Although Homer’s The Odyssey is a tale of Odysseus’s heroic quest to return to Ithaca, the women in it play an equal, if not more important role. The saying “behind every great man is an even greater woman” rings true throughout The Odyssey. In Ancient Greek culture, one’s glory is based off of the geras they acquire; for men that glory included women. In Penelope, Odysseus found the perfect match, both intellectually and hospitably; she is clever, cunning and faithful. Penelope, along with other mortal and immortal women such as Athena, challenge the view of women during this time because Homer presented Penelope as a strong woman rather than the submissive character she is expected to be. In Ancient Greece when a young woman is married off, …show more content…
She is seen standing up to man and showcasing her authority when she speaks out to her father, Zeus. And although she is chastised, she does not back down because later in the text we again see her have her say when she questioned her father’s actions. Athena has respect for the cosmic order of the universe but still challenges the set perimeters in terms of divine intervention. Fond of Odysseus, Athena indirectly, directly intervened in the lives of him and his family but instead of appearing as herself, she appears as an old friend of Odysseus and “a shepherd, like a king’s son, all delicately made” (Homer 13. 281-282). A sharp contrast to the discernible interference the other goddesses are involved in, this quotation illustrates how she intervenes in Odysseus’s life in different forms which allow him to get help without outright knowing it is Athena, until when she feels it …show more content…
Penelope exhibits a mixture of both when she was alone with the suitors in Odysseus’ absence from Ithaca. Antinoӧs tells how she, Telemachus’ “incomparably cunning mother” (Homer 2. 95), led the suitors on for almost four years: For three years not – and it will soon be four – she has been breaking the hearts of the Akhaians, holding out hope to all, and sending
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. Before we delve into the traits of individual characters, it is important to understand certain assumptions about women that prevailed in the Homeric Age. By modern standards, the Ancient Greeks would be considered a rabidly misogynistic culture. Indeed, the notoriously sour Boetian playwright Hesiod-- who wrote about fifty years before Homer-- proclaimed "Zeus who thunders on high made women to be evil to mortal men, with a nature to do evil (Theogony 600).
In his article entitled “Animal Liberation,” Peter Singer suggests that while animals do not have all of the exact same rights as humans, they do have an equal right to the consideration of their interests. This idea comes from the fact that animals are capable of suffering, and therefore have sentience which then follows that they have interests. Singer states “the limit to sentience...is the only defensible boundary of concern for interests of others” (807). By this, he means that the ability to feel is the only grounds for which rights should be assigned because all species of animals, including humans, have the ability, and therefore all animals have the right to not feel suffering and to instead feel pleasure.
Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, can be compared in a various ways to the other characters in Homer’s poem The Odyssey. In many ways, Penelope symbolizes the ideal woman, in that she follows to the values and ideals of her society. These ideals include faithfulness, devotion, and determination; pride your home and family, and warmth to strangers. Their dedication to each other, their power to stay together through times of happiness and times of sad, and their will to survive the test of time.
Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, can be compared in a various ways to the other characters in Homer’s poem The Odyssey. In many ways, Penelope symbolizes the ideal woman, in that she follows to the values and ideals of her society. These ideals include faithfulness, devotion, and determination; pride your home and family, and warmth to strangers. Their dedication to each other, their power to stay together through times of happiness and times of sad, and their will to survive the test of time.
To begin, Athena played a major role when it came to helping Odysseus and Telemachus. One way she helps Odysseus is when she disguises him as a beggar to help overthrow the suitors. “My changing so? Athena’s work, the Fighter’s Queen – she has that power, she makes me look as she likes, now like a beggar, the next moment a young man, decked out in handsome clothes about my body” (Book 16 lines 237-240). Many other times throughout the epic she helps disguise him. This example shows how smart she was because she’s able to help odysseys trick the people he encounters. Penelope, Odysseus’s love sick wife, was very clever when it came to not getting married to a suitor. One example is her yarn scheme she plays with the suitors. When Antinous says, “So by day she’d weave at her great and growing web – by night, by the light of torches set beside her, see would unravel all she’d done” (Book 2 lines 116-118). It shows her cleverness in how to not marry the suitors. Homer stresses this important when he repeats the same line again how Penelope unravels the yarn. (Book 24 lines 152-155). Another example of Penelope’s clever ways is when she makes the challenge impossible so no suitor can marry her. “the goddess Athena with her blazing eyes inspired Penelope, Icarius’ daughter, wary, poised, to set the bow and the gleaming iron axes out before her suitor waiting in Odysseus’ hall to test their skill
By studying the female characters of The Odyssey, readers can understand the role of women in this epic. Along with the belief that women played a secondary role to men in Greek society, the female characters displayed certain traits that could not be portrayed by the men. Each female character adds a different element and is essential to the depiction of the story. Most women in this epic poem are tough, determined and are treated with the respect that they rate. Despite traditions of ancient society, the author characterizes the women as the counterparts of
For instance, without the help of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, Odysseus could not have completed his journey back home. With Zeus and Poseidon fighting against him, Odysseus is left with a vigorous and unruly predicament. He has no other choice to receive help from Athena, who could not be happier to assist. In multiple circumstances, Athena disguises Odysseus, which in turn helps him retain information as another persona. As he arrives on the island of the Phaeacians, Athena disguises him in a cloud of mist, allowing him to make an entrance without causing attention. This aids him in the long run because he is able to create trust between him and King Alkinoos, a fortunate ally. Later in the Epic, Athena disguises Odysseus as an old beggar on his home island of Ithaca.
