Chimpanzees are social creatures, yet they travel in small groups. When one group attacks another, the males heavily defend their territory in order to assert dominance in their society. Male dominance has existed in literature all throughout history, especially in the Odyssey by Homer. This piece of literature contains a journey that lasts for twenty years, a man who yearns to return to his wife, and many mythical beings he must overcome. Odysseus and his wife, Penelope, both face incredible situations within their twenty years of separation. In Homer’s Odyssey, both Odysseus and Penelope seek power through intelligence; however, Odysseus’s aggressive nature allows him to retain his power, conveying the message that men have superiority …show more content…
Penelope spends most of her time in the Odyssey longing for her beloved husband to return to Ithaca. While Odysseus is in battle at Troy and on his way back home, loneliness and sorrow fills Penelope’s heart. Even as her heartache continues, suitors raid her home of food, livestock, and successively asks for her hand in marriage because of the widespread belief that Odysseus died. Although she feels uncomfortable with the suitors, it is custom in Ancient Greece to demonstrate hospitality to visitors. Penelope spends many years with over a hundred suitors but finally after 20 years of waiting, she hears from her nurse news of Odysseus’s homecoming. Because of her doubts, Penelope decides to test Odysseus: “Come Eurycleia, make the bed outside the room which he built himself; out the fine bedstead outside, and lay out the rugs and blankets and fleeces” (256). Knowing that the bed was made by Odysseus himself out of a tree, Penelope tests him to see if it really is Odysseus. Although her clever test angers Odysseus at first, they happily reunite and Odysseus takes charge over his kingdom once again.
Odysseus and Penelope share the characteristic of striking intelligence. Both use their brilliance to the fullest advantage in their most dire situations. In Odysseus’s case, he uses his cleverness when he and his crew meet Polyphemus, a cyclops. After they get trapped in
In Driscolls’s lab students were researching on the nervous system of the aging Caenorhabditis elegans, and also students were trying to sprout the neurite and deterioration of the synapse. C. elegans is a round worm which is an effective model for investigation of the rationed systems that adjust sound maturing. Students has reported that maturing C. elegans neurons can display novel neurite outgrowth from dendrites and from somata. New outgrowths can be exceedingly pervasive in maturing touch receptor neurons, with mitochondria regularly situated at branch locales. Diverse neurons display particular sorts of outgrowth, even with a solitary neuronal class. Be that as it may, not all neurons display morphological change with age, showing
She is also very brainy and is able to outsmart Odysseus. When Odysseus finally returns, he tries to hide his identity for as long as possible. He did such a good job that Penelope had a hard time believing that it was actually him. She comes up with a very smart plan to confirm that he was in fact Odysseus. She asks Eurycleia to move their bed into the hallway, to prove Odysseus’ identity, because only he would know that their bed is built around a tree that they built their house around.
The Odyssey, written by Homer, tells the story of Odysseus after the Trojan War. It not only includes an insight on the adventures and return of Odysseus, but it also includes the stories of Telemakhos and Penelope. Telemakhos is the courageous son of Odysseus who goes on a quest in search for information about his father’s whereabouts. Penelope is an extremely clever woman who could match Odysseus in his wit. Penelope is able manipulate the suitors that have come to pursue her in Odysseus’s absence. Though Penelope often spends many nights weeping over the absence of her husband, it seems as if she never loses faith in her husband, and she truly believes that he will return to her and punish the suitors that have taken over their
Penelope acts as the damsel in distress. She is unable to keep the suitors away from her house because she is a woman, and that makes her vulnerable. She also provides Odysseus with a reason to return home because she is his wife. She has no choice but to pick one of the suitors, and soon. Penelope says she is “wasted with longing for Odysseus, while here they press for marriage”(1004). She still loves her husband, which gives him hope that he will be accepted once he makes his return, and gives him a reason to continue trying. She also cannot turn the suitors away, preventing her from being able to protect herself. This once again proves that, as the damsel in distress, Penelope needs Odysseus for protection.
