The Odyssey And Homer 's Homeric

The Homeric Hymn to Demeter tells the story of Demeter, the goddess of fertility of grain. Demeter has a daughter with Zeus by the name of Persephone. The hymn explains the strong bond between Demeter and Persephone and how distraught Demeter is when her daughter is abducted. This traumatic event causes Demeter to live among mortal men disguised as an old woman and withdraw the fertility of the earth. In this paper, I will examine how the Homeric Hymn to Demeter operates as a charter myth, or narrative that explains modern practices, and how successful the hymn is in conveying the modern practice.

Penelope is a great example of how Greek women should act in early society. Penelope was loyal to her husband, she was clever, and she was a good mother to her son Telemachos. Penelope honored her husband and didn’t go against him even though he was gone for over 20 years. She also had to face over 100 suitors while Odysseus was gone. Penelope showed her cleverness when she told the town she would remarry when she finished weaving the rug. Every night Penelope would undo the work she weaved so she could buy time for her husband. She was very faithful to her husband and believed him that he would return to her. These traits that Penelope show are how other Greek women should act in society. The roles women played in society was that they

In the Demeter and Persephone myth, Demeter is represented as a quite powerful goddess of nature, she possess the ability to bring down her full wrath and vengeance among mankind when she threats Zeus to get her daughter back. The Greeks recognized women’s ultimate connection to the earth and the power that arose from it however they also display significant amounts of an inferiority complex towards women. While the Greeks exemplify their fear towards the powerful Demeter they turn the tables and force their controlling views onto Persephone and she then becomes a rag doll and taken against her will. Persephone represents the beauty of nature and how the Greeks saw nature as two sided, both good and bad. Hades represented death and decay while Persephone represented vitality and life. However, they were threatened by woman’s connection nature and the power to create new life, similarly to Demeter’s connection with growing new crops both represent birth and regeneration. Even though Demeter did have control over whether or not mankind would starve it would not make a difference since Persephone still ate that pomegranate seed and was forced to go back to the underworld. This poses the idea that men had to control women as men had to control nature, similarly to the Norse Mythology. However the Greeks unlike the Norse recognized women’s power but are

      Penelope and Helen are the real human women who can steal men's hearts with their own feminine ways and they never let their man go.  Helen stole the heart of Paris and later married Menelaus-the love that Paris had for Helen began the long Trojan War.  Even with her shaded past, Helen is able to live her life as a proper adjusted middle-class matron.  Penelope and Odysseus were only together for a few years before he was sent off to war and, while he was gone for over twenty years, his love for her lasted.  Penelope is the symbol of marital fidelity, of trust, honor  and devotion.

A hero isn’t shaped by his strengths but by the values he possesses. Homer’s epic, The Odyssey, reveals the moral and ethical constitution of the ancient Greeks. Over time, certain cultures have grown to value a number of human characteristics. Those who acquire such values become respected heroes. After the fall of Troy, the protagonist of the epic, Odysseus, set sail for his home, Ithaca, where his faithful wife and son were waiting for him. Over the course of his journey, Odysseus faced some of the most ferocious opponents known to the Greeks. Even through this formidable journey, Odysseus and his family have stayed true to the diverse aspects of the ancient Greeks. The Odyssey exemplifies the human ideals of hospitality, loyalty and

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.

Another main similarity between the poem and the movie but put into more depth in the movie is how the people of Ithaca where dealing with Odysseus’s absence. Penelope stayed faithful to Odysseus while also keeping the promise of marrying

he Odyssey, as written by Homer, intricately and excitingly weaves Colin Renfrew’s Subsystem Theories throughout the entire play. Many of the five subsystem theories can be seen and support understanding of the novel. Of the five systems, trade/communication, social/ political hierarchy and symbolic subsystems will be the focus of analysis in this paper. All of these subsystems come together in The Odyssey to explain the characters and their lives, and also how they fit into the society which they live in. To understand the growth and development of the characters, we must understand the systems theories, “many human actions have a meaning at several different levels, with undertones and overtones… it is the complex interconnectedness of the subsystems which gives human culture its unique potential for growth.” As this paper will demonstrate within The Odyssey, trade and communication, social and political hierarchy and lastly symbolic subsystems create adventure in Odysseus’s harrowing, yet exciting journey back to his kingdom and family. These specific subsystems add depth and excitement because we see how each specific one impacts Odysseus’s journey back home. They help us understand who Odysseus is a man and sympathize with all that he goes through. The communication subsystem helps explain how communication between people (and gods) in different lands aid to the success of his return home. We are able to see from the social subsystem how Odysseus and other men

