them existed as seductresses, prostitutes, or slaves. He engraved into his poem women’s roles; the roles of women, as mothers, wives, seductresses, and goddesses are exemplified in this epic, when shown in comparison to the men of that era.

    Read More

  • Guinevere In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

    250 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the Arthurian romance genre, Guinevere plays various roles; the purpose of her role depends on the story that she is in. In three separate stories, written by different poets, specifically Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Morte Darthur, and The Wife of Bath’s Tale, Guinevere is used to achieve different goals. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Guinevere is the catalyst of all of the stories events. The burning desire of Morgan le Fay to destroy Guinevere through dismantling the Round Table is what spurs the arrival of the Green Knight in Arthur’s court and the subsequent quest that Gawain goes on that tests his character and allows him to learn more about himself. The Guinevere in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the reason that Arthur’s

    Read More

  • The Role of Women in the Odyssey

    1228 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... All of Odysseus' maidservants exist to first serve Odysseus, then later to serve Telemachus and the suitors. Circe and Calypso exist in the epic to satisfy Odysseus by pleasuring him sexually, pampering him, and treating him like a God. Helen and Arete serve their husbands as loyal wives.

    Read More

  • Guinevere's Evolution Synthesis Essay

    865 Words  | 2 Pages

    Queen Guinevere’s affair with Sir Lancelot is not true love, it is a way to escape her reality as queen, which is filled with duties, expectations and responsibilities. When Lancelot and Guinevere first meet, she is enchanted by his chivalry and bravery; she lets her feelings fly because it is an opportunity to have control over something in her life. In the legends, Guinevere feels trapped and useless until she meets Lancelot. The earlier Arthurian legends she appears in were most likely written by men, and consequently, that lead to giving female characters, such as Guinevere, less power and importance. On the other hand, in the legends which were written after the nineteenth century, Guinevere is given more power and control; the lust is lost and her relationship with Lancelot becomes less sentimental over time.

    Read More

  • Irony In The Penelopiad

    568 Words  | 2 Pages

    They didn’t hesitate to begin. “We are the maids,” they say. “The ones you killed / the ones you failed” (2.1-3). They clearly show their anger and sorrow, blaming Odysseus for killing them, and Penelope failing to save them. They weep over their deaths, lamenting that “it was not fair…” that they had died so young (2.6). “We did much less / than what you did,” they reproach Odysseus, “You judged us bad” (2.10-12). This chorus line makes us feel sorry for the maids who were wrongly killed. However, in The Odyssey, we believed the maids to be guilty and therefore got the justice they deserved, since they were the “twelve [that] went bad”, and became the “suitors’ harlots” (Homer 22.475-483). Instead, we learn that they were the victims. The maids accused that “it gave you pleasure” towards Odysseus for orchestrating their deaths (Atwood 2.27). This portrayed Odysseus, who we earlier saw as a wise king, as a cruel

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Eurycleia And The Maids

    1172 Words  | 3 Pages

    Compare and Contrast : In The Odyssey, by Homer, Eurycleia is a nurse that takes care of Odysseus before he leaves to Troy. When Odysseus gets back home after 20 years, he find out that the suitors have taken over his palace, and are trying to take Penelope’s hand in marriage. He then murders all the suitors, then tells Telemachus, his son, “‘And when you have set in order all the house, lead forth these slave-maids out of the stately hall to a spot between the roundhouse and the neat court-year, and smite them with our swords till you take life from all’” (Homer 282). Odysseus makes the maids clean up the dead bodies, and makes them clean up, and then because they are not fully loyal to Odysseus, kills

    Read More

  • Greek Women in The Odyssey

    425 Words  | 1 Pages

    The role that the housemaids play in The Odyssey is that of servitude. They are expected to serve the suitors and put up with their rude demeanor. During the course of the ten years that the suitors are there, many of the housemaids sleep with them. Upon returning to Ithica, and slaughtering the suitors, Odysseus makes the housemaids who slept with the suitors clean up their dead bodies. After this he hangs them by the neck, with this gesture he indirectly calls them “harlots”. This indicates one of many feelings toward women of that time.

    Read More

  • Women in The Odyssey

    1471 Words  | 3 Pages

    Women play an influential role in The Odyssey. Women appear throughout the story, as goddesses, wives, princesses, or servants. The nymph Calypso enslaves Odysseus for many years. Odysseus desires to reach home and his wife Penelope. It is the goddess Athena who sets the action of The Odyssey rolling; she also guides and orchestrates everything to Odysseus’ good. Women in The Odyssey are divided into two classes: seductresses and helpmeets. By doing so, Homer demonstrates that women have the power to either hinder of help men. Only one woman is able to successfully combine elements of both classes: Penelope. She serves as a role model of virtue and craftiness. All the other women are compared to and contrasted with Penelope.

    Read More

  • The Role of Women in Sir Gawain and The Green Knight

    1606 Words  | 4 Pages

    Sir Gawain and The Green Knight is an example of medieval misogyny. Throughout Medieval literature, specifically Arthurian legends like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the female characters, Guinevere, the Lady, and Morgan leFay are not portrayed as individuals but social constructs of what a woman should be. Guinevere plays a passive woman, a mere token of Arthur. The Lady is also a tool, but has an added role of temptress and adulteress. Morgan leFay is the ultimate conniving, manipulating, woman. While the three women in this legend have a much more active role than in earlier texts, this role is not a positive one; they are not individuals but are symbols of how men of this time perceive women as passive tokens, adulteresses, and manipulators.

    Read More

  • Treatment of Women in Ancient Literature

    2408 Words  | 5 Pages

    Women were often subjects of intense focus in ancient literary works. In Sarah Pomeroy’s introduction of her text Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves, she writes, “Women pervade nearly every genre of classical literature, yet often the bias of the author distorts the information” (x). It is evident in literature that the social roles of women were more restricted than the roles of men. And since the majority of early literature was written by men, misogyny tends to taint much of it. The female characters are usually given negative traits of deception, temptation, selfishness, and seduction. Women were controlled, contained, and exploited. In early literature, women are seen as objects of possession, forces deadly to men, cunning, passive, shameful, and often less honorable than men. Literature reflects the societal beliefs and attitudes of an era and the consistency of these beliefs and attitudes toward women and the roles women play has endured through the centuries in literature. Women begin at a disadvantage according to these societal definitions. In a world run by competing men, women were viewed as property—prizes of contests, booty of battle and the more power men had over these possessions the more prestigious the man. When reading ancient literature one finds that women are often not only prizes, but they were responsible for luring or seducing men into damnation by using their feminine traits.

    Read More

More about Maids In The Odyssey

Open Document