ipl-logo

The Female Servants In Homer's The Odyssey

1059 Words5 Pages

When I was a child, I would play Super Smash Bros with my male cousins. When playing, I noticed the lack of satisfactory female characters and how male-orientated the game was. Besides the character, Samus, who wasn’t unlocked at that moment, the majority of the few female characters had soft attacks, poor defense, and mediocre special moves that didn’t inflict any damage. I felt discouraged as it depicted women’s role as being inferior to men as the game didn’t effectively represent women’s capability and strength. Similar to in The Odyssey traditionally ascribed to Homer, which conveys the story of a king returning home from war. Women contribute to his journey of returning home and reclaiming his throne, as their roles vary from servants …show more content…

For instance, when Odysseus returns to his throne, he seeks revenge upon the servants who committed treason. They are the only group of individuals whose ill-mannered behavior provokes Odysseus’s son, Telemachus, to disobey Odysseus and inflict a crueler punishment from which Odysseus has ordered. His disdain for the women is prominent as he states, “I shall not let these women die a clean death, for they were insolent to me and my mother, and used to sleep with the suitors” (Homer 22,7). Telemachus characterizes the women who misconducted as unfaithful and disloyal and awaits them to a more grotesque punishment. This distrust reoccurs with other servants, even those with immense family value. When Odysseus’s identity is unveiled to the elderly nurse, Eurycleia, Eurycleia exhibits gestures that hint an attempt to tell Penelope. At this moment, Odysseus “caught Eurycleia by the throat with his right hand and with his left drew her close to him” (Homer 19,7). Despite Eurycleia nursing Odysseus since his birth and her old age, Odysseus exhibits distrust towards Eurycleia as he uses an excessive amount of force to prevent her from revealing his identity. This conveys that the female servants in The Odyssey are portrayed in a primarily negative

Show More
Related

Gender Roles In Homer's Odyssey

491 Words | 2 Pages

The respectable male characters such as Odysseus treat women well, but mostly for their appearance and marriage potential. Near the beginning, after washing up on the island of the Pheaecians, he meets a girl and says, “Mistress: please: are you divine, or mortal? If one of those who dwell in the wide heaven, you are the most near to Artemis, I should say,” (8). To

Read More

Roles Of Women In Homer's The Odyssey

210 Words | 1 Pages

The epic poem The Odyssey was written and narrated by Homer. Odysseus exploits on a 20 year voyage to Troy, where he is away from his wife Penelope and son Telemachus for all that time. In these 20 years, Penelope adapts to being without Odysseus, and advances to being the head of the house in Odysseus’ absence. In The Odyssey, women are portrayed as weak and unintelligent, they are only there for the man’s pleasure. After examining the three female characters in The Odyssey, Penelope demonstrates characteristics through her actions, words, and thoughts that she holds the most power.

Read More

The Portrayal Of Women In The Odyssey

1401 Words | 6 Pages

Women are weak, helpless, and have no real purpose other than to serve men and take care of children. . . or so they were perceived in history. In the Odyssey, one can see that Homer’s portrayal of women challenges the depiction of women during that time period. Throughout the book, many women intervened in Odysseus’ journey home to Ithaca, for better or for worse. One will see Penelope, Athena, Circe, and other women impact Odysseus’ expedition home.

Read More

Treatment Of Women In The Odyssey

704 Words | 3 Pages

In a patriarchal society, women lie at the bottom of the social hierarchy. A patriarchy judges women for their beauty and innocence rather than merit and intelligence. Throughout the twenty-four books of The Odyssey as well as Game of Thrones, a modern day rendition of medieval society written by George. R. R. Martin, women struggle for power in society. Most of the women in these two plots are mothers and seductresses.

Read More

The Role Of Women In Homer's Odyssey

203 Words | 1 Pages

Homers “Odyssey” , bears the Chauvinistic traditions that often conform women to foster the strict definition of their roles in a period of social change. No woman is given the opportunity to confront the task of defining the foundation they set forth as an individual, because they are entitled to succumb to the masses driven portrayals. As Odysseus defines the Hardships of deviating from the enchanting voices, he establishes a malicious tone, portraying the sirens as a cynical force, who’s violent delights, are bound to accompany violent ends, and in their triumphs death, as the sirens sultry song hypnotizes the vulnerable mortals.

Read More

Maids In The Penelopiad

589 Words | 3 Pages

In one of the first asides, a rope-jumping rhyme, the maids stick it to Odysseus, “we did much less than what you did you judged us bad (page 5).” This sets up the maids through The Penelopiad to express their understandable hate for Odysseus. Later, the Maids lament that they were essentially slaves and had no choice, “If our owners or the sons of our owners or a visiting nobleman or the son of a visiting nobleman wanted to sleep with us, we could not refuse… All this happened to us when we were children (page 14)” The Maids continue to describe their terrible lives in which they had no choice. Odysseus did not think about the role of his servants when he passed judgment.

