Odysseus gets the credit for his great feat of arms, but it is Penelope's idea. Homer is showing that though man is superior to woman, this one exceptional woman deserves to be highly valued.
Helen serves, like Klytaimnestra, as contrast to the virtuous Penelope. Although happy in her marriage to Menelaus, Helen, under Aphrodite's spell, lets Paris carry her to Troy, causing the Trojan war as Menelaus fights to get her back. Homer's picture of Helen is not of a sluttish adulteress, but of a beautiful loving wife. Helen offers Telemakhos a gift, when he visits after her restoration to Menelaus. Her words are the model of Greek womanhood, and traditional family values, yet the reader remembers the scandalous past of the most beautiful woman in the world:
I, too, bring you a gift, dear child, and here it is;
remember Helen's hands by this; keep it for your own bride, your joyful wedding day; let your dear mother guard it in her chamber.
My blessing; may you come soon to your island, home to your timbered hall (XV 155-161).
In Phaeacia, Odysseus meets the young princess Nausikaa, who is helpful, as woman should be, offering advice on how to best be received by the island's rulers, her parents. She embodies many pleasant female characteristics supporting traditional Greek family values. Homer says she is: "so fine in mould and feature that she seemed a goddess" (VI 19-20). Yet, she shows daughterly obedience, knows how important clean clothes are to her family's reputation, and she thinks of only what a good girl should, finding a suitable marriage. A sweet young thing, she knows how to blush, yet, she is strong and energetic: "Nausikaa took the reins and raised her whip, lashing the mules" (VI 88-89). Homer's image of Nausikaa and her attendants doing the laundry is charmingly wholesome:
Then sliding out the cart's tail board, they took
Armloads of clothing to the dusky water,
And trod them in the pits, making a race of it.
All being drubbed, all blemish rinsed away,
They spread them, piece by piece, along the beach
Whose pebbles had been laundered by the sea;
These are not pampered princesses, but athletic innocents. Here Homer contrasts innocent young Nausikaa with less civilized examples of females. Odysseus waking to this scene, is full of flattery:
Mistress: please: are you divine, or mortal?
If one of those who dwell in the wide heave,
You are most near to Artemis, I should say
Great Zeus's daughter -- in your grace and presence. (VI 161-164)
Nausikaa represents a temptation to Odysseus' sensuality. He is a man who appreciates women, but as hero this interest is a weakness. Nausikaa is interested in Odysseus, too, but she is saving her sensual nature for her lawful husband.
Many of the women Odysseus meets are symbols of temptation, traps that hinder the hero's progress. Kirke and Kalypso bewitch and enslave him, using their femininity to dominate and control. Female control over the male is the opposite of the ideal gender relationship in Greek society. Odysseus must escape from both Kalypso and Kirke in order to find himself and get home again. He does so only with the help of divine intervention. The Seirenes, Skylla, and Kharybdis are more females who pose deadly threats to Odysseus and his men. Kirke, Kalypso, Scylla, Kharybdis, and the Seirenes represent woman as femme fatale, destroying, consuming, enslaving mixtures of lust, love, pleasure and pain. The Seirenes lure men with their song of entrancing temptation. Kharybdis is the devouring female:
When she swallowed the sea water down
We saw the funnel of the maelstrom,...
My men all blanched against the gloom, our eyes
Were fixed upon that yawning mouth in fear
Of being devoured (XII 311-317).
Skylla, too, eats men alive. After seizing six
Islamic women are now restricted from most activities, and their rights have been steadily decreasing. Her social and political as well as economic rights are all being violated everyday by unscrupulous men who have corrupted the very religion to their own advantage, and today, especially in most Arab countries, woman has become 'Awarah', or the very subject of concealment, wherein her public presence is banned; where even her very
Women's Roles In New England During Colonial America Today, women still have not seen an acceptable level of equality compared to their male counterparts. Yet, the struggle for women's rights have improved conditions for modern women tremendously when compared to the roles that the sex was limited to play during the colonial period. In Colonial America, women were often limited to purely caretakers, dealing only with domestic and child raising matters.
The role of women in the camp followers group was therefore crucial for the armies, regardless of their affiliation. At the same time though, there were a lot of criticism brought to the group of "camp followers." One example in this sense was the reluctance to the idea of women in the camp followers group. More precisely, "many equated 'camp follower' with 'whore' or even if they were not quite
Either as mothers, sisters, wives, daughters, mistresses, lovers or supernatural creatures, women populate the world of the Odyssey and bring thus an important source of information when it comes to finding parallels between their representations in real life as drawn from the representations they get in the Homeric epic. Based on the same starting point as the Odyssey, another ancient author, the Roman Virgil wrote the epic Aeneid. He lived
There are no interventions for women who face abuse or assault. Also, since the beginning of the conflict, there has been a dearth of women's input and participation in public life (Security Council). In Somali, war and civil conflict have resulted in a shrinking of opportunities for women in public life. Women are further burdened with threats of violence and difficulties with meeting their household and care-giving duties. The inadequate
Women Colonists Pre- Women's Roles Women Colonists Pre-1776 This paper will provide a comparison and contrast of women colonists prior to 1776 and beyond, from the perspective of European settlers and Native American woman. It will analyze the effects of race, class and other effects on women's economic, social and family roles, and how these factors influenced diversity within the colonies. North American women's economic, social and family roles varied significantly in colonial times.
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now