The Odyssey, written by Homer, is one of two ancient Greek epic poems and was written near the end of the eighth century BC. The Odyssey tells the tale of the Greek hero Odysseus who has been missing for 10 years and is trying to return to his kingdom in Ithaca. Everyone, including Penelope (Odysseus’ wife) and Telemachus (Odysseus’ son), believes that Odysseus died during the fall of Troy. Based on that, suitors from all around have come to Odysseus’ palace to try to win his wife and take over the kingdom. From this, Homer tells a tale of Odysseus’ journey and the obstacles he faces to get back home to his kingdom and his wife. The epic poem consists of Odysseus facing multiple temptations and challenges ranging from escaping a cyclops to dealing with the temptations of Calypso and Circe.
Everyone knows The Odyssey as a heroic tale of a man on a mission to get home and the challenges he faces to get home. It is common to think of this as the role of Odysseus as a powerful and smart male hero who can deal with anyone, but most fail to see the fact that Odysseus’ biggest challenges come from women due to the fact that they present him with different forms of strategies for keeping him from returning. The reason that this is little talked about is that, at the time that The Odyssey was written, women in ancient Greece did not play a major role. Traditionally, women in ancient Greece had very few rights compared to their male counterparts. Their purpose in society was to stay home and raise their children and provide for their husbands' needs when they do come home. Keeping this in mind, people during the time it was written only saw this epic poem as a heroic tale of a masculine male’s path to get home. This being true, women do play a huge role in this poem; women play the role of foils as seductresses or a combination of both.
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In The Odyssey, Homer implicitly shows the sphere of influence and power women possess despite the traditional view that men have all the power in society, showing women simply exert their power using different strategies than men. In modern society, women have equal rights and equal opportunities. But back in the times of ancient Greece, women did not possess equality with men. Women were seen as only housewives with their only responsibility/right to take care of the children and the house and provide what the husband needs. Throughout The Odyssey, there are not a lot of women that the poem talks about but the influence that the few women have plays an incredibly huge role in Odysseus’ journey. A criticism by Marilyn Katz on the role of women in Greek society says that women were “regarded with contempt, secluded, uneducated and unfree and unequal” (Katz, 74). This holds true in The Odyssey, women are seen as lesser than men and yet are held to higher standards than men. Even Greek goddesses such as Athena are seen as lesser than the other Greek gods because she is a woman and is seen as powerless and weak compared to the men. Women during this time period were known for what their husbands did and what they accomplished, as Penelope is known for her husband, the king, and hero. In Katz’s criticism of women’s role in ancient Greek society, she quotes Christoph Meiners who says that “Homer makes it incontestably clear that women in the earlier period were as little regarded was in the later, and no less secluded than later” (Katz, 76). This quote reveals the essence of thought of how women are portrayed in this epic poem, they are seen as just helpless and nothing without their husbands. However, this is not the case, women play a much larger role in the poem than seen by the majority of readers.
On Odysseus’ journey, he runs into Circe, an immortal goddess who seeks to prevent Odysseus from returning back to his kingdom. Circe deceives Odysseus and gets him to sleep with her and he ends up spending a year there with her. Circe represents the dangers of too much pleasure and comfort, she represents the temptations that women can give men that can completely distract them more than anything they could want. Circe uses her lustrous powers to attract Odysseus to sleep with her and stay with her for a year, even though he was set on getting home to see his wife and son. The power that Circe possesses here is unmatched by anything a man could try to do to stop Odysseus on his journey. This shows the power that a woman has in this story and how overlooked it is, everyone thinks of the physical things people tried to do to stop Odysseus but in reality, this power possessed by women like Circe is unmatched. After Circe releases Odysseus from her mansion and lustrous spell, Odysseus and his men passed by the Sirens. Under the advice of Circe, Odysseus had all of his men plug their ears with wax and tie him up to the mast of the ship so that he could hear the song. As they pass the Sirens, Odysseus begins to beg for his men to untie him and let him go but they do as they were told and leave him tied up. In a criticism of the song of the sirens by Nugent Pauline, she says that the siren’s song leads to “no escape except by avoidance since those temptresses lure to their death all who approach them and listen to their song” and “there is no homecoming for the one who listens to the Siren’s song” (Nugent, 47). This reveals the power of seduction that a woman can truly have on a man, even a man with the mental abilities of Odysseus. The Sirens represent the ultimate seductress as they can claim any man with their song and no one will ever see them again if the man chooses to go to their island. In a criticism looking at the gender and internal audiences in The Odyssey, Lillian Doherty says that the song the Sirens sing to Odysseus “explicitly appeals to a listener who himself aspires to the kleos of the aristocratic warrior” (Doherty, 164). This show that the song the Sirens sing represents the temptations that come along with the goal to accomplish great deeds, such as returning home in Odysseus’ case. As you can see, the Sirens do indeed represent the ultimate seductress and show that even though women are seen as dependent upon men, men can be seen the same way as almost no man can resist the sexuality and temptations that a woman can give him.