In The Odyssey, Homer tells the epic tale of a man’s (Odysseus’) heroic journey, a journey where women play a large role in the development of characters and complications in the journey, specifically Penelope, Athena, and other mothers, deities, and creatures. The most prominent woman in the epic tale is Odysseus’ wife, Penelope. The point of Odysseus’ journey home is so that he can be reunited with his wife and take back control of his palace, overrun by the suitors. Odysseus’s son, Telemachus, try’s to gain authority within the suitors but finds this difficult and goes on his own journey under the influence of yet another female, Athena, the goddess of wisdom. The main point of Homer’s The Odyssey focuses on the adventures of Odysseus as
In the epic The Odyssey by Homer, the depiction of women reflects how they were seen in ancient greek times. Throughout the epic women such as Circe, Melantho, and Calypso were portrayed by Homer as seductive, evil, and persuasive, leaving men far above them in the social structure. Other women in The Odyssey like Penelope, Helen, and Nausicaa have good traits like being tricky, and intelligent, but still Homer characterizes them as dependent and frail. In the book being a women no matter if they are strong and independent or frail and infirm life is difficult and unfair.
This is immoral, animals are here for themselves, animals have their own lives, and they think, have feelings, feel pain, require love (from their own species), feel emotional hurt, have families, and everything else that humans do. To just simply say that non-human animals should have no rights because they’re “defective” is a mindless statement! People come to this “conclusion” because they come up with some mindless babble like, non-human animals can’t talk, drive cars or vote, therefore they have no non-tradable properties. Well answer me this; do non-human animals have the right to exist in their natural environment and express behaviours that matter to them? We withhold non-human animals the very basic rights, simply because they don’t resemble humans. Humans are speciest.
...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.
I have been waiting twenty years for my husband Odysseus to return but all of my hope has just about been about lost, everyday new suitors come to my kingdom raiding my supplies eating up my food and the worst thing is they will not leave no matter what I say, they all wish to make me their bride and they all compete for my affection, no matter how hard i wish to wait for Odysseus to return i can not anymore so i have decided that it will be best for me to choose a suitor as my champion but it will be in a form of a competition. I grabbed my husband's bow and mourned over him for a while then i cleaned myself up and told the men the contest they seemed pleased they thought it would be easy but,the men had tried their
Dorothy Parker, in her poem “Penelope,” analyzed the unappreciated domestics and tedious tasks of a woman in the society, the man are rather given all the accreditations. Firstly, she alluded the title to Odysseus’s wife, Penelope, from “The Odyssey;” secondly, she uses imagery of “the pathway of the sun” and “the footsteps of the breeze” to describe Odysseus bravery and determination; thirdly, by juxtaposing his adventures with her daily house tasks: “He shall ride the silver seas/ I shall sit at home and rock;” fourthly, she says, “snip my thread” to allude to Penelope’s faithfulness and “bleach the linen for my bed” to allude to her purity and fidelity to her husband; lastly, by pointing out directly that upon
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.
What rights do animals really have? Well in 1975, Australian philosopher Peter Singer wrote a book called’ Animal Liberation’ in it he argued that humans should not use animals for experimentation. Singer’s ideas are based on utilitarianism, which is one of many philosophies developed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to help people decide whether something is right or wrong without going against the Bible or other moral authority. Utilitarians say we should judge actions only upon their react...