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How Women Are Presented In Homer's Odyssey

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How Women Are Presented In the Odyssey How are women presented in The Odyssey, an epic by Homer? The women in the Odyssey are underrepresented as there are only two main female characters. But, from what I can gather they are seen as less than men. Even though they are seen as lesser they have truly mastered the sense of Metis as both Athena and Penelope are extremely clever. Athena, is revered and respected by all of Greece. The Bright Eyed Goddess (many pages), is looked up to and her word trumps any order a man can give. In Greece she had much more power than any man but, in the Odyssey Athena is a main character bet she rarely has anything to do with any of the accomplishments that Telemachus and Odysseus had in the epic. One example of this is in Book 3, when Temalacus and Athena (disguised as Mentor) arive in Phylos Temalacus feels embarrassed about his youth and feels that he should not talk to the king. Rather than Athena talking to the king herself, she guides Telemachus into talking to the king himself. She could possibly acting as …show more content…

But, they don't feel that it is worth all of the effort to figure out which servant was faithful and who wasn't so they just decide to kill all of the female servants. This proves that women are lesser because the “heroes” were willing to kill them all and not bat an eye but would not kill the faithful men. The role of women in the Odyssey is a bit aberrant. The women are seen as lessers but they also are shown to be very cunning and can devise a plan and follow it through to success without deviation. In other words Homer wanted to show women as being smart but most likely showed them as lesser than men because that was how ancient Greece

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