Ancient Greece : Book Review

Odysseus's wife, Penelope plays a crucial role in Homer's ‘The Odyssey’, with not only providing the motivation for Odysseus's return to Ithaca, but she is also the center of the plot involving the suitors and the fate of Telemakos and Ithaca itself.  Therefore the objective of this essay is to analyze the importance of Penelope’s role in ‘The Odyssey’.

While traditional readers of Homer’s, The Odyssey, view Odysseus as a hero, they often reduce Penelope to Odysseus’s helpless wife, but Penelope is more than just a damsel-in-distress. Penelope proves to be Odysseus’s heroic equal, as through her resilient, witty and strategic actions she ensures Odysseus fighting advantages over the suitors.

”You cannot find peace by avoiding life,” stated Virginia Woolf. The Greeks never gave up on their land, even though they had some hard times. They eventually found peace. Greece's geography had positive and negative effects on their early settlements.

Odysseus, the main character of The Odyssey, is a man of great courage who is married to Penelope, Queen of Ithaca. Even though it is clear that Odysseus is married to Penelope, he is involved in intimate relations with a few goddesses on his journey home to Ithaca from the Trojan War. For example, regardless of Odysseus’ longing to return home, he is tempted first by Calypso, spending eight years imprisoned on her island, and ultimately remaining true to Penelope in his heart. Also, he spends a year with Circe, a seductress, in order to liberate his men from living as swine. Furthermore, Odysseus’ faithfulness to Penelope is almost compromised when he and his men pass the Sirens—women who entice men to their “death” utilizing their beautiful voices. Additionally, Greek and Christian marriage standards are distinctly different. Christians believe that marriage is a sacrament, or union between one man and one woman that is blessed by the church, while pagans hold to a belief of self-uniting marriage known as “handfasting”— a historical term for a betrothal or wedding that is sometimes acknowledged as a temporary engagement. This paper will explain how Odysseus remained faithful to his

Penelope may not have as exciting of a life as some of the other characters in Homer’s The Odyssey, but she makes up for it by being very clever, which makes her a good match for her husband, Odysseus. Penelope plays a very important role in Odysseus’s journey home, in fact, she is the main reason for his return to Ithaca. When the suitors begin invading her house and asking, then demanding, her hand in marriage, Penelope knows she must handle them herself. Being a woman in ancient Greece, she does not have the ability to force the suitors to leave her house, and neither does Telemachus. This means that Penelope must continue to allow them to abuse the hospitality that was expected at that time, and all she can do is try to outsmart the suitors until her husband comes home. In Homer’s The Odyssey, Penelope is a good match for Odysseus because she is clever, and she shows that cleverness when she stalls the suitors by weaving the burial shroud, when she devises the contest with

Since it was originally written in the 8th century, The Odyssey by Homer has served as inspiration to many writers and artists, who tell the story of the lost king of Ithaca, Odysseus. In Book 21 of The Odyssey “The Contest with Odysseus’ Bow”, Penelope, Odysseus’ Wife, decides that her beloved Odysseus will not return and therefore sets up a contest for the suitors to decide who her future husband will be. One portrayal of this contest is in O’Grady’s poem “The Test of the Bow” where the poet describes the act of Odysseus stringing and shooting the bow. Although Book 21 of The Odyssey by Homer and O’Grady’s poem “The Test of the Bow” express similarities in characterization, they differ in diction and tone.

The ancient Greeks lived in the dry, hot mountainous land of what is modern day Italy. The lack of science and technology of the time caused them to believe the gods were responsible for everything around them.In document 2 states,”According to ancient greeks, their gods controlled every part of daily life--the weather, crops, love, money and business, phases of the moon, earthquakes, and even weather a loaf of bread burned in the oven.” So was this more helpful or hurtful? The Greeks not only lived a mountainous area but also an extremely unstable and very volcanic area. Many city states could be destroyed in a moments notice. Document 3 states that,”This got the Greeks interested in a particular kind of religion called oracles. Oracles are

In the story "The Odyssey," Odysseus, the main protagonist and long lost ruler of Ithaca, is disguised as a beggar. Meanwhile, Penelope created a task for the suitors to execute. They had to string a bow and fire an arrow through twelve axe heads. After many failed attempts to string the bow, the beggar, Odysseus, easily strung the bow and cleanly shot his first bolt through the axes. Instantly, he revealed himself and killed all of the suitors and most of the women that worked for him

