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Margaret Atwood The Odyssey Analysis

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The Odyssey by Homer is an epic that delves into the adventures and travels of the hero Odysseus as he tries to return home to his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus in Ithaca after the Trojan War (Homer and Mitchell, 2013). This story focuses almost completely on Odysseus, but shows us small snippets of the life of Penelope. Although Penelope does show up in The Odyssey, she is not given a chance to tell her story, unlike her cousin Helen of Troy (Economou Green 2014). It is decades later, in 2006, that Penelope finally gets a chance to tell her story in the typical Greek Mythology fashion written by Margaret Atwood (Atwood 2006). The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood explores the classical greek vision of female representation compared to contemporary feminism by voicing the story of the women from The Odyssey by Homer. …show more content…

Furthermore, contemporary feminism, in the time of Margaret Atwood and The Penelopiad, is based on equality and freedom of choice (Howells 2003). Finally, with both Classical Greek female and contemporary female views in hand, Margaret Atwood fuses them to create an identity for Penelope that goes beyond ‘woman’, ‘mother’, and ‘wife’ (Howells 2003). Homer does show improvement in his representation of women in The Odyssey through some of his descriptions of Penelope, however, Margaret Atwood took his small sacrifices to female worth and turned them into a story that gives Penelope power, choice, and a voice she was never given before (Vandamme

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“The Odyssey,” written by Greek poet Homer is an epic tale depicting the brutally enduring quest home of the Greek hero, Odysseus. Within this heroic story, women play a very large and pivotal role in Odysseus’s trip home from the Trojan War. In his attempt to get back to his wife, Penelope, Odysseus’s progress is constantly hindered by the intervention of women who will do anything in order to either convince the heroic figure to stay with them or have him killed. The intentions of the women in the epic are all very different but one of the most prominent roles lies in the seductresses and the alluring women who will deeply influence Odysseus. Most importantly, Penelope plays a large role in portraying the importance of women’s roles in the story.

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Meanwhile, Penelope is in Ithaka busy dealing with the suitors who vie for her hand in marriage, tending to her loom, and directing her serving maids at work. In Homer’s epic poem, women, and goddesses are treated differently than men and gods when it comes to their freedom, expectations, and image. One common occurrence in this epic poem is unequal freedom for women,

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In the journal article “Rewriting The Odyssey in the Twenty-First Century”. The idea of Penelope taking control into her own hands, in a time when women did not stand up for themselves but rather were emotionally constricted is shown. Penelope’s demeanor is of a woman that does not let society rule what she can or cannot do, and because of this thinking she is able to have an advantage over other women and of men who are the ones in charge of any decision-making (Suzuki). Penelope is the second female character that is not a god that is able to maintain authority of her own in The Odyssey. This is ultimately Homer’s way of expressing his views towards the male societies of his time and their

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