The Odyssey By William Shakespeare

      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.

From the description of a ‘lady goddess’ we can immediately see how she is thought of highly by Odyssey.  However despite this high opinion of Penelope, before he left, Odysseus and Calypso " . . . retired, this pair [He and Calypso], to the inner cave/to revel and rest softly, side by side."(Homer V:235-238)  This was not the only time Odysseus "retired", with another woman.  On the island of Circe "[he] entered Circe's flawless bed of love"(Homer X:390).  However this is not done through the power of love or any other emotional or sexual drive but in order to continue his journeys with success.

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 first woman Odysseus encounters is Calypso. Calypso is the beautiful goddess nymph who resides on the island of Ogygia. Once Odysseus ends up on her island, she falls in love with him and keeps him captive there for seven years. Calypso is very possessive and hopes to marry Odysseus. It takes Hermes, the messenger god, to relay Zeus’ order to release Odysseus to make his way home. Even then, Calypso is desperate for Odysseus to

What Calypso essentially wanted was Odysseus to stay with her and for a while she was successful in holding him. While a man would have easily been able to do this without worrying about Hermes coming in and demanding him set the woman free, Calypso had to find another way to assert herself. In the end, her actions could not withhold the double standard.

Is a hero only characterized by their success? If a leader’s last actions carry them to victory, are their flaws unimportant? The Odyssey by Homer narrates the ancient myth of a leader coming home from war in Troy who faces many trials, and despite returning home alone without any of his crew, he is looked upon as a hero for having survived. His ultimately sole success continues to define him, although the bitter truth being that he was the leader of his men when they all perished. As flaws of the all-mighty Odysseus and his crew are presented through their responses to the challenges they experience on their journey, people of the modern world may begin to understand that there exist several flaws that plague all men, whether they live now or lived thousands of years ago, and whether they are leaders or followers. The Odyssey is important in its characters’ responses’ to their trials ability to evoke emotional reactions that cause the reader to ponder their own tendencies by revealing the human nature of pride to be the fuel of the impulsiveness that oscillates fate.

Homer’s “The Odyssey” takes place ten years after the events in “The Iliad”, to which the Odyssey is an indirect sequel, and the fall of Troy; even though the story is believed to have been composed some time during the eight century B.C.E. it is estimated to be set sometime between 1300 and 1000 B.C.E. in Mycenaean Greece during the Bronze age. In this novel all Greek heroes have returned home after the fall of Troy, except for Odysseus who after a three year journey has been held captive by the goddess Calypso, who has fallen in love with him, on her island, Ogygia. After the ten years have passed Odysseus is presumed dead, his wife Penelope is courted, and his estate is auctioned off by the Suitors, the young men of Ithaca who attempt to win Penelope’s favor and hand in marriage.

In Shakespeare’s Othello, the nominal character, an honorable Venetian general, is driven to madness through the deceptions of his honest right hand Iago. Iago plots to ruin Othello and through his deception, he drives Othello’s insecurities by implanting the idea of infidelity of his beloved wife Desdemona. Othello goes on to murder his wife, and after he discovers Iago’s plot, he kills himself. In a time when women were looked down upon, Shakespeare crafted a drama in which women took part in major roles. Modeled by Elizabethan England the women in Othello were portrayed in a light justified by society as in Othello, these women were nothing more to than objectified possessions, forced to submit to the ever dying will of their husbands. This is displayed by Desdemona and Emilia’s and relationships with their husbands.

It is important to make wise decisions. Failure to do so can lead to irreversibly idiotic outcomes, such as in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Other decisions that can lead to awful outcomes can be explained in books such as To Kill A Mockingbird and The Odyssey.

Within the masts of ships, the tests of loyalty, and the authority of the social pecking order lays the similarities and differences among powerful female characters. The Odyssey by Homer was written as a sequel to his previous work The Iliad. These books follow The Trojan War and the events following this massive war. Specifically, The Odyssey follows the journey of war hero Odysseus on his way back home to Ithaca. On his campaign filled with trials and tribulations, Odysseus received help from many important women. Bright-eyed Athena, the goddess of strategic warfare, serves as a mentor throughout Odysseus’ journey to his homeland, Ithaca. Calypso, the nymph with the human voice, houses Odysseus on his journey home. Eurycleia, the nurse in his placae, provides care and support to her superior, Odysseus. These three women can all be compared and contrasted to one another because of their close relationships with Odysseus, master of tactics. Odysseus would not have been successful on his journey home to Ithaca if it were not for women such as Athena, Calypso, and Eurycleia.

Love is complicated due to the fact that there is a difference of opinion and perception and it is complicated because people see stuff in different ways and interpret things differently as well. In the 3 texts dissatisfaction or complication is shown. Firstly in Othello love is presented as ephemeral and transient while atonement love is presented as unrequited and finally in cat on a hot tin roof love is presented as painful and troublesome due to unreciprocated feelings.

Two other women who want Odysseus to remain with them are the witch goddess Circe and the nymph Kalypso. Odysseus lands on Aiaia, the island of the witch goddess Circe. Circe transforms all of Odysseus’ men into swine upon their arrival onto her island. With the help of Hermes, the messenger god, Odysseus resists Circe’s power and then becomes her lover, living in luxury for one year. When Circe first asks Odysseus to become her lover Odysseus explains, “I mount no bed of love with you upon it” (10. 385). Odysseus explains that he does not want to become her lover because he is afraid of what she

Albeit three of the four ladies had sexual encounters with Odysseus, they are not Odysseus' trophies. The ladies are not simply immediately pulled in to the most nice looking man on the planet. Odysseus had earned their affection with his graciousness, valor, and character. A few ladies even discovered Odyesseus awful: Nausicaa disliked Odysseus at first, which demonstrated that not all ladies look at the hero admitting their affection and undying dedication. The cliché female character is more than regularly very imbecilic; nonetheless, the four female characters are all astute and free. Calypso, Circe and Athene are all goddesses who are superior to any mortal man. All men, ladies, and kids penance to the Gods and go to them. Not at all like 'Rustler's Rhapsody'; where man is looked upon as better than ladies: these female characters in The Odyssey are more prominent than any mortal man. Circe traps men, and changes them into feeding pen creatures for her own particular delight. Pallas Athene, the goddess of war and shrewdness, battles against men and does not require their 'insurance'. She is the most savvy, and does not fall into the generalization of a debutante. Fundamental Queen Penelope's

The islands of Circe and Calypso in Homer’s Odyssey are places where Odysseus’ most challenging problems occur. In contrast to battles with men, Cyclops, or animals, sexual battles with women are sometimes much more difficult to win. These two female characters are especially enticing to Odysseus because they are goddesses. Though it is evident that Odysseus longs to return to Penelope in Ithaka, it sometimes appears that he has lost vision of what life was like with a wife, a son, and with thousands of people who regard him as King. Although his experiences on the islands of these goddesses were similar in that he was retained from Ithaka for the longest periods of his adventure, these goddesses and the