Women's Role In The Odyssey Essay

There are many huge roles to be displayed in society all throughout The Odyssey. The Odyssey was written by Homer and located in Ancient Greece. Women like Athena and Penelope play huge roles that initially help Odysseus throughout his struggles. The role of women in The Odyssey is to show how women could be obstacles, be great helpers, and show how they do it by being cunning. Penelope shows in different ways how she is cunning and loyal throughout the book. Penelope is cunning because she stops the suitors from marrying her for a long time. In book one and two her plan was to make a burial shroud for Odysseus, because he was assumed dead, but every night she would unwind the burial shroud so it would never finish. “So by day she’d weave

One example of this would be in Book 5 when Calypso holds Odysseus captive for 7 years. “Who is still alive, held captive off in the endless seas? Unless he’s dead by now. I want to know the truth though it grieves me all the more.’ ‘Odysseus’”(Fagles 142). If it was not for Calypso holding Odysseus captive for such an extended period of time Odysseus would have been home way before he actually got home. This was a huge obstacle in his return home and most definitely why it took him so long to get home. Circe was another character who had made Odysseus deal with a large obstacle. Odysseus and his crew all go to feast with Circe which ended up being a costly mistake that turned his crew into pigs. “But into the brew she stirred her wicked drugs to wipe from their memories any thought of home. Once they’d drained the bowls she filled, suddenly she struck with her wand, drove them into her pigsties”(Fagles 237). Circe tricked Odysseus’ crew into drinking the stew that turned them into pigs. This ended up affecting Odysseus as his men were turned into pigs, but she did so because the crew acted like pigs. After the fact she does play a helpful role in Odysseus’ return by providing him with everything he