More handpicked essays just for you.
Social context of the odyssey
Critical analysis of the odyssey
The role of women in ancient literature vs ancient society
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Through the many different female personalities in The Odyssey, common themes reside in the role of women. In The Odyssey, character Penelope’s story expresses roles of women. Penelope’s role as Queen of Ithaca is based on choosing a suitor to marry after Odysseus leaves. As the wife of Odysseus, she plays a loyal role, and as the mother of Telemachus, she raises him independently. Also, these roles do not differ significantly from the role of women today. First, as Queen of Ithaca, Penelope confronts pressure to marry a suitor in place of Odysseus. On pages 96 to 97, the text reads, “Now Telemachus, here is how the suitors answer you- you burn it in your mind, you and all our people: send your mother back! Direct her to marry whomever her …show more content…
She waits 20 years for Odysseus’ return, while suitors swarm her palace. Page 394 describes,“[Penelope:] Odysseus-if he could return to tend my life the renown I had would only grow in glory. ...So I pay no heed to strangers, suppliants at my door, not even heralds out on their public errands here-yearn for Odysseus, always, my heart pines away.They rush the marriage on, and I spin out my wiles.”. This quote emphasizes how Penelope holds out for her husband despite the temptation of other men. Furthermore, the roles of women today are similar to those depicted in the Odyssey through Penelope. Today, women are expected to be devoted to one partner. Women also experience strong pressure to get married. However, these ideas are changing, as women become more independent; similar to how Penelope takes care of her son Telemachus.
In conclusion, in The Odyssey, the role of the character Penelope, wife of Odysseus, mother of Telemachus, and Queen of Ithaca, portrays roles of women. As Odysseus’ wife, she is constant and dedicated, while as Telemachus’ mother, she is independent. As the Ithacan Queen, she experiences pressure to marry a suitor in Odysseus’ place. Women’s overall roles in The Odyssey reflect Penelope’s roles, with the expectation to marry, be loyal, and independent; roles which continue to present themselves in modern
Penelope serves as his motivation and aids in his characterization as a loving husband as well as a vicious, ruthless warrior. Back in Ogygia, he explicitly states in his farewell to Calypso that he longs for his wife: “ ‘My lady goddess, there is no cause for anger. My quiet Penelope-how well I know-would seem a shade before your majesty, death and old age being unknown to you, while she must die. Yes it is true, each day I long for home, long for the sight of home’ ”(V. 224-229). He refers to Penelope as “my quiet Penelope,” meaning she is most beholden to him and is his. Though he degrades Penelope by saying she is less beautiful than Calypso, he has a great love for Penelope, that brings out Odysseus’s true feelings. Even though
Now comes the part where he puts Penelope to the test. By sharing this information with her about her husband he comes to understand her feelings for him. Penelope has not only been loyal to Odysseus as her husband, but also as the authority figure. She has demonstrated her loyalty by being true to him for twenty years in his absence and has not remarried.
Penelope has been clever enough to outsmart the suitors on many occasions. The suitors describe Penelope as “‘the matchless queen of cunning’” (Homer 2.95). The suitors’ reaction to Queen Penelope indicates that Penelope has been able to avoid the suitors’ attempts at courtship. Queen Penelope is also able to devise a plan that would deter any plans of marriage to another man. To give the suitors hope, Penelope tells the suitors that once she finished her shroud for Laertes, she will marry one of the suitors. Only one maid knew that “by day she [would] weave…by night…she would unravel all she’s done”(Homer 2. 97). Penelope’s brilliant schemes to keep the suitors away demonstrate how cunning Penelope really is. When Odysseus returns back to Ithaca and is finally reunited with Penelope, she is unable to believe that the Odysseus in front of her is the real Odysseus. Penelope asks Eurycleia to “move the sturdy bedstead out of [her] bridal chamber” knowing that only the real Odysseus would realize the task is impossible (Homer 23. 198). Penelope’s caution justifies her ability to understand and outsmart any situation she comes
One important characteristic that Penelope and Odysseus share is their loyalty to each other. Odysseus failed to return home seven years after the Trojan war. Because he is assumed dead, 108 wealthy noblemen and princes invade his palace and refuse to leave until Penelope has married one of them. By marrying her, the suitors hope to gain control over Odysseus’s wealth and power. However, Penelope remains faithful to Odysseus. But, as a woman, she is powerless to remove the suitors from the palace. And without a man in the household, she is subject to her father’s decisions. However, despite his wish for her to remarry, Penelope clings to the hope of Odysseus’s return and remains faithful to him. She waits and gathers information by asking strangers who arrive in Ithaca about Odysseus. She goes through the stories of their encounter point by point, and asks about every detail while tears stream down her eyes. Although the suitors promise her a secure future, Penelope continues to wait for Odysseus. Without Odysseus, she does not believe that she will ever be happy again.
Marriages consists of two lovers who never forget each other no matter how long it's been and no matter how much they’ve changed. They know things about each other that no one else does, sometimes they even have secret signs that only the other will recognize. This is the same case for Penelope and Odysseus in Homer’s The Odyssey; even though they have been apart for almost 20 years, and Odysseus is in disguise, Penelope still recognizes him. In their conversation, Odysseus drops clues that only Penelope would recognize and says things to make her suspicious causing her to realize that Odysseus finally came back.
Greek women, as depicted in their history and literature, endure many hardships and struggle to establish a meaningful status in their society. In the Odyssey, Penelope’s only role in the epic is to support Odysseus and remain loyal to him. She is at home and struggles to keep her family intact while Odysseus is away trying to return to his native land. The cultural role of women is depicted as being supportive of men and nothing more. Yet what women in ancient Greece did long ago was far more impressive than what men did.
