In The Odyssey, Homer shows his true colors: he treats his female characters with sexism. Homer shows women such as Athena as characters with the sole purpose of helping men. At first glance, Athena seems like a dominant character whose gender doesn’t detract from her influence in The Odyssey. She uses her power to disguise Odysseus as a beggar, to inform Telemachus of how to safely travel home to Ithaca and avoid the suitors and to help Odysseus and Telemachus conquer and kill the suitors. However, a closer inspection of Athena reveals that all of her power is used to assist men in the story. Athena doesn’t benefit personally from aiding Odysseus or Telemachus, and she acts as a servant to their needs. Therefore, Homer’s portrayal of Athena detracts, rather than adds, to the rights of women in The Odyssey. Other females who exist only to help males in The Odyssey are Circe and Calypso. Their roles as Odysseus’ lovers are benefit Odysseus as much as themselves. Odysseus’ use of Circe and Calypso as lovers during his journey show that women were willing go to great lengths to please men. Furthermore, Odysseus’ infidelity to his true wife, Penelope, demonstrates an unfair double standard: Odysseus is permitted to have affairs with other women while he is away, but Penelope must deny the suitors and wait loyally for Odysseus back in Ithaca. Homer obviously viewed women such as Athena, Calypso, Circe, and Penelope as servants to the more important men in The Odyssey.
In The Odyssey, Homer occasionally shows that women are not even good enough to aid men. When Athena helps Telemachus visit Menelaus and Nestor to ask for news of Odysseus, she takes the form of Mentor, a male friend of Odysseus’. The fact that Athena morphed from her natural female state to a male in order to help another male sends the message that females aren’t capable of helping males, traveling, or giving advice. These ideas are hideously sexist, and show that Homer, though perhaps telling the truth of the time that he lived in, was not at all a forward thinking feminist.
Additionally, many women in The Odyssey were dependent on men, another sign of Homer’s sexism. Penelope, of course, illustrates this dependence best. When Odysseus does not return from war, Penelope can barely carry on with her life due to her extreme grief for her husband. She spends much time crying for him, and mourns his absence incessantly. If the tables were turned and Penelope was the one missing from home, Odysseus would undoubtedly have the backbone to carry on with his life in a normal way, unlike Penelope. Therefore, if Homer were not sexist in The Odyssey, he would show Penelope active in her life and perhaps even filling in for Odysseus by ruling Ithaca. This is far from what happens. The helpful purpose of women, the fact that women sometimes took the form of men to help men, and the strong dependence of women upon men in The Odyssey show that Homer was truly a sexist.
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4 comments:
I think that it is clever the way you decifered Athena as only helping men. It is a different way to look at things.
I disagree with what you said about Penelope. I think that if I had thought I lost a loved one I would be very sad too, and I know that Odysseus would have been sad if Penelope "died" also. It is not just because Penelope is a woman.
Also what you said about how Circe and Calypso only help serve Odysseus I disagree. Sure Circe only helped serve Odysseus, but Calypso didn't.
I'm not arguing that Odysseus didn't like the love and attention that he was getting with Calyspo, but Calypso was enjoying her time with him too. Keep in mind that Calypso was the one who is imprisoning Odysseus on her island for her own pleasure. I think that is very feminist. But on the other hand Zeus, an all powerful male makes her give Odysseus up. So maybe you could have used a different example there.
This was a really interesting post for me to read, because I answered the same question, but with the opposite opinion. Your points are very, very convincing, so much that I'm on the brink of changing my opinion. The first paragraph is very clever. I used Athena as one of my examples (I think), but I never noticed that her only purpose is to aid men. The part about how Athena had to become Mentor, a man, to help Telemachus also struck me. Your examples are so great because they go past the feminist shell and reveal how Homer snuck in his sexist ideas. I think you have me convinced.
I really liked what your wrote. I had never considered those examples and I feel that your point was well proven. I also like your writing technique and think that you are a very good writer.
There is one major probelm with the logic behind your essay. Homer wasn't the original author of this story. The oddyssey was handed down orally for over a hundred years before Homer wrote it down. So basically, what you're doing (and this is a more modern day example)is saying that someone who wrote about the holocaust thirty years after it happened is a rascist, simply because they wrote about an event where over six million jews were killed. So next time, check your facts more carefully.
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