Penelope did not have any idea whether her husband was alive for most of the twenty-years he was gone. She had promised Odysseus that she would not marry until their son, Telemakos, reached the age of adulthood. Just
Odysseus trapped under a spell of Calypso is trapped on her island. Odysseus longing for home shuddered,”After all these years, a helping hand? O goddess, what guile is hidden here?”(86). Odysseus is wondering why after so long of forcing him to cheat on Penelope that she is going to help him leave. This shows that he still wants to go home to his wife Penelope and that Calypso has not stolen his loyalty to Penelope. Penelope tests his loyalty with a lie,”Make up his bed for him, Eurycleia. Place it outside the bedchamber my lord built with his own hands. Pile the big ed with fleeces, rugs, and sheets of purest linen”(435). She says this because she knows that the bed cannot be moved and only the real Odysseus would know that. He responds with anger saying that the bed cannot be moved and shows that after all this time he still remembers his beloved
After a long journey back from the Trojan War, he encounters superhuman beings, luring traps and sea beasts. Finally he reached his home land of Ithaca, where he kills suitors trying to court his wife. After the suitors are dead, Odysseus confronts his wife, Penelope, but she still refuses to acknowledge his reality. Finally she knows he is real because Odysseus tells her about their
As the request is made of his own mother she simply abides to her son’s wishes, “She bathed now, put on some fresh clothes,” (Homer l 17.60). All throughout the Odyssey Penelope shows her strength to ward off suitors and she manages to live without her husband for years. Remaining faithful the entire time to her husband Odysseus she discloses to her maid, “Eurynome, don’t try to coax me, care for me as you do, to bathe myself, refresh my face with oils. Whatever glow I had died long ago… the gods of Olympus snuffed it out that day my husband sailed away in the hollow ships,” (Homer ll 18.201-206) presenting to the reader that she lost all desire for anyone else when Odysseus’ left for war. This further substantiates the Greek view of how women should remain loyal at all times forsaking others. Lastly Penelope is rewarded for her lasting devotion to her husband with his return. In these characters and their specific roles in the Odyssey the Greeks’ insisted upon their women to accept such roles in their culture of certain hypocrisy when compared to that of their female counterpart. Without Athena’s support Odysseus would have never reached Ithaca and Telemachus would not have been pushed into becoming a man. Without Penelope’s loyalty, devotion, and support Odysseus’ efforts in his journey home would have held little merit of reward. What is most important to note is the male character of Odysseus plays the most prominent role in the epic but
During Odysseus’ journey in ‘The Odyssey’, Odysseus runs into a couple problems. He leaves home ready to fight in the Trojan War. Although he had plans on coming home, he never made it home. His wife Penelope and his son Telemachus assumed that Odysseus was dead. It was not until Athena came to Telemachus and gave him everything he needed to make it to his dad. What Telemachus did not know was that Odysseus wanted to come home, but he could not because he was being held prisoner on an island named Ogygia. Odysseus wants nothing more to return home and see his lovely wife Penelope.
After Odysseus becomes enraged when Penelope asks the maid to make his bed outside, she realizes that he knows the secret that only Odysseus and her share. She embraces him and praises his homecoming. Once again, Penelope is wise and patient in her decision-making. The suitors pursued her, overtook her home and aggressively pushed her to remarry as she was supposed to. If Penelope would have given in, The Odyssey would not have ended with Odysseus returning to a loyal home. Through cunning, independence and loyalty, Penelope is able to create a positive image as a woman. Chaucer’s Wife of Bath has similar independence and cunning, but she makes her name as a domineering lady that chooses who she wants, and when she wants them.
Penelope, just as Odysseus, portrayed the great human trait of patience. She did what it took to fend off the suitors with hope that her husband would come back for her. Penelope didn’t give up hope because she felt in heart that Odysseus would come
Unlike Odysseus Penelope is confined by the gender roles of her time and cannot use physical strength against the suitors or even direct verbal rejection, instead Penelope resorts to her emotional resilience and wit in order to challenge the suitors. She wrongly reassures the suitors that once she finishes weaving a gift for Odysseus’s father, she will choose someone to marry her, “’Young men, my suitors, let me finish my weaving, before I marry’…every day she wove on the great loom but every night by torchlight she unwove it.” (II. 103-104, 112-113) Penelope’s actions are strategic and well calculated. Her main goal, like Odysseus, is to successfully overcome her situation. She understands that she may not be able to physically fight the suitors but she can trick them until Telemachus or Odysseus are able to. By crafting a lie that delays the suitors from marrying her immediately, Penelope restrains the suitors from seizing Ithaca, her household, and posing a threat to Telemachus or Odysseus. Her lie gives Odysseus a crucial advantage in the physical fight against the suitors as he comes back to a city and household where Penelope
Odysseus must now face the other suitors in order to win Penelope. He must rely on physical strength to get past this task then to face Penelope and convince her it is really Odysseus. After defeating the other suitors Odysseus was cleaned up and made to
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’.
Penelope is also shown to have been very sought after, by the band of suitors that inhabit Odysseus's palace in Ithaca while he is away. All the while Odysseus is away; suitors are constantly trying to force Penelope to choose one of them as her new husband.