The Women of the Odyssey
The story of the Odyssey has frequently been described as a man's journey home from war, struggling to overcome the opposition of gods, man, and nature itself. However, if one looks a little below the surface, one can also see it as a serious of short stories about the power and powerlessness of the women in his world. Odysseus' journey is not just a flight from one danger to another. He also flies from one woman to another, and their help or hindrance in each case determines his fate. If one rearranges the story in a linear fashion, rather than allowing Odysseus' pride to focus on his own part in the story, the role of the women because patently clear. Helen's love for Menelaus is the active force that dragged a thousand ships across the ocean to Troy. It would be a grave mistake to think she was a passive player in the game. Odysseus' great plan to destroy Troy with a wooden horse very nearly got derailed when Helen tried calling to the men inside to discover their position. Helen is a strong and manipulative queen, and even after Troy she survives to work her magic on her husband and Odysseus' son. Helen is the one who watches her adopted city be destroyed, and all the women she has befriended slaughtered or raped by the
In the Underworld, Odysseus seeks the wisdom of Tiresias the seer. Tiresias is said to be the only one who ever entered death still in full possession of his (or her) faculties of reason and foresight. Tiresias is also said to be the only man who was once a woman, through a strange twist of fate that left him in female form for years. Tiresias, having been female, was struck blind by Zeus for claiming that women have more pleasure than men from sex, and yet was also granted the gift of prophecy from his blindness. Tiresias gives the wisdom to return home safely, and yet this wisdom itself is somehow inseparable from his experiences as a woman. Odysseus, who has angered the Gods, is the only one to survive the wreck of his ship, and he washes up alone on the island of the immortally beautiful Calypso. He describes himself as trapped by her and weeps for home - yet he never seeks to build a boat and escape, even though he is obviously capable of doing so! Here again a woman seizes control of his life, and he lives entirely off her graces. Yet Calypso must lose him when the gods order her to release him to return home to his wife. It is Athena, the goddess, who seeks to restore domestic order and send Odysseus home to his wife. It is interesting to note that it is not a man who chooses to maintain the social order, but women themselves who work out the wise course in the situation. (Athena is the goddess of wisdom and womanly crafts) Odysseus is told to build his boat and go home, and thus prompted he proceeds to leave. Men treat women like stolen property in the Iliad, so it is rather
Some common words found in the essay are:
Troy Odysseus, , Underworld Odysseus, Iliad Odysseus's, Sirens Scylla, return home, journey home, home wife, home odysseus, athena goddess, home women, overcome suitors, build boat,
Approximate Word count = 1080
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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