Gender Roles In Homer's The Odyssey

Women’s roles in society of the modern era have the potential to greatly vary due to factors such as political beliefs, religious assertions, filial status, and much more; this was rarely the case in times of yore. In Robert Fitzgerald’s translation of Homer’s The Odyssey, a hero, Odysseus, journeys for twenty years. His crime was showing disrespect to the gods of Olympus, and his travels were the punishment for his insolence. After he has paid repentance for his wrongdoing, Odysseus is finally able to return to his home of Ithaca to see his wife, Penelope, and Telemachus, his son, once more. Within the lines and stanzas of this epic, we also see the roles women represent in Ancient Greece. Females can most often be seen to assume various positions, but specifically within The Odyssey, these forms are taken by the adulteress, the housewife, and the divine goddess. With that in mind, in many a Grecian tale, it is said that women could be categorized as virgin or philanderer, to put it

While reading the epic, the roles of women seen are the adulteress, who lures characters away from good; the wife, who keeps things in order and represents proper behavior; and the goddess, who supports the plotline and characters. Though the roles of women are not significantly noted by the author within the epic tale, it is important to identify the roles of females in such ancient times. As they were not valued as individuals, but rather as prizes, women lacked recognition. This is a continuity into the modern era, which can begin to be rectified by the identification of female power in places one would not normally look, such as a tale where the protagonist is male. Perhaps women are dishonored in literature, but that doesn’t mean the female race must be dishonored in the