Questia states, “Despite their vital role in Ancient Greek and Roman society, women were not considered full citizens and in most instances required a guardian – their fathers, and later husbands – to represent them” (“Women in Ancient Greece and Rome”). As his poem progresses, Homer presents female characters in different aspects, demonstrating that women should not be confined to the standard they were held in that society. At the beginning of the book, women are first introduced as being loyal, faithful, and under complete servitude to men. This presentation of women demonstrates the view of women at that time. This is evident in the treatment and actions of Penelope and Calypso.
Although Helen was the most beautiful woman in the world, she was manipulated and deemed secondary to her male counterparts. Helen can be looked at as a woman who had no say so in how she wanted to run her life and was manipulated throughout the years. In the Iliad the Greek Goddess Aphrodite played the key role in controlling Helen. Helen was taken from her husband Meneleus and could not return. Aphrodite being the goddess of love was the one who took Helen from him, and forced her to stay with Paris of Troy, which sparked the Trojan War.
Laura Dumpson January 2011 Global AP Jackson Per. 7 Aphrodite Aphrodite is the Greek Goddess of beauty, love, and sexuality. Hesiod’s Theogony, it claims Aphrodite was born when Cronus cut off Uranus’ genital and threw them into the sea. From the sea foam (aphros) arose Aphrodite. Gods feared that because of her beauty, jealousy would disrupt the peace among them leading to war.
Throughout all ancient Greek literature, there is one theme that consistently arises. This is the theme of women. In ancient Greek literature, women and depicted as cunning deceitful people and this implication is supported by characters such as Clytemnestra, who embodies all that is fraudulent and deceptive in the world. She loses our faith in women because of her ruthlessness in killing her husband Agamemnon and she is clearly feared by those under her. One example of this is the watchman whom she has posted on top of a building to look for the beacon signal.
Character Analysis Till We Have Faces, written by C.S. Lewis, is a novel based on the Greek legend of Psyche and Cupid. The main character and narrator, Orual, retells her life from when she was young to her present age. In the story she tells of how being the ugly sister compared her two beautiful sisters, Redival and Psyche, has impacted her life substantially. Psyche was the major reason behind Orual’s actions because Orual was jealous that everyone noticed Psyche and never acknowledged her, and this would ultimately lead to the sacrificing of Psyche to the mountain god, Ungit.
Briana Norton Mrs. Nicci Brown-GPS 210 29 January 2013 Women heroes of the Odyssey In Homer’s Odyssey, the women have a major impact within this epic. Though in most stories and even in todays world, women are said to be inferior to men and play minor roles therefor they fall into the background. The two that have had the most effect on me is Athena and Penelope; these women have much in common, both wise and clever in their own sly ways. Athena the daughter of Zeus who is also the goddess of wisdom, craft and warfare, plays a vast role in the fate of the mortals within the epic. While Penelope, a mortal, also has an important role.
Although women occupied an entirely different position in society compared to men, they too held a certain sphere of influence and power; they simply exerted it in ways that were distinct from men’s strategies. By examining the character of Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, one can see just how women exerted their power and influence in The Odyssey and to what ends. Penelope uses clever cunning and sexual charm to toy with men’s emotions and to meet her own needs while she is waiting for her husband to return from battle. The types of strategies and her relative success in using them will be examined in this essay. Athena is the daughter of Zeus who helped Odysseus throughout his quests.
This action of Paris creates rivalry between the two cities and the Trojan War strikes in. Atreus’s sons have vowed that they will bring Helen back home and in order to win the war, Agamemnon sacrifices his own daughter to gods. Oresteia depicts number of sins
Creation of gender roles The founder of Western Civilisation, Greece, revered women even by worshiping female gods and creating Amazon legends, however the Greek world still viewed women as “inferior in political, social and legal realms” (Lindsey, L. L., 2005, p. 99). This continued throughout all the other historical periods, from Ancient Rome to the Middle Ages, from feudalism to the Renaissance, from industrialisation to the depression and following the World Wars, from the rise of women’s movements till to-date, the female gender has been slow in gaining ground in achieving their rights and importance in society. Industrialisation brought about numerous employment opportunities for women from various social strata, yet it was only after the Second World War that socially constructed roles started being challenged and more favourable circumstances were by default offered to women. (Lindsey, 2005) Gender roles in marriage and family It is evident that even in religious teachings women’s roles were always considered inferior to men. Even in the Bible’s first book, the book of Genesis it was Adam who was given the privilege of naming the animals as well as naming his female companion, Eve, created by God who is envisaged “by nature disobedient, guileless, weak-willed, prone to temptation
In Book V of The Odyssey, Hermes comes to Calypso’s island to tell her that the gods’ council has decided that Odysseus must be sent home. Calypso responds by complaining about the double standards between gods and goddesses, although she does ultimately submit to Zeus’ decree and let Odysseus leave her island, where she has imprisoned him for the past seven years. Calypso’s complaints are central to the issue of women in the Odyssey. Although the female characters of The Odyssey are more developed than the female characters in The Iliad, a double standard still exists between men and women. Odysseus and Penelope: Infidelity in Men and Women The double standard between Odysseus and Penelope is especially clear.