Women living in Ancient Greece had limited rights, if any, and were treated as property, owned by either their father or husband. They were never allowed to enter battle and their job was to keep to household in order. However, in Greek stories, women were given a major role and showed strength, wit, and cunning unusual to the stereotypical woman of the time. The Greek writers used women who possessed these traits to progress the plot and evoke the emotions famous in Greek drama and tragedies.
In Homer’s “The Odyssey” Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, plays a pivotal role in advancing the plot through her mental strength and wit. While Odysseus is away, Penelope is bombarded by suitors wishing to take his as her husband. Penelope is forced to use her wit in order to ward off the will of the suitors. For example Penelope said that she would choose a suitor after weaving a shroud for her supposedly dead husband. Then, “Every day she would weave at the great loom/and every night she would unweave by torchlight.” (ii. 105-106) This use of wit by Penelope would have been unusual to come across in traditional Ancient Greek women. Homer uses this particular display of wit to cover four years of Odysseus’s absence in Ithaca, and establishes Penelope as a major character in “The Odyssey.”
Later in “The Odyssey,” Penelope issues a contest to shoot Odysseus’s bow through twelve axe heads, as Odysseus was able to do. The winner would be the man that she takes as her husband. This is another display of Penelope’s wit, as she is aware that only Odysseus can string the bow, and then shoot through the twelve axe heads. Penelope believes that this contest will be able to hold the suitors at bay, and allow Odysseus more time to come h...
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...playwrights of Ancient Greece understood that women played a pivotal role in human society, despite the way they were treated. As such, women were given important roles to play in their respective tales, and displayed unusual strength, wit, or cunning. Even though the development of women’s rights would take several more millennia, these storytellers were among the first to show that women can be just a powerful as men.
Works Cited
Euripides. Medea. Trans. Diane Svarlien. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. Ed Peter Simon. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2014. 745-781
Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Stanley Lombardo. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. Ed Peter Simon. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2014. 291-581
Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Trans. Robert Bagg. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. Ed Peter Simon. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2014. 666-706
Such a society obviously places severe restrictions on the position of women and what is considered to be acceptable behaviour for women”. (Whittaker 39) Penelope is forced to step out of the typical Homeric Greek woman role in order to make sure Odysseus has a success homecoming. She does this by proving to be clever, like her husband, when she tricks the suitors, claiming that she will choose one once she finishes a burial shroud for Laertes. Every night she undoes the weaving she has done for the day. This works until some of her house servants catch her. Another example of this trickery, is her promise to marry any suitor that can string and shoot Odysseus 's bow. Penelope knew no one but Odysseus could do this. There are many different interpretations of Penelope 's role as a woman in this moment of the epic. Homer has Penelope show a role that isn’t what you would normally see in a Homeric Greek woman. She depicts that she can be just as manipulative as a man can
For the Greeks, Homer's Odyssey was much more than just an entertaining tale of gods, monsters, and men, it served as cultural paradigm from which every important role and relationship could be defined. This book, much more so than its counter part The Iliad, gives an eclectic view of the Achean's peacetime civilization. Through Odyssey, we gain an understanding of what is proper or improper in relationships between father and son, god and mortal, servant and master, guest and host, and--importantly--man and woman. Women play a vital role in the movement of this narrative. Unlike in The Iliad, where they are chiefly prizes to be won, bereft of identity, the women of Odyssey are unique in their personality, intentions, and relationship towards men. Yet, despite the fact that no two women in this epic are alike, each--through her vices or virtues-- helps to delineate the role of the ideal woman. Below, we will show the importance of Circe, Calypso, Nausicaa, Clytaemestra, and Penelope in terms of the movement of the narrative and in defining social roles for the Ancient Greeks.
The women in The Odyssey are a fair representation of women in ancient Greek culture. In his work, Homer brings forth women of different prestige. First there are the goddesses, then Penelope, and lastly the servant girls. Each of the three factions forms an important part of The Odyssey and helps us look into what women were like in ancient Greece.
Women had very few rights, they lived as prisoners, serving men 24 hours a day. Women were sheltered from society, restricted to their husbands and their husbands houses, crying out for help and justice but there is no one to there to hear their screams. In the play Antigone when the title character had to sneak out of the house to meet up with Ismene. Ancient Greek men ruled a lot like over protective fathers with teenage daughters. Men were also scared of women gaining confidence and begin thinking on their own or worse taking action or speaking out against men, like in the play Antigone where Antigone confronts Creon by burying Polyneices after Creon strictly stated that no one bury him. If someone were to bury him, the whole Polis would stone them to death. When Creon found out that someone buried Polyneices, he did not even consider that it could have been a women that did it.