How women in The Odyssey were viewed is also shown through Penelope. Penelope is Odysseus's wife who, when he had gone away, was being urged to find a new

The Odyssey, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, manifests a quality that has been underestimated for many years, from ancient times to modern day. This quality is the power of a woman. Penelope, the wife of the main character in The Odyssey, Odysseus, shows great amplitudes of power throughout the first few chapters of the book. Being separated from her husband immediately after having their child, she is forced to make an instantaneous adaptation to her new life. With many struggles beforehand, she seems to cope very well.

Penelope fits the archetype as a vulnerable woman who needs to be rescued after her husband has left her and her only son, Telemachus, for years to go fight in the Trojan War. While Odysseus is journeying home, Penelope is left in Ithaca to deal with suitors pleading and fighting to be her husband. Penelope is left at home waiting for the day Odysseus will return and relieve her from the pain inflicted on by the suitors who destroy and take advantage of her palace. Penelope is the damsel in distress because Odysseus goes on a journey and as she waits at home “she has been breaking the hearts of the Akhaians,/ holding out hope to all, and sending promises/ to each man privately- but thinking otherwise” (page 21-22). Suitors who want to take her husbands position as king attack Penelope but she still believes he is alive so she needs to delay the picking of a new husband. Penelope tells her suitors they would have to wait until she wove a burial shroud for her father in law, Laertes. Each day she wove and then every night she un-picked her work. In this way, she delayed and tricked the suitors until Odysseus returns to save her. Penelope is helpless and in need of rescuing: “she had mounted to her rooms again/ with all her women, then she fell to weeping/ for Odysseus, her husband” (page

Penelopeia is in so much distress after losing Odyesseus but she doesn’t let up. P. deals with all the suitors very courageously she represents a powerful female figure in a time where women were not thought very highly of. Although P. has the most stress placed on her, she embodies the most calm and constructive individual particularly when she faces the world she was described as, Theme Awareness:

To begin, Penelope thinks of Odysseus and immediately lets her emotions out: “Odysseus—if he could return to tend my life / the renown I had would only grow in glory. / Now my life is torment … / look at the griefs some god has loosed against me!” (The Odyssey, 18.285-288). Furthermore, Homer expresses Penelope’s sadness by making her sink “on her well-built chamber’s floor” and through her “sobbing uncontrollably” (The Odyssey, 4.810-813). Clearly in Penelope’s mind, Odysseus’ absence is not something she can easily forget. Homer introduces Penelope as a very caring and devoted wife.

Demeter was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea. Cronus would be deposed by one of his children. In order to prevent this, he swallowed each one as they were born. Rhea was unhappy about this and saved her last child Zeus, and gave a rock for Cronus to swallow. When Zeus grew up, Rhea persuaded Cronus to swallow an emetic and he regurgitated all the children, including Demeter, who were all full grown.

Greek mythology teaches life lessons so that we learn not to make the same mistakes as people in the past have done. Most of the time it would be about a male going on an adventure facing life threatening challenges, but that doesn’t mean women can’t face challenges as well. For example, Penelope’s story is about while her husband, Odysseus, is away on an adventure the suitors try to woo Penelope but all the while she stays loyal to Odysseus. Artists J.W Waterhouse and Dorothy Parker used their artistics through this myth to demonstrate this womanly will power. Penelope and The Suitors by J.W waterhouse and “Penelope” by Dorothy Parker both use the myth of Penelope to show that loyalty is is more powerful than temptation.