Women: The Role Of Women In Ancient Greek Literature

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“Greek women had few rights and were confined to the home” (Wilkie and Hurt 6). Women in Greek literature could not do the things men could do. For example they could not vote and according to Wilkie and Hurt, women did not share in free exploration like men (6). Although women were bound to the home in ancient Greek literature, were not considered to be citizens, and were seen as a sex figure, their role is important because they were the caregivers of the men and children.
Women were often seen as sexual figures. For example, in the epic of Gilgamesh there is a temple priestess who civilizes the beast Enkidu. She does this by showing him human characteristics and “sexual union brings him into a human world” (Wilkie and Hurt 18). This temple …show more content…

“In Ancient Greece women were generally denied a public voice” (Blundell 10). Along with not being a citizen, which means not being able to vote, women did not have a voice nor place in society. Sue Blundell says in her book, Women In Ancient Greece, that women could hardly speak for themselves. “None of these women is allowed to speak for herself. None is able to tell us what she thinks about her life and the place in which she occupies in Greek society” (Blundell 11). Women could not speak for themselves and if they did, their voice was not considered to be important. Because women had no voice of their own, many women Greek Gods would disguise themselves as men. For example, Athena in Odysseus, Athena is the Goddess of wisdom and disguises herself as Mentes, who is male. She disguises herself as a man because she is trying to give Telemachus, son of Odysseus, advice and wisdom. Athena feels if she is disguised as a man, it would be easier for Telemachus to listen to her. This example just shows how muted women were in ancient Greek literature. In the plays Gilgamesh, Odysseus and Oedipus, women will speak when they are at the home, but none of the women are speaking outside of the home. For example in Oedipus, Jocasta who is the Queen never has dialogue outside of her castle. It is very rare that a woman in Greek literature has voice outside of the

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