One of the strongest depictions of the patriarchal society that The Odyssey exists in is in Homer’s treatment of Odysseus’s wife, Penelope. In Book 1, Telemachus relates to a disguised Athena how his house has been overtaken by the princes of the area as they attempt to court his mother. He laments that “she neither rejects a marriage she despises nor can she bear to bring the courting to an end …show more content…
We see several examples of women unable to remain loyal once a man decides to seduce her or a god influence her, often leading to the destruction of other men. Odysseus would never have been away from home in the first place Helen hadn’t been bewitched by a god to run away to with the prince of Troy, (23.246-49). We are told that even though Clytemnestra, wife of Agememnon, wants to remain faithful, Aegisthus strips her of her protector and she is powerless against his charms (3.303-10) which leads to Agememnon’s death. Even the lowly swineherd, Eumaeus, was once a beloved prince only brought low because of the treachery of a woman seduced “by a long deep embrace that can break a women’s will, even the best alive (15.472-73).” In the world of the Odyssey, a woman can’t have a will of her own that isn’t influenced or overpowered in one way or