My argument in this paper is that the heroic values between Homer’s Odysseus and Vergil’s Aeneas reveals a shift from Greek tradition to morally equivocal Roman ideals. As it is in the narrator’s intention for the reader to choose between protagonists with two heads on the same coin, I will establish moral discrepancy by looking at the meaning between the poems’ Gods and role of women. Before concluding such a subjective opinion, it must be said that these are matters over which the Gods themselves condemn to be uninterpretable to us. A modern comparison to book of Job – “why do the righteous suffer?” Simply put: we mortals shouldn’t understand why Gods work the way in which they do, otherwise their intervention wouldn’t separate divinity and
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Though Odysseus is side-tracked by Calypso for 7 years on his return to Ithaca, the simile of crying begins when he misses his wife Penelope, suggesting that sure, the sex is great, but not as satisfactory as his marriage – between like-minded people. The simile continues when he laments that his great innovation, the Trojan horse, led to the death and capture of so many Trojan women. Thus, not only does Odysseus pity women, he also believes them to be of respectful and mutually valued beings. Despite Odysseus’s long and perilous journey away from Ithaca, Penelope remains chaste, constantly deceiving the infiltrating suitors and by devising a plan to choose a husband in which no one will win – to string and shoot a bow that only Odysseus can use. She characterizes love, faithfulness and guile arguably greater than Odysseus’s. After the contest of the bow, Penelope still refuses to acknowledge Odysseus as he is disguised as a beggar: “Wise Penelope then answered him: ‘My child, inside my chest my heart is quite amazed. I cannot speak or ask questions, or look directly at him. If indeed it’s true he is Odysseus and is home again, surely the two of us have more certain ways to know each other. We have signs only we two understand’ ( ). Penelope then asks Odysseus to move their bed into the house out so they can sleep on it. Odysseus tells her that it is not possible because their bed and house is built around a tree and cannot be moved. The trick question proved his identity to Penelope. Unlike Calypso, Nausicaa, and Circe—her brilliance to outwit Odysseus shows that she truly is the woman that "fits his spirit.” By accepting that his wife is more clever than he is, Homer’s Odysseus strengthens the role of women – indeed, Penelope is deserving of the epithet
Though Odysseus is side-tracked by Calypso for 7 years on his return to Ithaca, the simile of crying begins when he misses his wife Penelope, suggesting that sure, the sex is great, but not as satisfactory as his marriage – between like-minded people. The simile continues when he laments that his great innovation, the Trojan horse, led to the death and capture of so many Trojan women. Thus, not only does Odysseus pity women, he also believes them to be of respectful and mutually valued beings. Despite Odysseus’s long and perilous journey away from Ithaca, Penelope remains chaste, constantly deceiving the infiltrating suitors and by devising a plan to choose a husband in which no one will win – to string and shoot a bow that only Odysseus can use. She characterizes love, faithfulness and guile arguably greater than Odysseus’s. After the contest of the bow, Penelope still refuses to acknowledge Odysseus as he is disguised as a beggar: “Wise Penelope then answered him: ‘My child, inside my chest my heart is quite amazed. I cannot speak or ask questions, or look directly at him. If indeed it’s true he is Odysseus and is home again, surely the two of us have more certain ways to know each other. We have signs only we two understand’ ( ). Penelope then asks Odysseus to move their bed into the house out so they can sleep on it. Odysseus tells her that it is not possible because their bed and house is built around a tree and cannot be moved. The trick question proved his identity to Penelope. Unlike Calypso, Nausicaa, and Circe—her brilliance to outwit Odysseus shows that she truly is the woman that "fits his spirit.” By accepting that his wife is more clever than he is, Homer’s Odysseus strengthens the role of women – indeed, Penelope is deserving of the epithet