In the “Odyssey”, Homer portrays the women as temptress of men and are below them in the presented hierarchy of this tale. This is portrayed at the very beginning when Telmachus (Odysseus son) tells him mother Penelope “You should go back upstairs and take care of your work, Spinning and weaving, and have the maids do theirs. Speaking is for men, for all men, but for me especially, since I am the master of this house” (page 340). Homer has the women use their beauty and bodies to seduce the men in this tale. One example is when Odysseus’s men come to Circe’s house and are lured by a voice, she gives them food and drinks and a ‘potion of Pramnian wine”. Circe would use this to her advantage to turn these men into pigs “they looked like pigs, but their minds were intact.
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Another example of a temptress woman is Calypso, a woman whom Odysseus was portrayed as a prisoner for seven years and pleas with him to stay with her if she were to make him immortal. This would be until the all-powerful Zeus would send a messenger to have Calypso release him to go home “Go tell that ringleted nymph it is my will to let that patient man Odysseus go home” (page 385). This example shows the power a woman has with her seductiveness to hold a man for seven years and also displays where a woman falls in this portrayed hierarchy when Zeus (a male God) demands the return and she must comply. There are many other women Homer brings into the tale of “Odyssey”, but the most powerful and constant one is Penelope (Odysseus wife). Penelope plays two roles, both a temptress to her suitors and a faithful wife to her husband regardless of his many infidelities (two set of rules for men and women). Homer succeeded in portraying a woman’s worth, but only to the extent of pleasing a man’s physical
Another example of a temptress woman is Calypso, a woman whom Odysseus was portrayed as a prisoner for seven years and pleas with him to stay with her if she were to make him immortal. This would be until the all-powerful Zeus would send a messenger to have Calypso release him to go home “Go tell that ringleted nymph it is my will to let that patient man Odysseus go home” (page 385). This example shows the power a woman has with her seductiveness to hold a man for seven years and also displays where a woman falls in this portrayed hierarchy when Zeus (a male God) demands the return and she must comply. There are many other women Homer brings into the tale of “Odyssey”, but the most powerful and constant one is Penelope (Odysseus wife). Penelope plays two roles, both a temptress to her suitors and a faithful wife to her husband regardless of his many infidelities (two set of rules for men and women). Homer succeeded in portraying a woman’s worth, but only to the extent of pleasing a man’s physical