Homer's great epic, "The Odyssey" was written several thousands of years ago, a time in human history when men played the dominant role in society. The entire structure of civilization was organized and controlled by men; It was an accepted fact that women held an inferior position in society. Society was constructed as if women were around only to serve the men. The involvement of women in any circumstance was almost completely dominated by what the men allowed. The women were valued in society, only they were not given important roles or any decision making power. It is as if they held no power in the ancient Greek society. This is why Homer's Odyssey is very unique, Homer put women into roles that were previously unheard of for women to possess. Unlike in The Iliad, where women served merely as an object to men; female characters of Odyssey are distinctive because they possess personality, and have intricate relationships with the male characters of the Odyssey. By characterizing the women in "The Odyssey", a reader may come to some conclusions about the role of women in this epic. Along with the belief that women played a secondary role to men in society, the female characters displayed certain traits that could not be exhibited by the men. Athena demonstrated the most intelligence and valor out of all the characters in "The Odyssey." The male characters play the most significant roles in this epic, but without the support of the females in "The Odyssey", Odysseus would not have made it through his journey.
“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.
Greek women, as depicted as 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 man and nothing more. Yet what women in ancient Greece did long ago was by far more impressive than what men did.
Many people regard Homer’s epics as war stories—stories about men; those people often overlook the important roles that women play in the Odyssey. While there are not many female characters in the Odyssey, the few that there are, play pivotal roles in the story and one can gain a lot of insight by analyzing how those women are portrayed. Homer portrays the females in contradictory ways: the characters of Athena and Eurykleia are given strong, admirable roles while Melantho, the Sirens and Circe are depicted in a much more negative way. Penelope—the central female character—is given both negative and positive attributes.
In the era of Homer, women played a very specific role in society, and even in literature. Women of this time were basically put in a box, and expected to never step out of line. If they did go against the arbitration of men, then they were faced with serious consequences. However, female characters play a huge role in both aiding, and delaying Odysseus’s journey home. I will proceed to analyze, and interpret the actions and intentions of every major female character in The Odyssey.
In learning about the feminist movement, we studied the three articles and discussed and reviewed the different authors perspectives on the topic and learned how important the role of woman in Greek Mythology. In presenting the feminist theory to the class we analyzed the three articles, Women in Ancient Greece; Women in Antiquity: New Assessments; and Women in Greek Myth, and discussed how although the three articles provided different views on Feminism in mythology, they all essentially are aiming to teach the same basic concept.
Through loyalty, cleverness, and patience, Penelope showed her admirable traits at the time in which The Odyssey
Euripides, one of Ancient Greece’s most famous playwrights, could be considered as one of the earliest supporters of women’s rights. With plays such as Alcestis and Medea, he clearly puts an emphasis on the condition of women, and even integrates them in the Chorus of the latter play, a feat that was not often done in Ancient Greece. Throughout the years, it has been argued that the two central characters in each of those plays offer conflicting representations of women in those times, and I can safely say that I agree with that argument. I will expand on my view by pointing out an important similarity between Alcestis and Medea, followed by a key difference, and will finish it off by contrasting them with the Ancient Greek depiction of an “ideal woman.”
Penelope, in Homer’s The Odyssey, fills both the role of the seductress and the loyal wife. This paradox is evident through her relationship with her suitors and her husband, Odysseus. Penelope entices her suitors in case she has to remarry in the future and also she inveigles them into giving her gifts. Penelope simultaneously distances herself from the suitors, delaying them while she waits for her husband to return home. Penelope uses her sexuality, the way that she sensually presents her body and her femininity, to manipulate men’s attraction to her. She maintains the suitors’ attraction both by flirting with, and withholding, intimacy and marriage from them. Throughout The Odyssey, Penelope employs her sexuality as a strategic tool, for
The epic poem, “The Odyssey” written by Homer illustrates the norms of an ideal Homeric society throughout the relationship between Telemachos and Penelope. As scenarios are viewed throughout the epic poem the dominance of men over a woman's authority is clearly defined. As Odysseus meets the family of Alkinoos we see a rare encounter with Arete, having strong power and authority. This shows Homeric society as it meets a complex state of affairs within gender roles.
Even though Odysseus was far-off on his journey, and didn’t have an idea if he was dead or alive, she remained loyal and didn’t give up hope for his return. She wept every day, despite each day feeling as long as eternity, hoping that he will one day return home. Many of the suitors wanted to marry Penelope in order to take Odysseus’ place to gain power, however, she knew the suitors’ intentions. While the suitors were fighting for her hand in marriage, she tells Eurynome, her housekeeper, “Mother, they are all hateful, since all are devising evils, but Antinoos, beyond the rest, is like black death.” (The Odyssey of Homer 17.499-500) Penelope knew something needed to be done in order to save herself and her son Telemachos from the evilness of the suitors. The goddess Athene, seeing her misery, set a plan in place. Her plan was to create a contest where the suitors would need to string a bow and shoot an arrow between twelve axes by, “put[ting] in the mind of the daughter of Ikarios, circumspect Penelope, to set the bow before the suitors…the contest, the beginning of the slaughter.” (The Odyssey of Homer 21.1-4) However, the suitors didn’t realize it was an impossible feat, that only Odysseus was capable of fulfilling. Penelope didn’t use trickery to take revenge on the suitors; she used trickery as an attempt to stay loyal to her husband. Therefore, Penelope