Women's Role In The Odyssey

In her poem, “Circe’s Power,” Louise Gluck alters Homer’s description of Circe from a beguiling, yet submissive seductress to a calculating, powerful, and lonely witch to develop the theme that even those with great power are unable to force authentic love. Odysseus arrives with his crew on the Island of Aeaea, Circe’s home, after losing all but one of his ships to an attack from the Laestrygonians, a race of giants intent on killing Odysseus. On the island, Odysseus splits up his men to explore it, and one group stumbles upon Circe’s palace. Circe tempts them into her halls with “her singing, lifting/ her spellbinding voice” (Homer

Further along his journey, Odysseus sails upon the island of Aeaea, where Circe, a goddess with magical powers, lives. When he goes to confront her, after she has turned his men into pigs, “The god Hermes stops him to give him a

The islands of Circe and Calypso in Homer’s Odyssey are places where Odysseus’ most challenging problems occur. In contrast to battles with men, Cyclops, or animals, sexual battles with women are sometimes much more difficult to win. These two female characters are especially enticing to Odysseus because they are goddesses. Though it is evident that Odysseus longs to return to Penelope in Ithaka, it sometimes appears that he has lost vision of what life was like with a wife, a son, and with thousands of people who regard him as King. Although his experiences on the islands of these goddesses were similar in that he was retained from Ithaka for the longest periods of his adventure, these goddesses and the

After the encounters with the Sirens, Odysseus had to face a terrifying creature that he feared of. Circe warned Odysseus about the dangers of Scylla. He is informed that she will snag six of his men and tells him that it is much better than loosing everyone. “Nobody would feel good seeing her, not even a god who crossed her path. She has a dozen feet all deformed, six enormously long necks, with a horrible head on each of them and three rows of teeth packed closed together, full of murky death” (Steele and Alwa, 489). Odysseus knew that in order for his survival and to be able to get to the island, he had to sacrifice his men and escape this monster. “Monsters such as the Sphinx are often represented as female, as if to imply that women are on the borderline between human and “other” than human”(Steele and Alwa, 41). Odysseus also had to deal with his love affair with the witch goddess, Circe. She lived with nymphs on a mythical island. She changed all of Odysseus’s men into animals when he showed up to see her. Hermes helped Odysseus remove the men from the spell. “Many men appear to have felt that they could truly not love women who were not educated well enough to read, write, or engage in informed dialogue with their husbands”(Steele and Alwa, 43). The love between Odysseus and Circe failed due to her lack of ability to engage with men, by

In Homer’s The Odyssey, “Book 10: The Bewitching Queen of Aeaea,” Circe is initially depicted as a powerful and commanding character who takes charge of whatever scene she is present in. This characterization is in contrast to the typical roles of women within ancient Greece; once she meets Odysseus and he proves himself to be more powerful than her through his immunity to her magic and his strength, she becomes subservient to him. She transitions into that traditional portrayal of what a woman is supposed to be: more subservient and hospitable. Odysseus uses the help of Apollo to trick Circe into thinking that he is immune to her magic.

Circe lured some of Odysseuses men in, and turned them into swine. Eurylochos ran back and warned Odysseus, who then armed up to rescue his men. Hermes gave Odysseus a magical herb called moly that would make him immune to Circe’s spell. Odysseus pulled out his sword on Circe as she tried to put the smell on him too. Then she bargained with him, he agreed to sleep with her,if she took the spell of his men and lets them

So, Odysseus and his crew are warned many times to not explore too much. Thus, people like Circe represents a whole different society. In her world, it should be noted that she considers men to be savages and “gives them a form to fit her opinion” (Felton 119). In the Odyssey, Circe is never actually described as a monster. However, her ability to manipulate and transform men paint her in a monstrous light because she is a threat to men’s humanity.

Have you ever noticed how women are depicted in media, such as in The Odyssey? The Odyssey is a story that revolves around the main character Odysseus and how he went to war, though it is mainly about his 20 year journey back home. Also, he was helped and tested by many people, gods, and monsters . This includes gods like Athena that helped him, or tempted by people like the witch Circe, and monsters like the sirens. In The Odyssey the role of women is complicated; they are depicted as either loyal, and wise or malicious, manipulative, Seductresses.

For instance, the text states, “Athena lent a hand, making him seem taller and massive too(105:243).” In this case, Odysseus is using his physical charm to win the young princess’s heart. In our modern society, if a guy uses his looks to deceive a girl into helping him, he would be considered a bad guy. Furthermore, he also hides his true identity when the king asks him “Who are you, and who has given you this clothing(118:255)?” In addition, Odysseus also abandons all of his shipmates and friends as the text states, “There all my shipmates, friends were drowned, while I hung on the keel board of the wreck and drifted nine full days

The representation of women in The Odyssey shows them as being mostly damning entities, who attempt to lead the men of the poem astray. Almost all of these women are depicted as being sexually corrupt beings in some way and must be overcome before the men can achieve their objectives. This can be seen all throughout the book in regards to the interactions of the two goddesses, Circe and Calypso, the Sirens, and even Penelope. The witch-goddess Circe is the first female to present a major problem for Odysseus and his men.

(Beers 654). Calypso compares her beauty to his wife's and offers him immortality. When Odysseus meets Circe, She turns his men into animals and he has to sleep with her in order to have his

She is seen as being her own person doing as she wanted. She can be seen as very smart and also loyal. She doesn’t remarry anyone in her husband’s 20-year absence. She tolerates the rude suitors for half that time yet never choosing to be with one of them continuing her loyalty to her husband. She is manipulative to the suitors once she realized Odysseus had returned and they were low on

“Evil is the very word Homer uses when he describes the meeting between Odysseus and Circe. Circe is a sorceress, so she is not incapable, but she too is shown as devious. In The Odyssey, many women who are independent and intelligent are portrayed as deceitful” (“Feminist or Sexist”). Circe is not biased against because of her characteristics, but rather her sex. On the other hand, Odysseus is portrayed as a sincere hero, yet he possesses similar qualities to Circe.

The Odyssey shows a lot of different stereotypes for women throughout the book, taking action to get what they want. Odysseus is trying to get back home after ten long years since the fall of troy, and his son is going out to find him. Throughout the book Odysseus meets lots of woman who vary in personality. He meets woman with the stereotypes: “mantis”- dominant, eats its mate, destroys to gain power, feared by many. “Damsel in distress”- persecuted maiden, woman placed in a dire predicament requires a hero to rescue her, relatively weak and frail. “Seductress”- reveals a man 's weakness, great beauty and sensuality, heavily chastised through alienationl rejection. He meets two woman named Circe and Calypso. Calypso whose is portrayed by Homer as a “Seductress” and Circe portrayed as a “Mantis”. He first has a love affair with the witch-goddess Circe, and later on gets imprisoned on Calypso’s island for 7 years. In Homer’s Odyssey, both Circe and Calypso seek power through female stereotypes; however, Circe and Calypso’s ability to understand helps them retain that power, conveying the message that once people understand each other good things can come out of it.

The Odyssey, by Homer, was written with the Greek mindset that women were supposed to be submissive. If the woman in question was not submissive enough, she was depicted as cruel, selfish, a monster, or a whore. This is true for both mortal women, such as Penelope, and immortal goddesses, such as Calypso. Mortal women were expected to be good faithful wives who listened to everything the head of the household said, while goddesses were expected to follow the gods every order and were called sexist slurs if they ever got involved with a mortal man.