Odysseus Treatment Of Women In Homer's Odyssey

Penelope was left behind when Odysseus left for the trojan war, but he didn’t come back after that. Penelope had to take care of their son, their estate, and their servants for 20 years. On top of all of that she had suitors demanding her attention. In all of this she stayed strong and independent, and despite the pressure of the suitors she stayed loyal to Odysseus, even when she didn’t even know if he was alive or not. Penelope’s character is also very clever and sly. She told the suitors that she would remarry after she finishes her weaving project, but each night she undoes everything she did that day. When the suitors find out about it they demand she choose someone to remarry. Penelope uses her intelligence and slyness again as she tells them whoever wins an archery contest using Odysseus bow, which only he could use, she would marry. Penelope is also very kind, which we see when she interacts with the servants and her son. Penelope is a very well portrayed character and she is needed in the story to be someone Odysseus could always be someone to come back

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

Lastly, Odysseus treats people atrociously. For example, when Odysseus killed an abundance of his own men, who revolted against him, he demands a few women to drag the corpses into the courtyard, “As he spoke here came the women in a bunch, all wailing, soft tears on their cheeks. They fell to work to lug the corpses out into the courtyard” (XXll. 464-467). Nevertheless, Odysseus keeps on commanding the women to do more, “In fear these women bore the cold weight of the dead. The next thing was to scrub off chairs and tables and rinse them down” (XXll. 469-472). Women should be treated with respect, but Odysseus lacks respect for women. Odysseus does not think twice about putting women to work. The dirty work Odysseus did he asked women

She is a “bewitching nymph” and “lustrous goddess” (206). She forces Odysseus to stay with her as her lover for many years. Odysseus was able to escape from the Cyclops’ cave. However, neither his strength nor his cunning can free him from Calypso. He is doomed to remain there until the gods intervene. Women’s irresistible charm leads Odysseus to disaster.

Although Odysseus was a hero he had faults, such as, involving himself in sexual activity with lustful immortal women that he knew had the power to do whatever they wanted with him. Within the twenty years of him being away from Ithaca, he experienced a lot. One of the reasons that he stayed away from his kingdom was because of the lustful women such as, Calypso that were immortal who could control many aspects of life in order to make him stay or seduce him into having sex with them. When he was fighting in

The gods are constantly involved with mortal women and are not shamed for it, Zeus’ being especially guilty of this. However, Calypso argues that when an immortal women such as herself sleeps with a mortal man she is berated and the man is whisked away. She refers to the gods as “scandalized” in result of her involvement with Odysseus, yet they are unimpeded to sleep with any women they desire. Calypso wishes the power to be held to the same standard as the gods, but the etiquette of a goddess is to not freely become involved with mortals, as it is of a god. Calypso angrily must give up Odysseus, and in book six he finally makes his way onto another island after a near death experience awash in the sea. On this island lives Princess Nausicaa who also must undergo gender roles. The goddess Athena, disguised as a friend of the princess, convinces Nausicaa that she should take a trip to the river to wash and bathe her clothes as a plan to get her and Odysseus to meet up. Odysseus finds Nausicaa at the stream, and first she is scared because he is dirty and very fatigued. He then talks to her, and she offers him help. She asks that he accompany her back to the palace where he can get help of her parents, the king and queen. He is about to ride in the Nausicaa's wagon, but then she asks that Odysseus must follow behind, telling him about what would possibly happen if the were to ride

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

A major part of being a hero is trying to protect the ones you love from any harm, hurt, and danger. Odysseus, however, does not protect his family from harm because he leaves Ithaca for so long. In particular, Odysseus does not protect his wife from hurt when he cheats on her. Every minute of each day that Odysseus was gone, Penelope was mourning the absence of her husband, not knowing that he was deceiving her. Odysseus not only cheats on Penelope once, but twice. First, Odysseus is held sex captive by Calypso, a nymph goddess, on her island for many years. This means that at some point Odysseus had fallen for temptation. Odysseus then cheats on his wife yet again with another goddess named Circe. Although this affair does not last as long, Odysseus still sets

Penelope has a very complex and interesting character. For example her determination to wait and to mislead the suitors for so long shows that she had great intelligence and perseverance. Penelope's wit is acknowledged in this quote from Antinous "For all the Achean beauties of former times, none had at her command such wits as she."(Page 20, Book 2). Penelope's wit is also shown in her scheme to mislead the suitors by saying that they must wait for her to weave a shroud for Odysseus's father Laertes. She told them

Calypso is viewed as Odysseus’ lover who offers him immortality instead of her hand in marriage. The only reason Odysseus refused immortality is because “a woman’s promise of immortality will kill a man” due to the untrustworthy nature of women (Barnes 130). This slander of immortality from a woman’s love is caused by the patriarchal society which “changed the way it [immortality] was to be achieved” (Barnes 135). Instead of receiving immortality through a woman it could “only be achieved through male heroics in battle” (Barnes 135) which is why Odysseus says, “A hero’s funeral then, my glory spread by comrades—now what a wretched death I’m doomed to die” (Od. 5.44-45). The cause of switching the means of immortality is because the patriarchal society “says that the constant is women’s ineffectiveness to bring it about”, such as Calypso not being able to give Odysseus immortality since she could not defeat the will of Zeus (Barnes 132). Calypso’s portrayal as a seductress and attempt to seduce Odysseus with immortality exist because of the patriarchal society that was present when the Odyssey was

The Odyssey includes many women characters, differing from strong, powerful women to women that don’t have a meaningful role in the story. Some women in the story include Penelope, Athena, and Leucothea. These women play a role in Odysseus’s journey and life.

The first woman that I think caused Odysseus problems on his journey is Calypso. Calypso, her name meaning “the concealer” in Greek, using her beauty kept Odysseus captive on her island for seven years. “He is left to languish in misery in the island home of Calypso, who keeps him captured there.” (Page 63) Odysseus is upset because firstly on the island of Ogygia, Odysseus is powerless: he is no

Odysseus arrives on Calypso’s island alone, after the loss of his men and ship. Calypso rescues him and loves and cares for him in her cave. At first, it seems like Odysseus doesn’t seem much to mind her taking care of him, but over time it is plainly evident that he is unhappy with her. When Hermes arrives on Calypso’s island to give her the message from Zeus to release Odysseus, he is bawling on the beach a day-long activity for him. Calypso is holding him with her by force; she has no companions to help him back to Ithaka, nor has she a ship to send him in. Athena pleads with Zeus to give Odysseus good fortune, saying that "he lies away on an island suffering strong pains in the palace of the nymph Kalypso, and she detains him by constraint, and he cannot make his way to his country, for he has not any ships by him, nor any companions who can convey him back

In the book The Odyssey the first role of women is to seduce men. Odysseus gets seduced by many women in the book and he stays there with the women for many years. First, in The Odyssey Odysseus encounters many seductive women. Odysseus meets a nymph named Calypso she seduces him and keeps him on her island for seven years. Circe wanted to turn him into her

In The Odyssey it shows that all the women are uniquely different by their relationships, desire, and personality towards men. In addition, all the women help represent the typical role of a woman. Their role is very critical in the ongoing adventure in this epic poem. Homer represents women as strong roles and real life characters such as them being strong, tough, and diligent. In the story there are three major types of women, which are the goddess, the good hostess/wife, and seducers. With each one of these female characters they are a vital importance and add a different type of factor to the story. As Odysseus returns home to his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus from fighting in the Trojan War he is faced with many obstacles that he must get through to get home to