The Odyssey By Homer Is Considered The First And Greatest Epic Poet

In the first section of Odyssey, mortal women are presented to us as controlled by the stereotypes and expectations of the culture of the day, and it is only within that context that we can consider the examples Homer provides of women to be admired or despised. He provides us with clear contrasts, between Penelope and Eurycleia on the one hand, and Helen and Clytemnaestra on the other.

For thousands of years it can be considered debatable on the true view of women over the years but one thing is for sure, many women suffered one commonality - discrimination. For decades women have been told the classics; “you can’t”, “you’re not strong enough”, “stay in the kitchen”, and because of this, young women today believe this is what they are viewed as. In “The Odyssey” there are many characters that share their disgust with the female gender and many who worship them,just like today. There is a possibility, even though it’s 2017, that there may be some men who believe men were given certain jobs to do and women should stick to what they were “meant to do”. It’s an issue - it’s teaching young men and women that women cannot do the same as men. It teaches women the true heroes are men, that women cannot be the ones to sail across the sea, to fight monsters, or even to simply be in charge of themselves. Since specific roles are assigned in “The Odyssey” to both men and women, it can teach women that while times have changed, in society it’s somehow important for women to be second next to men, when in reality that is not true.

Gender stereotypes has been around for many decades, and have been passed on from generation to generation. These gender stereotypes play a big role in how people are looked upon in society. The ancient Greeks portrayed masculinity as being brave, strong, powerful, superior to women, and in no way feminine. Some of these male expectations are still maintained in society today. In the book “The Odyssey of Homer” written by Richmond Lattimore, there are many of the male expectations that the ancient Greeks said to be true can be found in this book.

      Circe and Calypso, while very tricky and sly, are still very strong feminine characters.  Circe takes Odysseus' crew and turns them into swine; when Odysseus is able to resist her spell, due to the Moly he had been given by Hermes, she is dismayed and takes him as her lover. She is mysterious and seductive and is strong even up against Odysseus.  Calypso is a sea nymph who keeps Odysseus captive for nine years, hoping to make him her husband.  She is a strong-willed temptress whose sultry ways are able to reel in even the most determined man.

The Odyssey, by Homer, was written with the Greek mindset that women were supposed to be submissive. If the woman in question was not submissive enough, she was depicted as cruel, selfish, a monster, or a whore. This is true for both mortal women, such as Penelope, and immortal goddesses, such as Calypso. Mortal women were expected to be good faithful wives who listened to everything the head of the household said, while goddesses were expected to follow the gods every order and were called sexist slurs if they ever got involved with a mortal man.

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.

The #MeToo movement has brought the most recent revelations of misogyny in modern society. Sexism has been present throughout history, and the Greek society in Homer’s The Odyssey is no exception. It tells of the hero Odysseus’ journey back to his wife, Penelope, and his son, Telemakhos, on Ithaka, including his delays by the nymph, Kalypso. Throughout the epic, Homer portrays that society’s perceptions of female inferiority lead to harsher expectations of and stereotypes for women, as shown by the powerlessness, sexual double standard, and seductive stereotypes of women.

“The world is still sexist.” — Barbara Broccoli. From the creation story to modern day, women and men still struggle with a power dynamic of inferiority and superiority. The problem of sexism has been ever-present throughout history, and although it has been acknowledged by many, it has not been eradicated or resolved. Although the acknowledgment of sexism has grown over the course of the modern era, it is heavily rooted in society’s developmental process, which makes it continuously difficult to annihilate. Furthermore, throughout many historical texts, women are often represented as objects instead of real people. Within texts, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Bible, the Quran, and the Torah, women are constantly regarded as inferiors instead of equals with men. Throughout these texts, there is a clear separation between the treatment of men and women, with women always being referred to as property.

