The Women of Homer’s Odyssey Essay -- Homer The Odyssey Essays

The Women of Homers Odyssey Homers Odyssey, by, is typically seen as a phallic dominated poem the hero is male and the majority of the characters be male. We follow the men on their render to retrogress to Ithaca. However, even though women atomic number 18 not the main characters, they ar ubiquitous through much of the story. Women play a very important government agency in the movement of the story line they all want to marry, supporter or hurt Odysseus. During the course of his journey, Odysseus undertakes three different women who want him to be their husband Circe, Calypso, Nausicca, and finally one woman who is his true wife Penelope. severally of these women has a profound effect on Odysseus journey home. Yet, even though these women are much more powerful than ordinary Greek women are they still carry some semblance of the good female in Greek society. Circe, though not the first female we meet in Odyssey, is the first woman Odysseus meets on his journey home fro m the Trojan War. She is no ordinary woman She is not kept separate from men away of her oikos as proper women are supposed to be (Pomeroy 21). Good Greek women are to be chaperoned by a male member of their oikos whenever they are in the presence of strange men. The visitor to the Greek house would meet only the male members of the family when strangers were in the house t... ...r husband and they all attempt to accomplish this in different ways. It is interesting to see that even though there are numerous men in the story the women come along to weld power over Odysseus journey holding him hostage or letting him go according to the various women. The event that all the women are depicted as slightly evil (save Penelope, of course) seems to give evidence to the fact that Greek men are wary of the power of unconfined, unchaperoned women. Works Cited Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. young York 1996 Kebric, R.B. Greek People. 2nd ed. London 1997. Pomeroy, S.B. Familie s in Classical and Hellenistic Greece. forward-looking York 1997.