Women in the Iliad Essay example

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.

By societal standards today, women are characterized as strong and independent. Women have gained the right to vote and now largely populate workplaces everywhere. Certainly, Homer’s Odyssey cannot be compared to modern times as a feminist piece, it is usually portrayed as the exact opposite. In fact, Homer shows that women are responsible for many problems that arise in the epic. Yet, despite this there are still many powerful female characters. Additionally, most female characters play large roles. This differs greatly from Homeric times, in which women would not have as much power as female characters in the epic possess. Ordinarily, Greek women were represented as docile and obedient creatures who would not leave the trappings of the household. Although women in the Odyssey do show tendencies to conform in these expected, submissive ways, female characters exercise a large amount of power over the events of the Odyssey. This resulted in a collection of strong female characters, a stark contrast with the time. Throughout the Odyssey female characters are characterized as strong through many different ways. Female characters assume positions of power, use sexuality and/or wits to stay ahead, and offer crucial advice and help to Odysseus and Telemakhos.

The role of men and women in The Odyssey is evident on numerous occasions as well as many references on the expectations of the two sexes. In the novel, Homer makes it quite clear how women are expected to act and the jobs they must do. When Penelope complains about the

      Some of the more impressive and intriguing women in the book are Nausicaa, Arete, Circe, Calypso, Penelope, Helen and Athena. 

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 Iliad and The Odyssey are tales written by Homer centered on the drama of the Trojan War. First poem deals with the time during the end of the war, while the latter, which occurs roughly ten years later, explains the disastrous journey of Odysseus fighting his way back home. The character of women in the Odyssey is to exhibit the many and diverse roles that women play in the lives of men. These functions vary from characters such as the goddess ' that help them to the nymphs who trick them. Women in the Iliad exhibit their significance in the lives of the ancient Greeks because they are so prominent in a world so dominated with military relations.

Women play an influential role in The Odyssey. Women appear throughout the story, as goddesses, wives, princesses, or servants. The nymph Calypso enslaves Odysseus for many years. Odysseus desires to reach home and his wife Penelope. It is the goddess Athena who sets the action of The Odyssey rolling; she also guides and orchestrates everything to Odysseus’ good. Women in The Odyssey are divided into two classes: seductresses and helpmeets. By doing so, Homer demonstrates that women have the power to either hinder of help men. Only one woman is able to successfully combine elements of both classes: Penelope. She serves as a role model of virtue and craftiness. All the other women are compared to and contrasted with Penelope.

In The Iliad by Homer women in the Ancient World period were seen as possessions and property of men and consequently they were inferior to men. The Iliad begins in the 10th year of the war and starts off with Achilles and Agamemnon fighting over their war prizes, Chryseis and Brieseis. Chryseis’s father, priest of Apollo, asked Menelaus for his daughter back or he would pray to Apollo to send a plague to the Greek camp. Menelaus finally gives Chryseis back because

Gender inequality has been a controversial topic for numerous religions and cultures throughout history. Women were commonly regarded as the subservient gender, an idea that was no different in Ancient Greece. Throughout Greek mythology, women were considered inferior and troublesome symbols, while men were known for courage, leadership, and strength. While there is no argument of the flagrant sexism that is illustrated in Greek mythology, it can also be claimed that women were given a situated position of freedom, necessity, and power as well. Many popular Greek plays and myths contain several complexes and well described female characters. These goddesses themselves, partook the role of victim, heroine, and villain as it illustrated the diversity of characters in which women were portrayed and seen in both Ancient Greek society and mythology, allowing us to question “Were the women of Ancient Greek mythology equally represented as free and superior?” The creation of the Greek mythological universe, the creation of multi-gendered goddesses or deities, and the free and superior personalities accredited to women in Ancient Greek mythology to answer the question that women were fairly represented as powerful in Ancient Greek mythology.

For this informative report I will attempt to point out the roles women and how they are viewed in ancient Greece. I will then show how these views are present in Homer’s "The Odyssey." How are women, goddess or mortal, conveyed in "The Odyssey?"

     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.

The literature composed during the era when the Odyssey was written was directed by men. Woman characters were valued but the only participated in affairs when they had the permission of men. The men, for the most part, directed the women's lives. The themes used in literature were on the subjects that men would be interested in; combat; warriors, and rulers. Domestic affairs, for the most part, were not noted. There is a immense contrast between the Odyssey and other epic poetry of the period. There are several women characters in the Odyssey. All of them add to plot in significant ways and they are also treated with admiration. The women of the poem change the lives of the gods and men, and how they link in significant ways to one

The next and less benevolent role is that of the seductress. Two stories about such women referred to in The Odyssey are those of the half-sisters Helen and Klytaimnestra. The entire Trojan War was caused by Helen's unfaithfulness to Menelaos; her affair caused many deaths and Odysseus would not have had to leave home if she had not run away with Paris. The other sister also caused pain and suffering by having an affair and then killing her husband, Agamemnon, with her lover on his homecoming day. The seductress is always looked upon as dangerous and harmful to mankind. The Seirenes symbolize this role; their song seduces and compels anyone listening to linger until death. Kirke tries to seduce Odysseus before she helps him, and the beautiful Kalypso entices him with sex and immortality and will not release him to go home. It is the hero's job to resist the temptation of the seductress or it will lead to his downfall.

Women are important to the plot and overall theme of the Odyssey. In fact, without many of the women there would not be a complex plot to this epic poem. In the narrative and in Greek society women played a variety of roles, as mothers, herons, and many other strong roles yet, they were treated as less significant, and were made to be loyal and submissive to men. The women were required to wait on and sulk for love, as Penelope did for 20 years. In Greek society, the women had very little authority but the little control that they did have was sort of a sexual power, which at times they could use to outwit the men. Obvious examples of this sexual power would be Circe and Calypso. Calypso and Circe however, are not the

Women today play an influential role in the world, as mothers, doctors, teachers, bosses, and more. Many years ago women were not seen for their intelligence or ability to do something a man could not, they were seen for their beauty and were expected to accomplish whatever the men said. Over time those things have drastically changed, but in The Odyssey the little amount women are recognized and how their role is extremely simple is very clear. Women in The Odyssey are seen as characters that are put to the side and only come up when they are needed to help the men or to show how much the women may miss the men and how much it impacts her life. They are not seen as heroes or the central point of the story, women are seen lower than the men