Essay On The Role Of Women In The Odyssey

Women have been an important source in literature, and especially in the poetic writings of Homer. Both the Iliad and the Odyssey have specific ties to the sexuality of women, and the important roles they played in their society. In the History Channel film on the Trojan War, it explains the beginning of the war with a wedding. When Thetis and Peleus got married, who were the parents of Achilles, they hard a large wedding and invited anyone of importance. Since every god, goddess and royal other than Eris, also known as Discordia, was invited, she decided to drop a golden apple at the wedding, while invisible, and wrote on it “to the fairest”. The film indicates that the three women; goddess Athena, queen Hera, and the goddess Aphrodite, asked Zeus to pick which should take it, but instead he gave that power to Paris, the son of the king of Troy (History Documentary Films). This very first part of the story shows how important women were by demonstrating their desire to be noticed and favored. Each woman wanted to be picked,

Paris made this choice from her ability to be desired for her sexuality, making her appear as a better selection. In return, she gave him a wife that was the most beautiful woman in the world, and her name was Helen of Sparta (222). One similarity in the story is that no matter if the woman was a goddess or a mortal, one of their most important attributes to the men was the way they appeared. Also, it shows how women were something to be traded between the men. Paris turned down Athena, who was the goddess of wisdom (222). That shows that a woman was not sought after for their intelligence like people look for in today’s world, but instead her visual appeal. The most problematic part of this thank you gift was that Helen was already married (222), (History Documentary