Women in "The Odyssey"

Paper Summary:

An analysis of the role of women in Homer's "The Odyssey" demonstrating that although women, both human and divine are important, none are quite as important as the hero of this tale. Homer like the rest of his culture, sees women as either helpers or hindrances, always as subservient to their male counterparts.

From the Paper:

"Although The Odyssey centers around the travels of a vivid male hero, it is often women who provide the structure and substance of his adventures. Odysseus is trying to get home to a woman he cares about, after the Trojan War, which was fought over a woman. It is Pallas Athena, a female goddess, who literally guides and forms the action. Odysseus is already a hero as his journey begins, but his voyage defines his heroism in larger terms. It is as if he is on a vision quest in search of self knowledge. A casual glance might lead one to decide that Homer's attitude toward women was not consistent, but consistency isn't really the question. Homer is presenting the world of women as he knows it, displaying many sorts of human women and goddesses. It is as if Homer is offering a complete picture of all the varieties of women he has seen in his world, using The Odyssey as a portrait of his society's ideas of gender roles, and attitudes toward women. All the women, human and divine, who interact with Odysseus, are important, but none are quite as important as the hero. Homer echoes his culture's conception of women as being either helpers of men, or hindrances to them, sometimes immense helps and often evil traps, but always essentially insubstantial in their own right."

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