Ancient Greece: Gender Roles In Heroism

Gender Roles in Heroism Heroism is a concept found throughout all cultures. Throughout each culture its defining characteristic remains the same, bravery. Other characteristics of heroism change depending on what time period or culture is being referenced. Although the modern concept of heroism incompasses traits both men and women can carry, in Ancient Greece the concept of heroism was divided by gender, changing the defining factors of a hero for each gender. While courageousness can be exhibited in many different ways, Ancient Greece emphasized bravery in battle. Men of great strength and strategy both on and off the battlefield were considered heroic. A great example of heroism in Ancient Greece is Odysseus from The Odyssey. Odysseus …show more content…
Sexuality is often shown as a weapon, and woman as the obstacles wielding that weapon. After drifting in the ocean for days Odysseus comes upon the island of Ogygia and the Nymph who lived there, Calypso. During his time on the island Calypso falls in love with him and offers him eternal life to be her husband, but wanting for home Odysseus declines the offer. Calypso refuses to accept this and keeps Odysseus hostage, where he eventually becomes her lover. In The Odyssey, Calypso is seen as a temptation and obstacle, painting the view that she is at fault for Odysseus’s delay. She states, “But if you only knew, down deep, what pains are fated to fill your cup before you reach that shore, you’d stay right here, preside in our house with me and be immortal” (Homer). After Calypso the reader’s soon reach the next monstrous woman in The Odyssey, Circe. In the book Odysseus’s men wander into Circe’s land and get turned into pigs. Odysseus comes to rescue them after taking an herb that would protect him from Circe’s powers. When she realizes that she has no other defense, she offers herself to him to survive saying, “Come, put that sword back in its sheath, and let the two of us go up into my bed. When we’ve made love,then we can trust each other” (Homer). Though Circe has to offer herself to Odysseus as a defense against death and Odysseus enjoys staying with her so much that he stays a year, she …show more content…
In Ancient Greece a heroic woman was loyal to her husband and family above all. Odysseus’s wife, Penelope was left at home with her son when Odysseus went off to war. In the opening of The Odyssey the book describes her house being plagued by suitors. Throughout the book Penelope comes up with clever ways to keep the suitors at bay while keeping her family and house safe. She even tells the suitors she cannot marry until she finished making a blanket, but she “would weave at her great loom, but in the night she would have torches set by, and undo it” (Homer). The combination of her loyalty to her husband and her intelligence make her a heroic woman in Ancient Greek