Women are almost always overlooked in all societies. Despite that, the women form an important part of the epic, The Odyssey by Homer, it mostly tells about the adventures of a god-like hero named Odysseus during his 20 year trip home after the Trojan War. They touch upon many other characters throughout as well, but I feel the most important characters were the woman. They were the key factors in the book, the three main types of women: the good hostess or wife, the seductress, and the goddess. All of which were especially involved with molding the cunning and unfaithful Odysseus. All of the women in this epic are different in so many ways, but they all help to mold and define the role of the ideal woman.
The Odyssey was written at a time when women were handed a backseat role to the standard of men, they were domesticated and considered only good for childbirth. The epic in itself was somewhat like a handbook of life, a bible, for the Ancient greeks. It gave an opportunity to understand what is right and wrong in life, for every aspect
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She drugs Odysseus and his men, and turns them to swine, he is later seduced by her as well. He ends up in her “bed of love.” She then woes him with all types of pampering, including food, wine and sex. This shows in itself the versatility and flexibility of a woman, unpleasant if circumstances align but also turning into a gentle sympathetic when need be. Circe then tells Odysseus, “Son of Laertes and seed of Zeus, resourceful Odysseus, you shall no longer stay in my house when none of you wish to; but first there is another journey you must accomplish and reach the house of Hades and of revered Persephone, there to consult with the soul of Teiresias the Theban, the blind prophet, whose senses stay unshaken within him, to whom alone Persephone has granted intelligence even after death, but the rest of them are flittering shadows.”(Fitzgerald,