Iliad And Odyssey Essay

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Homer in his time painted a picture of male kings, soldiers, and heroes objectifying and owning women as their due spoils of leadership and/or conquests in games or war. In the Iliad the glory of the men in battle and games and individual fame were the main topics. There was an idea that a code of men existed which must be followed and if it were, that even immortality itself might be won. Contrastingly, in the Odyssey, women remained lovely and feminine yet were cast in to powerful roles both as goddesses and mortals. These goddesses held the life of Odysseus in their hands and his mortal wife Penelope held his future in her hands as she protected their home (Ahrensdorf 589). Penelope is cast in a “to the manner born” depiction in that Homer tells us she is the wife of a king, mother of a prince, and daughter of a king (Fagles 256/ book XIX). The king that was Penelope’s father was King of Sparta, Icarius the fastest runner of his time and only let Odysseus marry her because of losing a footrace to him. The Iliad and Odyssey present differently not in themes but also of ideal women. Goddesses, and how they are presented as ideal women, differ in Homer’s two epics. Their roles are largely in both epics depicted as helping men to achieve their goals. One example is in book III of the Iliad when Pandarus shoots an arrow at Menelaus… "took her stand in front and warded off the piercing dart, turning it just a little from the flesh, like a mother driving a fly away from her gently sleeping child" (Fagles 80). Athena and Hera are want to destroy Troy because Paris belittled them … "fell into the fatal error of humiliating the two goddesses... by his liking Aphrodite, who offered him the pleasures and penalties of love" (F... ... middle of paper ... ...they view a goddess, but rather almost all referred to her looks. Albeit, when asked about a specific goddess when their mind was not thinking about their human peers the answers were all about powerful attributes and the young men even took pride in their knowledge of that fact. After a bit of looking at the wisdom of these goddesses in the epics of Homer we will see what some highly educated women of today in the field of Greek studies say that is in relation to the aforementioned current affairs mini-survey I conducted at LSU-S. Goddesses play important roles protectors and guardians of men and are demonstrated as being wise and knowledgeable in Homer’s Odyssey. Circe knows the directions to the underworld, and Eidothea, Proteus’ daughter knew where Odysseus was and was able to outmaneuver her father by telling men of how he will try to shift his shape and sh

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