Women and Deception in Homer's Odyssey

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Women and Deception in the Odyssey

As Agamemnon tells Odysseus, “Let it be a warning even to you. Indulge a woman never, and never tell her all you know. Some things a man may tell, some he should cover up” (Book XI 199). This is not news to Odysseus, who treats all women with caution ever since he was betrayed by his wife Helen, who acted in a way that defiled all womankind. Agamemnon did not come to this realization all by himself, however; his statement represents the common sentiment that existed throughout all ancient Greece. Even before Odysseus speaks with Agamemnon, he exhibits a similar attitude in his many encounters with women during his long journey home. Every major female character that Odysseus comes across uses deception in one form or another to get the better of him. This being the case, Odysseus fights fire with fire, using his own cunning deception against the evils of womankind.

The first wily female that Odysseus battles wits with is the goddess Kalypso. She is a very deceitful woman, indeed. Kalypso has somehow managed to hide from the gods for 7 years – an unnatural and disrespectable accomplishment. She has been having a secret affair with Odysseus, a mortal, who has been held captive on her island for the...

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Helene Foley, "Penelope as Moral Agent," in Beth Cohen, ed., The Distaff Side (Oxford 1995), pp. 93-115.

"The Odyssey, History, and Women," by A. J. Graham, pp. 3-16, and

Jennifer Neils, "Les Femmes Fatales: Skylla and the Sirens in Greek Art," pp. 175-84.

Lillian Doherty, Siren Songs: Gender, Audiences, and Narrators in the Odyssey (Ann Arbor 1995), esp. chapter 1.

Mary Lefkowitz, "Seduction and Rape in Greek Myth," 17-37.

Marilyn Arthur Katz, Penelope's Renown: Meaning and Indeterminacy in the Odyssey (Princeton 1991).

Nancy Felson-Rubin, Regarding Penelope: From Courtship to Poetics (Princeton 1994).

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