Role of Penelope in The Odyssey Essay

control and had more rights. In the tragedies Odyssey and Medea, Penelope and Medea were not allowed to have any freedoms outside of their respective households. These individuals had no choice but to live with what they had and how they were treated. Women were not portrayed as active individuals in society, but considered to be property intended to be married off to willing husbands; Penelope and Medea were faithful to their husbands, but where Penelope was the model for a domesticated wife,…

Patriarchy…patriarchy is the system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it. Patriarchy plays a huge role within the book The Odyssey by Homer, which includes several examples based on the interactions and relationships between men and women in the story. During this time period, in 800 B.C, the ancient Greeks limited the feminine populace to hardly any power. Their duties were to stay home, take care of the children, cook, or follow orders…

intelligence to win his battles. In The Odyssey, written by Homer, and translated by Robert Fagles, Odysseus overcomes some of his conflicts with his determined and cunning intellect to trick his enemies while Penelope uses her wits to deceit the suitors, but on the other hand Antinous shows traits like arrogance that hinders success. Traits like clever, sharp, and shrewd can all relate to success, and are reasons that add to Odysseus’ and Penelope success in The Odyssey. They illustrate why…

Recognition Scenes in the Odyssey While there are many sections in the Odyssey that fall under the category of “moments of recognition,” there seems to be a general structure to each scene. At first Odysseus tests the person’s loyalty by listening to them and determining whether they hold sympathetic views towards the suitors and whether they wanted him to return home. The next phase involves deception in which Odysseus tells a tale to conceal his true identity. This is followed by a scene in…

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…

While there are many sections in the end of the Odyssey that fall under the category of “moments of recognition,” there seems to be a general structure to each scene. At first Odysseus tests the person’s loyalty by listening to them and determining whether they hold sympathetic views towards the suitors and whether they wanted him to return home. The next phase involves deception in which Odysseus tells a tale to conceal his true identity and then foreshadows his return in the near future. After…

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 the essential odyssey an astute reader can not only enjoy the adventures of Odysseus, but catch a glimpse of ancient greek society as well. By carefully observing the relationships between Odysseus and female characters, a reader can understand the social structures and gender roles of the ancient greeks. When analyzing the female characters through their dress, speech, or actions, distinct female archetypes begin to form. The Odyssey portrays three specific female archetypes, the seductress,…

The role Women was very essential for the momentum of the plot of Homer’s Odyssey. There were several female personas, like Calypso, Cerci, Penelope and Athena, in Odyssey. Some became an obstruction in the Odysseus’s return journey and some facilitated his return journey. On one hand, Calypso and Cerci serve as obstacles to Odysseus's quest to return home. On the other, Athena and Penelope facilitate the return journey. While coming back home from Troy, Odysseus lands on the island of Ogygia.…

The Odyssey is well-known, and critically acclaimed ancient collection of mythical poetry. Homer, does a fantastic job of bringing the main character, Odysseus to life, and expressing the traits of an epic hero inside him. Reading the Odyssey, notice how ancient Greek society and its philosophical ideals and how they play a key role in the many stories. The selection expresses a wide range of the ideas of loyalty, respect, and integrity taught in Ancient Greece. One example if the many…