Women in The Odyssey

Women in The Odyssey

In The Odyssey the main character, Odysseus, meets and entertains an

impressive array of women. All of the women that he meets are very different

and have different personalities and Homer clearly states his attitude towards

each of the women. Some of the women are seen as essentially 'good' or

essentially 'bad.' It is also clear that Homer adopts a sexist attitude towards the

women in his novel. In The Odyssey women are generally portrayed as

manipulative and deceitful and Homer is a sexist who holds a double standard of

morality for men and for women.

There is one thing that all the women, be they human or god, in The

Odyssey have in common: they are all very clever. There are two ways that the

reader can interpret this characteristic that women share: either Homer feels that

women are very intelligent or he feels that women are underhanded and sneaky.

The opinion of Homer is probably the latter because the most of the women that

Odysseus, the hero of the novel, encounters use their intelligence against him.

Kalypso and Kerke both try to seduce Odysseus into staying on their islands,

while Penelope uses her cleverness to trick the suitors into believing that it took

her three years to weave a shroud.

There are two goddesses that Homer wants the reader to perceive as

'bad' women: the goddesses Kalypso and Kerke. Kalypso is a goddess who kept

Odysseus on her island for seven years so she could have him. She is portrayed

at this very greedy and lustful nymph who seduces Odysseus into forgetting

about his home and "forces" him to have sex with her every night. She is also

'bad' because she, through her great guile, makes Odysseus forget about his

home and his beloved wife, Pen...

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...hile her husband goes off to fight wars and have adventures.

It is not fair for Homer is have these double standard for male and female

heroes/heroines- the man can leave his wife at home and go off and sleep with

women other than his wife. But the woman should stay at home, she should be

noble and not remarry even if her husband does not return for twenty years and

it is simply out of the question for her to have an affair even if her husband is

having numerous ones.

In The Odyssey women are generally portrayed as manipulative and

deceitful and Homer is a sexist who holds a double standard of morality for men

and for women. Even though there are women who are considers good they are

seen as good because they are subservient to their husbands. Homer also holds

a double standard when it comes to what defines a moral man and what defines

a moral woman.