Penelope's Role In The Odyssey

Throughout the Odyssey Odysseus’ plays the “godlike” hero which set the standards for values and traits of the Homeric Greek man. Using his cunning intellect and valiant heroism to finds his way home after many trials and tribulations. During his travel home Odysseus gains knowledge about other peoples culture and about different lands throughout Greece. He learns from his own suffering and the mistakes he had made. Odysseus started his journey as the King of Ithaca and the warrior of all warriors known by the gods as a great hero. Odysseus was the commander of the Greek army and a cunning leader with the plan to win the Trojan war, which he accomplished with the Trojan horse. Odysseus had a seriously downfall however, because of his godlike …show more content…
Women are always supporting their husbands and sons in personal and military quest. Penelope is the prime example of the type of women who supports her family. She is faced with the moral dilemma of whether she should guard her husbands house, guard it, and wait for Odysseus's return, or move on and marry one of the suitors. When her husband, Odysseus goes to war and doesn't return to several years she still doesn't want to betray him and move on with the hopes he is still alive. She has weaved this plan to help keep Odysseus's home of Ithaca under his power but holding off the will of suitors. Odyssey never seems to doubt Penelopes loyalty to him throughout the entire story and he just wants to return home to her. Her first attempts in holding off the suitors with the weaving for Odysseus's father, Laertes.Then, her game of whomever can string and shoot Odysseus's bow. Homer describes Penelope equal to if not superior to Odysseus's cunning intelligence. Penelope is merely leading on the sutors as a way to stall them in the hopes for Odysseus to return home before she will truly have to marry one of these suitors..Not all women in the Odyssey are moral agents either. In book XI compares Agamemnon's wife, Clytemnestra to Penelope. Clytemnestra was not faithful to Agamemnon and cheated with his brother, betrayed him, and murdered him in his own home after he returned from the war. Agamemnon told …show more content…
Women have their certain place in society and are required to do such things. Penelope’s loom is an important symbol of the type of work women are supposed to do. Weaving is almost like a symbol of women’s work in the Odyssey and its natural that they all do this task. Men however have this task of fighting in war and defending the home and in this story Penelope challenged that by defending her home from the suitors until Odysseus returns home. Women’s jobs were to keep the house clean, do the laundry, and cook. Nausicaa doing the laundry of her house in preparation for a possible husband is an example of women’s work. A big ideal in the Odyssey is hospitality. there seems to be even a division in the roles of slaves when helping great a guest in the home. Now preparation of the food was done by the female servants and slaves, but the male servants are the ones who present the food to the guest. This gives the sense that women, even slaves, are inferior to male slaves as well. Despite the one example of Arete, wife of Alcinous, having great power and influence most of the women are inferior to men. Penelope for example is even superior to her son, Telemachus, in the first books he shows his inferior status by telling his mother “You should go back upstairs and take care of your work” He goes on in these books to discuss with her suitors his plans for his mother without her consent or testimony. Later in Book