Argumentative Essay The Odyssey "The Feminine Touch" The Odyssey is an epic about how Ulysses, the King of Ithaca makes a quest to return home after the Trojan War. Along the way, he encounters a several of obstacles and it takes him twenty years to get home. However, what readers fail to realize is how big of a role women play I this epic. In The Odyssey, women are important because they provide a guidance, a sense of hope, and reasoning to Ulysses. While, Ulysses may be the hero of the story who achieves his Kleos, but the real heroes are the once that go unnoticed. Without the support of women in The Odyssey, Ulysses would have had a tougher time returning home. This epic was written by Homer in 800 BC, at the time which woman were looked …show more content…
Throughout the epic Athena Ulysses guidance, she showed us numerous amount of loyalty and helpfulness to Ulysses and his family. Athena 's first act of help actually was when she pleads to Zeus to let Ulysses reach home Athena states "O Majesty, O father of us all, if it now pleases the blissful gods that wise Ulysses reach his home again .... He must warn off that wolf pack of the suitors who prey upon his flocks and dusky cattle" (Page 4 line 106-120) this is where it all starts with Ulysses embarking in a journey back to his kingdom and his family. She also helped guide Telemakohs, Ulysses son in decision-making when he had to start taking over his father 's kingdom so she tells him these encouraging words "Listen now to what I say: at day break call the islanders to assembly, and speak your will, and call the Gods to witness: the suitors must go scattering to their homes" (page 10 line 320) Telemakohs at the beginning of this epic he is a boy daydreaming as described in (page 5 line 143) "For he, too, was sitting there unhappy among the suitors, a boy, daydreaming" Athena comes to him as he wonders about his father and all his glory. She snaps him out of daydreaming and tell him to step up and start filling in his father 's shoes although Telemakohs knew they were too big of a shoe to fill, but he had to do so to make his father proud. She was the well …show more content…
While Ulysses was gone Penelope showed a tremendous amount of loyalty and cleverness. For twenty years, Ulysses was gone and she never lost faith in her husband 's return. After her husband didn 't return people really thought that he was gone forever so the suitors started to wonder when she was going to remarry but, of course, she never lost hope on his return so for the last three years she was stalling she told everyone that she must first finish weaving a shroud for Laertes, Ulysses father. Each day she would weave and at the end of the day she would undo her day 's work. She managed to do that until one of her maids told everyone what she was doing so the suitors started to get very impatient. She had no choice but to start flirting and start making things up like asking them for gifts, of course, the suitors stunned by Penelope 's beauty thanks to Athena they did anything she asked. Penelope starts to get cleverer as time goes by. At some point Ulysses returns disguised as a beggar and in the Greece tradition guest are treated with the utmost respect and are treated like they were royalty so Penelope speaks to him and makes him feel at home but her "wife senses" tingle and she has an odd feeling that this beggar might be her husband so she sets a test to the suitors in hope that the beggar would join as well. She challenges the suitors and the beggar to shoot an arrow
In the works The Odyssey and Gilgamesh, women are depicted as mentors to the heroes of the story. The epic poem, The Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus and his son, Telemachus, are both in inescapable situations where they are trapped until the goddess Athena comes by to offer them help out of their situations. Athena,
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.
Penelope, the martyr of the submissive woman, does not always behave as she is expected. When her son belittles her by asking, “Mother, why begrudge our singer entertaining us as he thinks best?” Penelope is “stunned” and turns away to leave with “her son’s masterful words pressed to her heart” (Homer, p. 340). As a female character, she is supposed to accept that since her husband is gone, her son is her ‘master.’ Even though Telemachus had previously lacked being a powerful individual, he is finally assuming his conventional role of the man of the house. Penelope does not blindly accept this as is expected of her character, but is rather shocked and confused, showing that she is capable of her own opinions. It is also important to note Penelope finally standing up for herself against her suitors. She tells the men that they “must wait until” she finishes “this robe” while in fact she is spending every night unweaving it (Homer, p. 345). This is an important and characterizing moment for “clever” Penelope, as she usually spends her time crying or on her loom without much of an opinion (Homer, p. 345). In this moment, she shows that she can exist outside of the constraints of Odysseus and that she is not afraid to fool her suitors for her own benefit. While being a constant reminder of the emphasis on women being secondary to their male counterparts, Penelope has moments where she is defiant and shows that there is more to her than meets the eye, similarly to
Ultimately, Athena has a great effect on all three of the main characters within The Odyssey. She is the one who finally sets in motion the return of the great warrior king Odysseus and helps him attain revenge on the suitors once he arrives in Ithaka. Athena helps to make Telemakhos brave and hopeful for his father to return home, giving him the courage and direction he lacked without his father for the first twenty years of his life. Even Penelope received help from the grey-eyed goddess in finding ways to protect herself from the advances of the suitors. Reading the classic epic poem The Odyssey, one can see how the great goddess Athena's relationship with Odysseus, Telemakhos as well as Penelope exemplifies how she impacted everyone she came across.
