Oppression Of Women In Homer's Odyssey

In the The Odyssey, however, Homer told a story containing a lot more respect towards female characters. Examples are the heroines Penelope and Athena. The Odyssey is a rare ancient Greek literature to include such female characters with strong characteristics. This leads readers to believe Homer greatly respected women and therefore the regard towards women reflected in his stories. Homer told The Odyssey with strong heroines to allow his audience to perceive women as stronger individuals, attempting to change Greece's patriarchal society.

In the epic poem The Odyssey the author Homer was put in the unique position of portraying women in a light they had not been seen in before. Women in The Odyssey function as both obstacles and guides, and are contrastingly portrayed as both powerful and subservient. Women in The Odyssey, are contrastingly portrayed as both almighty gods, and powerless mortals. The goddesses play very controlling, and demanding roles in the epic. The role of the goddesses is to be a supernatural force, that use their power to help mortals.

Athena assists Odysseus not simply for her enjoyment, but also to help the hero Odysseus destroy the villainous suitors, which completes fate. Since Athena is a goddess, who holds much power, the poem seems to validate her deception. The text suggests it is not uncommon for gods to disguise themselves while visiting the mortal world or assist humans in their own acts of deception, and therefore deception and trickery are not presented as erroneous in the

The women were so important because they took a stand, and stood with it. The women were more independent than ever. Women were able to attend college, to gain more knowledge. Women gaining more education was the biggest fear, they feared that if women gained more education that they would take over and basically rule the world. The men enjoyed having power of women before the Renaissance, but they enjoyed women being “dumber” even more.

Having the right to vote gave the new age women the right to stand to up for their bodies. Many of these women were becoming more sexual not only in the way they dressed, but with their bodies as

While ancient civilizations had commonly put their women in the lower level of the society, the Etruscans treated their women differently. Etruscan women are known to be taken seriously and enjoyed a great deal of freedom and equality with that of men. For instance, while most Roman societies considered symposiums, such as those that included festive drinking, sex and the involvement in the sharing of thoughts to be an all-man’s affair, it was not so among the Etruscans. Women in the Etruscan society are allowed to attend banquets, and share a toast with men, signifying how they are equally treated in the society. While historians have difficulty interpreting the literary works of the Etruscans, they shifted their focus on other archaeological

“Too polite to object,” Gatsby is inclusive to these people who are lower than him and Daisy is disgusted that, revealing that she, like Tom, also believes in the strict maintenance of social barriers. Daisy wants to remain isolated from the other social classes because she wants to retain her power and stability and wealth. For Daisy, it is okay to like the party on paper because it supports the idealistic view of Gatsby, but when she is confronted by the real life party and her superior status hinges on the decisions she makes, she gets caught up in her own self-interest. In the end, Daisy disgust of the party shows that she too has adopted Tom’s beliefs of exclusion and

does feel the need to keep up her self –respect, while satisfying her own needs. Again, her lies established the fact that how stressed she is by the opinions of her husband. The patriarchal setup of the play and gender roles are being broken as she is destroying the strict rules and by deciding to go out of family. She says that Torvald stops her from eating macaroons as they will destroy her teeth as well as her beauty, she still eats the macaroons. The limitations didn’t stop her from satisfying her own pleasures and she refused to obey through harmless actions showing that she strongly desires independence, but is too afraid to raise her own voice.

Women were represented as worthless human beings to stratify a man sexual pleasure. Therefore women only contribute to heroes by either using their bodies as an object, giving guidances and a word of advice. But also women do have thematic significance in expressing the truth about the nature of a woman and of male-female relations. As for instance in Shamhat case, the temple prostitute.

The odyssey, an epic story, written by Homer portrays women in several different ways and therefore women play an important role. Set in a period close to the Trojan War, Men were recognized as of higher status then women, and were seen as the stronger gender. Stereotypically, a woman was judged by the wealth and position of her husband or father. A woman would be required to be married at a youthful age and have children. Typically, women were not educated.

In The Odyssey, Odysseus proves to be a weak leader by being overconfident in Book 9, forgetful in Book 10, dishonest in Book 12, and having a short temper in Books 21-23. Odysseus has been gone from home for twenty years. Ten years in the Trojan War, and ten years trying to get back home. Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, has waited for her husband to return home, and has gotten to the point where she believed that her husband was dead. However, he was not dead.

In the Odyssey, Calypso, a Greek goddess, says “You unrivaled lords of jealousy- scandalized when goddesses sleep with mortals,” (Book 5, 131-132). This quote can be seen as an accurate representation of the constant power struggle between gods and goddesses in the Odyssey; Calypso points out the male gods’ hypocrisy and argues for her right to sleep with mortal men. The concept of this power struggle can be seen in three of the main goddesses: Calypso, Athena, and Circe as the story progresses. Throughout the Odyssey these goddesses gain their power by deceiving men and manipulating them, but are then limited in power by the authority of other men.

Odysseus,what comes to mind when you hear that name? I think courage, and bravery. Odysseus states in the book ,“A man who has been through bitter experiences and travelled far enjoys even his sufferings after a time” .This quotes fits really well with him because he went through alot and even when he was in those hard times they are good memerios now. Odyessus has many hardships and struggles on different islands throughout this story like ,The Island of cyclops,Circe´s Island,and The land of the sirens. ¨You´re a ninny ,or else you come from the other end of nowhere telling me,mind the gods!We cyclops care not a whislte for your thundering Zues or all the gods in bliss; we have more force by far¨….(page

Throughout the story “The Odyssey” by Homer Odysseus, the main character counters countless amounts of trouble. As king and leader it is his job to keep his men save and get the job done. Odysseus does whatever it takes to keep his men unharmed, and more importantly, alive. All his crew and him dream about is getting back to their homeland, but first they have to pass the obstacles. Odysseus demonstrates good leadership qualities by doing whatever it takes to get the job done, using his advanced cunning abilities to trick his enemy, and constantly saving his crew from dangers.

Odysseus often acts intelligently to fulfill intentions of self-provided survival. Using his gift of persuasion, he manipulates others to get help when he is in difficult situations. One such instance occurs when he arrives at Crete, an unfamiliar island where he knows nothing of the people and their customs, and needs to get home. Upon being washed up into the store, he comes across the princess Nausicaa, and immediately concocts a strategy to persuade her to give him help. In his speech to nausicaa he uses many clever tactics to get her to help him (79-80).