Penelope is now in the underworld where the truth of many comes out because the past is all gone from now on and no one can do anything about it. Penelope was not given much attention in the Odyssey. She was described as loyal and faithful, but now Atwood gave her a voice and let her tell her own story. Penelope is left alone for twenty years alone without Odysseus. She manages to maintain the kingdom of Ithaca, bring up her wayward son, and to keep over a hundred suitors at bay. In The Penelopiad, she is not only the wife of Odysseus, but also a mother of Telemachus but also for the twelve maids, and is a queen taking over business when Odysseus is gone. Penelope uses her appearance to have control and power over her male-dominated surroundings after the small amount of power through her relationship with her powerful husband. Penelope feels implicated in the maids’ deaths, but cannot tell the truth during her lifetime due to the potential repercussions. Later on, in the book Penelope reveals the choices she made in the past with the suitors. Penelope discusses the rumors about her sleeping with Amphinomus and then explains, “The songs say I found his conversation agreeable, or more agreeable than that of the others, and this is true; but it’s a long jump from there into the
The first major female character introduced in this epic is Penelope. Penelope is the wife of Odysseus, and the mother of Telemachus. She is portrayed as a strong-willed widow, who even after not seeing Odysseus for twenty years, keeps her trust in her husband to return home. The main tool is the rule of law, but even before laws customs could be used” (rwaag.org).
The Odyssey exemplifies a society organized and controlled by men where males consistently treated women unequally depriving them of true freedom. Homer’s male characters often saw women as second-hand citizens who had not true voice in society. One example of a women who is oppressed by men in the text is Odysseus’ wife Penelope. Although Penelope is queen of Ithaca her power in the kingdom is limited. Her life is controlled by her son Telemachus and the Achaean suitors who have been taken advantage of the kingdom for several years. At one point in the text Telemachus tells his mother “Words are for men, for all, especially for me; for power within this house rest here” (Homer, 7). This shows how men regarded themselves as the ones with power over society while they...
Through the telling of Homer’s epic, “The Odyssey,” Homer goes to great lengths to portray the personality of Penelope. Penelope, Odysseus’s devoted and patient wife, is most impressively shown by her determination in waiting almost twenty years for the homecoming of her husband from the Trojan War, rather than losing optimism and marrying another. She seems to be discouraged in the opening books of the epic, as she has to worry about the safety of her son Telemakhos, all the while her husband has not returned from the war and believed to be dead. To make matters worse, her palace is overrun with bigheaded suitors, killing her cattle for their feasts and consuming all of her wine, demanding that she remarries. However powerless Penelope might seem, she shares the traits of intelligence and cunningness with her husband Odysseus, which shows why these two are meant to be together.
There were many women in “The Odyssey” who helped Odysseus make it back to Ithaca and end the tribulation in his household, but these were the most important ones. Without their influences and their different approaches on dealing with him, he might not have handled the situation like he did, or even worse, he might have never made it home. The women play a strong role in “The Odyssey” and they deserve recognition. Women in this time are a lot like the women in ancient Greece; they have more freedom and play a more predominate role in society.
Homer also makes her seem clever when she gets all of the suitors to bring her gifts before she “chooses one” knowing that they are in a short supply of resources. In another instance, he portrays her as clever in the way that she keeps the suitor away by weaving the tunic for Odysseus and secretly taking it apart every night. The role Penelope plays is very important because she is seen as a person, not a possession. Finally, there are the goddesses. They represent women in all their glory.
...ow Greek civilization was founded by women; they were the ones who gave birth to the heroes. Similarly, The Odyssey is a story created by women. The plot revolves around the actions of women. Athena orchestrates all the events. The seductresses, such as Circe, the sirens, and Calypso, attempt to stop Odysseus from reaching home. The helpmeets, such as Nausicaa, Arete, and Athena, aid Odysseus in his homecoming. The wise and virtuous Penelope is the object of Odysseus’ quest. Unlike Helen who forsakes her husband, Penelope remains faithful. Unlike Clytemnestra who assassinates her husband, Penelope patiently waits for Odysseus. She becomes a model of female patience and of female intelligence. Her craftiness is the only one which can match up to Odysseus’. The Odyssey presents a wide array of women and demonstrates the influence that women have in the life of a hero.
Penelope’s household is incomplete in the absence of a man to lead Ithaca, which results in pressure from the political community to wed. Telemachus laments that because Odysseus is absent, he and his mother can only “parade in their wretched weakness” (Od. 2.62-65). Penelope’s situation is different from other women because her husband’s absence means that Ithaca does not have a king, which only places more pressure on her to replace Odysseus. As Telemachus later exclaims, “These suitors are not just ten or twenty, they’re far more… ” (Od. 16. 276). The
Atwood is playing with two levels of myth here: the Homeric myth of ‘faithful Penelope’ and cultural myths about women as either submissive or domestic (Howell 9). After marriage Penelope spends most of her time alone in boredom and Eurycelia, former nurse of Odysseus, often reminds her duties as wife by saying, “So you can have a nice big son for Odysseus. That’s your job” (63). Furthermore, Atwood recounts the vulnerability of alone woman in the male dominated world. To grab opportunity of being king, a number of suitors assemble at Ithaca, to marry Penelope, and she thinks, “They all were vultures when they spot the dead cow: one drops, then another, until finally every vulture for miles around is tearing up the carcass” (103). Moreover, Atwood argues about the partiality of sexual of freedom along with the vexed relationship between man and woman, as the former can do sex with any other woman such as Odysseus’s affairs with the goddess and whores, but the woman is restricted to marriage like Penelope. The foremost fatuous allegation makes on Penelope is about her faithfulness and loyalty for her husband Odysseus, and she defends herself from any sexual conduct in the chapter, “slanderous gossip”. The death of Amphinomus, the politest suitor among all, leaves the question of marital infidelity among the genders.