Penelope attempts to maintain her loyalty to Odysseus throughout the Odyssey. She would,”weave at her great and growing web” and,”would unravel all she’d done”(Homer 2.115-117) to keep the suitors busy. Penelope creates a scheme in which the suitors think they will be able to marry her, but in reality it is a way to keep them busy. Another scheme was created by Penelope in which the suitors used,”the great bow of King Odysseus”(Homer 21.85) and the man,”that shoots an arrow clean through all twelve axes”(Homer 21.87) will be her new husband. Although this challenge sounds fair to the suitors it was tilted to Penelope’s favor. She used a bow that only Odysseus could string and a challenge that only Odysseus has done. Eumaeus shows his loyalty to Odysseus by helping him. Eumaeus,”spotted him and quickly told his king”(Homer 22.170) Eumaeus shows fidelity and his loyalty to Odysseus by supporting him for all these

In Homer's epic, The Odyssey, Odysseus is an epic hero with an epic wife, Penelope. Penelope is also the Queen of Ithaca, a vital role indeed. Penelope's love and devotion towards Odysseus is proven when she waits nineteen years for her husband to return from the wine dark sea, rather than losing faith and marrying another man. Penelope's character is strong and solid, and her personality remains consistent throughout Homer's Odyssey.

In Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus is away from his home, Ithaca, for twenty years. Despite the low odds of Odysseus ever returning home after such a time, those in Ithaca were expected to remain loyal to Odysseus as they awaited his return. While this was a daunting task, those who accomplished it were heavily rewarded, while those who didn’t were met with death. Upon his return, Odysseus promised Eumaeus, the loyal swineherd, that he would find him a wife, grant him property next to his own, and that he would become one of the “comrades to Telemachus, brothers from then on” (21.243). His own wife Penelope remained loyal for all of the twenty years of Odysseus’ absence, never once giving in to the many suitors who invited themselves into her home and spent years vying for her hand. While she probably would have been killed by Odysseus if she had been unfaithful to him, perhaps her greatest reward was just being able to be with her husband again and being able to live. The suitors, however, were not so lucky. Odysseus, along with the help of the goddess Athena, carefully plotted and executed the death of every suitor that entered his home and gone after his wife. With the help of his son, the swineherd, and the goddess, Odysseus took down every suitor, until “the suitors lay in heaps, corpse covering corpse” (22.414). The resulting death of every disloyal character in the epic

Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey follows Odysseus on his long journey home. The Epic also includes the stories of Odysseus’ family left behind: the travels of his son, Telemachus, and how plenty, of what we would now call “home wreckers”, suitors pressured his wife, Penelope, into marrying one of them. The characters are beautifully crafted and the story is truly epic. All the elements presented can bring in any reader from any century, the Cyclops, the Gods, the trickery of Penelope, and the disguises of Odysseus, are all legendary literary hooks . There are many things to learn—about writing, about the world around us, the world ahead of us, and the past behind us—from The Odyssey. (26) It is undeniably evident that this ancient text has

Mythology was very huge in Ancient Greece. There are so many different folktales and myths

Ancient Greece was a civilization that began during the archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries B.C. The Greeks were polytheistic in religion, worshipping the 12 Olympian gods and goddess. Zeus (Jupiter) was the chief god in charge, followed by his brother Poseidon (Neptune), and Hades (Pluto). Neptune and Pluto were then followed by Hestia (Vesta), Hera (Juno) who was both Jupiter’s sister and wife, Ares (Mars) who was the son of Jupiter and Juno, Athena (Minerva), Apollo, Aphrodite (Venus), Hermes (Mercury), depicted in Giacomo Amiconi’s painting “Mercury about to Slay Argus” above. Artemis (Diana) and lastly Hera’s son Hephaestus (Vulcan). These gods and goddess were not equal in power and also rained over different aspects of human lives as well as nature. The 12 Olympians were all the children of the titans who were defeated by Jupiter, who was famously known for caring a lightning bolt, but also for the many affairs he had outside of his marriage with Juno, who was both his wife and sister. In the Greek society, being looked upon favorably was essential for the family and community so despite the not so godly actions committee by the gods/goddess, they were still respected and worshipped.

Every idea has a start and a history that can be traced back in time. An incredible amount of these ideas and thoughts were started by great ancient civilizations. These ancient civilizations are the base of all modern knowledge. No ancient civilization has contributed more to this base than the civilization of Ancient Greece. The unique ways of ancient Greek agriculture have left a profound influence on the agriculture of today.