Ovid’s epic “The Essential Metamorphoses” and Ghandl’s poem “Goose food” present similar visions of women, and the writers show that men might not actually be superior, compared to women as they are often portrayed in myth. Moreover, in Ovid, there are numerous myths told, but in most of them, there is a recurrent theme of misogyny, and in the first myth of the epic – called “Origin of the World”–, on top of just describing the creation of the world, it is mentioned that man was first to be created and woman was made second. This could be because of numerous reasons; for example, Ovid could have been jealous that it was actually woman that was created first or maybe Ovid wanted to follow what the rest of society believed in order to be able to gain the trust of the readers so that he could then be able to put unrealistic views and that when reading the epic, the reader becomes skeptical of what seems so true to him at first and that maybe the whole principal of man being at the center of attention is not a true fact. Similarly, in Ghandl’s “Goose Food”, this story is told in a single way and man again is at the center of the attention, but this could be to give…(not good ). These stories portray women in a negative way in order to make readers realize that they are actually equal to men in real life and that they might even be superior to men. This statement can be viewed through the way women look physically, the actions they perform, how men interact in proximity to them

     Many people regard Homer’s epics as war stories—stories about men; those people often overlook the important roles that women play in the Odyssey. While there are not many female characters in the Odyssey, the few that there are, play pivotal roles in the story and one can gain a lot of insight by analyzing how those women are portrayed. Homer portrays the females in contradictory ways: the characters of Athena and Eurykleia are given strong, admirable roles while Melantho, the Sirens and Circe are depicted in a much more negative way. Penelope—the central female character—is given both negative and positive attributes.

A common theme shown throughout the text is that “Beauty may be dangerous but intelligence is lethal.” The Odyssey by Homer reveals intelligence in women and how they hide behind their beauty to manipulate men and gain power. Women today are viewed as independent and able to fend for themselves. In ancient Greece, which The Odyssey was set in women had less influence in society. Homer describes how women have two sides to them: how they are viewed upon first sight and how their future actions make their view differ from first meeting the women. It doesn’t show that second real side of the women just how the characters would predict based off of original interactions. They are viewed and judged on how kind and beautiful they are; as well as their Xenia (the way they treat their guests). Their actions and mindset during their actions reveal secret intelligence and trickery making the representation of women powerful but hidden.

In the book of Odyssey written by Homer, the character archetype that Calypso represents is a clingy but loyal love interest. Calypso provides food and drink for Odysseus because she wants him to be with her. She told him that he could be immortal if he stayed with her, but Odysseus refused. Calypso finally lets go of Odysseus by the command of Hermes, and helps him by giving him a boat. This adds to the plot because some female characters are deceiving, like Circe and the nymphs, but Calypso lets Odysseus go home because she loves him.

Women are perceived as the gender, that in which is not superior. In the epic, tributed to Homer, The Odyssey, traditional gender stereotypes of a patriarchal society are enforced. Men dominate women in a sense of roles, influence, power and relationships. In ancient Greece, the dominant role was played by men. The society, culture, government and occupations was organized and driven by men, women having little to no role in how to society functioned. Generations adapted these ways and depicted myths that in which represented this type of society, as seen in the Odyssey.

Women in ancient Greece had very few rights in comparison to male citizens. Women were unable to vote, own property, or inherit wealth. A woman’s place was in the home and her purpose in life was to rear children. Considering this limited role in society, we see a diverse cast of female characters in Greek mythology. We are presented with women that are powerful and warlike, or sexualized, submissive and emotionally unstable. In many myths, we encounter subversive behavior from women, suggesting, perhaps, the possibility of female empowerment. While produced in an ostensibly misogynistic and oppressive society, these myths consider the possibility for a collapse of male power and the patriarchal system. In Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey,

An epic is a long, episodic narrative poem that recounts the adventures of a historical or mystical hero. Episodic narratives have a larger story broken down into closely connected, but individual and separate sections. Some important qualities that distinguish an epic are unrealistic antagonists, the Gods and Goddesses playing important roles, and a story involving the re-establishment of a proper leader. “The Odyssey”, by Homer, is an epic because Odysseus (the hero) faces supernatural antagonists, the gods and goddesses play an important role, and Odysseus is being restored as a rightful leader.