Circe and the Sirens represent the power of seduction over men as they act to stop Odysseus from reaching his goals through their powers of seduction. Another key woman in the epic is Calypso, who holds Odysseus prisoner for seven years and seduces him to sleep with her as well. However, Calypso actually expresses her love for Odysseus, she imprisons him but only did it because she loves him and wants him to spend the rest of his life with her. But she knows that Odysseus doesn’t love her back and wants to return to his wife and son. Calypso is frequently referred to in the poem as “lustrous Calypso” as she represents the lust and seduction that women possess but at the same time, she is also very smart and insightful. Zeus later orders Calypso to release Odysseus and she sees the double standard that is in action here as Male gods are allowed to keep any female they want but she can’t because she is female. This represents the double standard that women live under in this ancient Greek society as men are seen as manly when they have many lovers but when women have many lovers they are seen as whores and are shunned.
Calypso represents a median between the roles of seductress and a foil as she is looking out for her own interest in keeping Odysseus as her lover but at the same time is showing the readers that Odysseus does desire to get home to his wife and son even though the temptations of the lustrous goddess. Acting as a foil for Odysseus, Calypso contrasts with Odysseus, highlighting the good qualities in Odysseus as he desires to be home with his wife and child in his Kingdom. The two main women that act as foils to Odysseus are Penelope, his wife, and Athena. Athena, the goddess of wisdom and warfare shows favor for Odysseus throughout the story because Odysseus is a courageous warrior just as she is. Odysseus also is very smart and cunning and Athena also values this too being that she is also the goddess of courage and strength and of course wisdom. For example, it was Athena interceded on behalf of Odysseus, convincing her father, Zeus, to force Calypso to let Odysseus go. Later in the epic, Athena was the one who disguises Odysseus as a beggar in order for him to stay hidden from the suitors so that he can surprise attack them when the time is right. Athena also helps Odysseus’ son, Telemachus, to embark on a journey to try to find his father, Odysseus. Athena backs Telemachus throughout his journey in the first five books of The Odyssey and is a crucial catalyst in the epic. Penelope, the wife of Odysseus and Queen of Ithaca, is another main woman in the story who plays a crucial role in Odysseus’ journey home.
Throughout Odysseus’ journey, Penelope is treated unfairly and helpless at home. Over 100 suitors are always at her house trying to take advantage of Penelope just so they could marry her and take over the kingdom. She is trying to stay loyal to her husband but since it had been 10 years since she saw Odysseus, she was being forced to choose a new husband. Penelope is shown as a helpless woman who is just standing aside while men invade her house and try to take advantage of her. But in reality, she had no hope of helping herself, there were over 100 suitors trying to impress her and become her husband, and there was almost nothing she could do. Athena and Penelope represent the perfect foils to Odysseus and play that role throughout the entire epic. Lillian Doherty, in a criticism of the foils for Odysseus, says that Penelope and Athena share Odysseus’ mêtis (possessing a quality that combined wisdom and cunning) and also “represent extremes of ignorance and knowledge, vulnerability and control, between which the hero must be stimulated” (Doherty, 33). This quote is looking at the difference between Athena and Penelope in their roles of being foils to Odysseus. Penelope is vulnerable and possesses ignorance as she has no clue that her husband is alive and is stuck trying to get back to her. Athena possesses knowledge of everything and control of everything as she is a Greek goddess.
The power Penelope possesses in terms of her role in Odysseus’ journey home is undeniable, she is one of the central reasons Odysseus pushes to get home. Penelope possesses the power of love over Odysseus and that is what strives Odysseus to get home, the love of his life is there. Doherty also says that even though Athena protects Odysseus and Telemachus throughout the entire epic, “she is also described as testing and even teasing them” (Doherty, 38). For example, her final test for Odysseus is that she takes her time before intervening in his battle with the suitors. This shows Athena’s role as a foil for Odysseus, she protects him yet at the same time tests him to make sure his heart is in the right place, keeping him on the right path back to his wife and son. As you can see, the role of women in The Odyssey is very overlooked and underestimated as they play an undeniably large role in Odysseus’ journey home. Despite the fact that Homer acknowledged the fact that women in this time were lower than men, he implicitly made women more influential in this story than women at the time were in society. The theme that women act as seductresses or foils toward Odysseus carries on throughout the story. Homer’s The Odyssey offers the story of a masculine epic hero who is on a quest to return home but fails to depict the true power and role that the women have in The Odyssey. As Homer said in The Odyssey, “A man who has been through bitter experiences and traveled far enjoys even his sufferings after a time” (Homer, The Odyssey). This quote best explains the true reasoning behind struggle after struggle that Odysseus went through from the power of the women in the story and the resulting factor was a stronger man coming home.
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