Essay, Research Paper
Homer wrote the authoritative heroic poem The Odyssey more than 2,500 old ages ago. At that clip in ancient Grecian society, every bit good as in the whole of the ancient universe, the dominant function was played by work forces. Society was organized, directed, and controlled by work forces, and it was accepted that adult females occupied a subservient and inferior place. Women, of class, were valued, but were expected to possess certain traits and execute certain undertakings that work forces demanded of them. Does Homer s composing in The Odyssey support or rebut the common belief of his clip sing adult females? Homer endorsed the ruling belief of his clip refering adult females by handling the female characters unevenly and otherwise compared to the male characters in The Odyssey.
By analyzing the adult females of The Odyssey one comes to one decision about adult females in Homer s heroic poem. Homer s male characters in The Odyssey systematically treated adult females otherwise and unevenly throughout The Odyssey. Concurrent with the clip s belief that adult females held a subservient place in society to work forces, the male characters in The Odyssey frequently expected certain traits and actions that they didn t expect from work forces. Besides all the societies and lands Odysseus visited that were inhabited by persons were dominated by work forces.
In The Odyssey adult females are unequal, treated otherwise, and are considered inferior to work forces. Throughout the heroic adult females are non given an appropriate sum of regard by work forces. The male characters of The Odyssey expect certain traits and features of adult females that they do non anticipate of themselves. Men expect that the adult females in The Odyssey be loyal to them, and non be extramarital or seductive. When Odysseus returns to Ithaca in camouflage, he expects Penelope to be faithful and loyal to him. It is dubious that Odysseus would hold stayed with Penelope if he had found her to be unfaithful and extramarital when he was gone. This was while Odysseus had slept with Circe and stayed with her on her island for one twelvemonth and so kip with Calypso legion times on the island of Ogygia. What makes this even worse is that Penelope would hold had justification to be unfaithful to Odysseus and remarry. Equally far as Penelope, and about everyone else on Ithaca, was concerned Odysseus was dead. Penelope had a strong demand for a hubby, a comrade, a strong adult male to govern Ithaca in Odysseus topographic point, and a male presence to assist raise Telemachus. Despite the fact that Penelope would hold been justified in taking another hubby, it is questionable whether Odysseus would hold been able to forgive her if she had remarried. However, Odysseus, after meeting his female parent, Anticleia, in Hades and detecting that Penelope was still alive and faithful to him, he still slept with Calypso! When he so returned to Ithaca and was reunited with Penelope, he told her of his brushs with Circe and Calypso without vacillation or shame!
Another illustration of how the regulations and outlooks for adult females did non use to work forces in The Odyssey is when Eumaeus, the loyal swine herder of Odysseus, recounts how he came to Ithaca as a prisoner of a slave adult female, Phoinikia. This adult female was seduced by a roaming mariner who, made such love to her as adult females in their infirmity are confused by, even the best of them. The God Artemis subsequently kills Phoinikia for her perfidy.
Odysseus is making nil incorrect when, despite cognizing his married woman was alive and faithful, commits adultery with two other adult females. However, it would most probably be inexcusable to Odysseus if Penelope had been unfaithful and remarried non cognizing whether her hubby was still alive, and urgently needin
g a hubby. Male seducers are represented by male childs seeding their oats ; a normal portion of male life. Seduced females are viewed, nevertheless, as weak, frail, and unreliable. These illustrations speaks volumes about Homer s position sing the inequalities between work forces and adult females in his heroic poem.
Many times throughout The Odyssey work forces speak patronizingly to adult females. Several illustrations can be cited that show the suers talking angrily about Penelope. The suers foremost accuse Penelope of taking them on. Then on pg. 449 Amphimedon explains to Agamemnon in Hades the hocus-pocus and fraudulence of Penelope:
Here is one of her fast ones: she placed her loom, her large loom, out for weaving
in the hall and she said to us: Young work forces, my suers, how my is dead, allow
me complete my weaving before I marry So every twenty-four hours she wove on the great
loom, but every dark by torchlight she unwove it, and so for three twelvemonth s she deceived the Akhaians.
Despite the fact that Penelope s place was being invaded by these suers, they were stealing her nutrient and vino, and destructing her life, the suers had the audaciousness to claim that Penelope was the one to lead on and flim-flam them. In fact it was the suers who were making incorrect to Penelope. However, because Penelope is a adult females the suers felt they had the right to make as they please. At some points even Penelope s faithful and loyal boy Telemachus negotiations down to his female parent. On pg. 379 Telemachus criticizes Penelope about her sometimes hapless opinion, my female parent is like that, perverse for all her inventiveness ; she d entertain some riff-raff, and turn out a solid adult male. These illustrations demonstrate how it is accepted that work forces normally speak disrespectfully to adult females and nil will be done. However, if a adult female speaks insolently to a adult male, there are terrible reverberations. On pg. 347 when the housemaid Melantho speaks impertinently to Odysseus when he is still incognito as a mendicant, he scolds her fiercely and threatens force on her, allow me state Telemachus how you talk in hall, you slut ; he ll cut your weaponries and legs off.
The last facet of The Odyssey that genuinely defines the subsidiary position of the adult females in Homer s heroic poem is the fact that one of the chief intents of all the female characters in The Odyssey, excepting Athene, is to function and delight the opposite sex. Penelope exists to function Odysseus as a loyal married woman, lover, comrade, and female parent to Telemachus. All of Odysseus housemaids exist to first function Odysseus, so subsequently to function Telemachus and the suers. Circe and Calypso exist in the heroic poem to fulfill Odysseus by pleasuring him sexually, featherbeding him, and handling him like a God. Helen and Arete serve their hubbies as loyal married womans.
About nowhere in The Odyssey can one happen a adult female making the same things as a adult male. No adult females went off to contend in the Trojan War. There were no female members of Odysseus or Telemachus crew, nor do any adult females participate in the conflict against the suers. The character traits that make a adult male great ; strength, bravery, and leading are missing in female characters of The Odyssey. Throughout The Odyssey adult females were given a double-standard. They were expected to move a certain manner and exhibit certain traits while work forces had no such restrictions. If adult females did non populate up to these criterions of behaviour, they would be punished. If work forces broke these same regulations nil would be done. During the clip Homer wrote The Odyssey it was the dominant belief that a society should be dominated by work forces and that adult females should be subservient to them. This belief is reflected throughout the authorship of Homer in The Odyssey.