Read More

Loyalty In Homer's Epic Poem, The Odyssey

1889 Words | 8 Pages

In the time period where The Odyssey takes place, women are expected to be loyal and are punished severely if they are not. For men, however, the rules are a lot more lenient. When Odysseus arrives home and hears about what has been happening in his hall while he was away, he becomes furious. All of the suitors are killed swiftly with arrows or spears, but each maid sleeping with them is forced to “thrust her head into a noose and swung” because she is a “slut” and does not deserve “the clean death of a beast” (423). The suitors went after his wife and lived in his house for seven years, but they get a less severe punishment then the disloyal maids.

Read More

Role Of Women In Homer's Odyssey

598 Words | 3 Pages

The role of women in Odysseus' voyage is very important. It's by virtue of women that this whole story even led the way it did. It was because of beautiful Helen that the Trojan war began, and because of Odysseus' love for Penelope that Odysseus needed to come back to Ithaca, and the famous Athena was an immortal goddess that made his voyage home possible. These three women shape the story of Odysseus. The women in this story are aimed to the point, and are have very meaningful roles in Odysseus' life.

Read More

The Odyssey Essay: The Role Of Women In Homer's Odyssey

1255 Words | 6 Pages

In spite of the fact that Homer’s Odyssey is an epic story of a man’s gallant journey, women play a huge part throughout. Their unique yet controversial personalities, intentions, and relationships are vital to the development of this epic and adventurous journey of Odysseus. The poem by Homer was written at a time when women had an inferior position in society, yet that didn’t stop them from being any less influential. All of the women throughout the Odyssey possess different qualities, but all of them help to define the role of the ideal woman.

Read More

The Role Of Women In Homer's The Odyssey

954 Words | 4 Pages

In the epic poem, The Odyssey, by Homer, there are many female characters who play the role of a villain. Calypso, Scylla, Charybdis, and the sirens are among the women with the largest, negative impacts on Odysseus’ journey home. Though some women, such as Athena, Eurycleia, and Penelope, are loyal to Odysseus throughout the poem. With such a wide range of female characters, they all contribute different things throughout the book, whether the impact of their actions is negative or positive. Regardless of the outcomes, Homer has quite a modern view of female representation in his poem.

Read More

Greek Women In The Odyssey

98 Words | 1 Pages

In “The Odyssey,” Homer provides a rather large cast of female characters, especially by comparison to the rest of Greek culture. In Homer’s depiction of women, most are characterized positively. The reason I say this is because even the “evil” goddess characters are characterized beautifully. Circe, Calypso, they are all characterized as beautiful characters, rivaled only by the Goddess of Love and Affection, Aphrodite. By comparison to the rest of Greek society, however, Homer was praising women beyond standards.

Read More

Treatment Of Women In The Odyssey

678 Words | 3 Pages

Women of The Epics Throughout the Iliad and The Odyssey there are four themes that has been discussed; coming of age, hospitality, fate, and women. Each theme is touched upon in different scenarios, but all can be pointed out fairly easily. However, women is a subject that is prevalent in both epics and they are not treated like real people, but merely as an object.

Read More

Equality Of Women In The Odyssey

1897 Words | 8 Pages

Another instance of male brashness is witness in the relationship between Telemachus and Penelope. Once matured, her son speaks harshly toward his mother declaring that “I cannot fault your anger at all this. My heart takes not of everything, feels it too, both the good that the bad—the boy you knew is gone” (XVIII.255-258). The most painful of these words arrives at the end when her son proclaims that the child she raised is not the same anymore. This marks his transition from boyhood to manhood: a transition in which the male perception of female inferiority grows stronger.

Read More

The Portrayal Of Women In Homer's The Odyssey

333 Words | 2 Pages

"The Odyssey" is a poem, written by Homer, which narrates the main character, Odysseus, who goes off into the Trojan war and tries to go back home to Ithaca after the war. However, he is frequently being disturbed from angry creatures or gods, some ion which are women. On the journey home , Odysseus encounters many women who changes the course home or himself. Some women he encounters are Athena and Circe. These women are powerful and in some way helpful.

Read More

Greek Women In The Odyssey Essay

621 Words | 3 Pages

Along with the belief that women played a secondary role to men in Greek society, the female characters displayed certain traits that could not be shown by the men. In addition, the male characters play the most significant roles in this poem, but without the support of the females in "The Odyssey", Odysseus would not have made it through his journey. The author depicts women as strong subjects, they are real substantive characters. Most women in this poem are treated with the respect and seriousness they deserve. Despite traditions of ancient society, the author characterizes the women as the real counterparts of men, they have real feelings, real plans and are able to accomplish men on their own.

Read More

More about The Female Servants In Homer's The Odyssey

Related Topics

Open Document