She is loyal, having waited for Odysseus for twenty years, not remarrying, though she thought he was gone for good. She also plays a much more active role in the marriage she has with Odysseus. Perhaps the most defining characteristics attributed to Penelope involve her role as a woman, in marriage and as a presumed “widow”. First, there seems to be a double standard, like described in Calypso’s case, between the loyalty of Penelope and the loyalty of Odysseus. Penelope is physically and emotionally loyal to Odysseus, while Odysseus is only emotionally loyal, meaning he has had sexual relations with other women within the twenty years he has been gone. During this time period in Greek culture, this was not frowned upon and was quite normal, suggesting that women were held to a different standard than men. In addition, as Penelope is presumed to be a widow, at least by the suitors, she is prized solely for her beauty. The suitors speak only of her beauty and none of her intelligence or of her personality or soul. This suggests that marriage was not always about love, and that women were judged and valued merely for their beauty. This idea further proves the act of sexualizing women during this
In Homer's composition, The Odyssey, the roles women play are very significant. The best examples of the true nature of women occur when Odysseus encounters Circe and Calypso. These two characters illustrate the thoughts and feelings of how women how a woman feels and how they think. As the quote states, Circe and Calypso illustrate how women really can be crafty, intelligent, sneaky, disloyal, and cruel. In contrast to battles with men, Cyclops, or animals, sexual battles with women are sometimes much more difficult to win.
However, his journey isn’t over yet. This last leg of Odysseus’s journey is perhaps the most important and crucial. Odysseus’s nurse and maidservant, Eurycleia is the first woman in Ithaca to know that Odysseus is back after she recognizes the scar on his leg while she is washing him. Eurycleia vows to keep his identity a secret. Odysseus’s wife, Penelope has stayed faithful to Odysseus for all the years that he was gone. Penelope was consistently unweaving her web to the delay the suitors. The reader even grows sympathetic for Penelope as “we see her struggle to make the virtuous choice about her marriage, despite pressures from her suitors, her son’s endangered situation, and her own uncertainty about Odysseus’s survival” (Foley ). Finally, Odysseus reveals his identity and Penelope is bewildered, but quickly embraces her husband after he tells her the secret of their immovable bed. It is the faithfulness of Penelope and nurse Eurycleia that insures Odysseus’s survival to the very end.
One important characteristic that Penelope and Odysseus share is their loyalty to each other. Odysseus failed to return home seven years after the Trojan war. Because he is assumed dead, 108 wealthy noblemen and princes invade his palace and refuse to leave until Penelope has married one of them. By marrying her, the suitors hope to gain control over Odysseus’s wealth and power. However, Penelope remains faithful to Odysseus. But, as a woman, she is powerless to remove the suitors from the palace. And without a man in the household, she is subject to her father’s decisions. However, despite his wish for her to remarry, Penelope clings to the hope of Odysseus’s return and remains faithful to him. She waits and gathers information by asking strangers who arrive in Ithaca about Odysseus. She goes through the stories of their encounter point by point, and asks about every detail while tears stream down her eyes. Although the suitors promise her a secure future, Penelope continues to wait for Odysseus. Without Odysseus, she does not believe that she will ever be happy again.
This essay explores the role of women in Homer's Odyssey, James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) and Derrick Walcott's Omeros (1990), epics written in very different historical periods. Common to all three epics are women as the transforming figure in a man's life, both in the capacity of a harlot and as wife.
“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 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 men and nothing more. Yet what women in ancient Greece did long ago was far more impressive than what men did.
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.
Sexism has occurred throughout history and has impacted women significantly.The Odyssey follows the narrative of a man and looks at love from the perspective of a man. The famed poem was written by an ancient greek man and until recently, has always been translated by a man. For these reasons, The Odyssey provides a great example of how love, women, and marriage have been perceived by society, especially men, in the past. By examining the sexist undertones and the perception of women and love from the men in the epic and comparing those to criticisms made today we can truly understand how far we have come as a society.
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.
...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.