Epic Literature Women Are Shown

¶ … epic literature women are shown to be major forces in the relationship between men and between countries. Prove this by using examples such as Helen, Penelope, and Dido.

There is no doubt that most of the ancient epic poems focus on the male characters, their role in politics and war and their evolution throughout the poem.

This is also the case with the Iliad and the Odyssey, where Achilles, Hector or Agamemnon (for the former) and Ulysses (for the latter) are the centre figures around which the story revolves. Nevertheless, it is the women characters of these poems that create the links between characters and who reflect their actions. It is Helen that triggers the conflict and that creates the appropriate premises for the manifestations of all the male warriors. It is also Helen that helps the meeting between the Greek and the Trojans warriors and the conflict itself.

Helen is, first of all, in Homer's eyes, the entire cause of the war. She is the instrument used to trigger the entire plot. Although not necessarily pointed out by Homer, her pride to having been selected as the ultimate prize and her desire for the Trojan prince (Paris) may be used as implicit causes of her actions. According to theoreticians, Helen of Troy is described by Homer as an "one-dimensional" character, in the sense that Homer goes to no length in attempting to create a portrait, but leaves only a few lines. For Homer, Helen is the instrument he needs as a pretext to create the epic. For the Greek and Trojan generals, she may be just a pretext in settling political affairs. It is common knowledge that, during the period Homer is referring to, the Trojans and Greeks disputed the supremacy over the Aegean Sea and neighboring regions. On the other hand, for the soldiers of the two people, she is simply the cause of a war they did not necessarily wish to fight and the generals are keen to keep this idea alive. It comes from Agamemnon himself, who says in Book 2, "So now let no man hurry to sail for home, not yet... / not till he beds down with a faithful Trojan wife, / payment in full for the groans and shocks of war / we have all borne for Helen." Helen herself admits the fact that she is the instrument that triggered the entire political game and lives with the guilt throughout the entire poem. She does indeed take responsibility for the war, "If only death had please me then, grim death / that day I followed your son to Troy." On the other hand, we cannot but assume the fact that Helen herself is an instrument of other women, the goddesses, who have induced Paris into kidnapping Helen from her husband. In this sense, the burden of the conflict weighs less on Helen's shoulders and more on the goddesses. Helen is the main relating force between the main male characters of the poem, mainly because, we may assume that if she didn't exist, the war would not have taken place and Hector and Achilles and Agamemnon and Paris or Menelaus would have only met, at most, during a peace signing treaty. However, a lustful figure, condensing all feminine characteristics needed to sweep someone of his feet, created the premises for war. Despite the fact that Homer himself portrays Helen as the negative character, cause of people being killed, we need to keep in mind that Greek Mythology's centre characters are always the Gods and Goddesses, for whom the world is a play, with other actors than themselves, and a scenario they modify according to their will. Helen was chosen as an instrument to settle a dispute and she became the factor that triggered another.

This part of my argumentation becomes thoroughly obvious in Virgil's Aeneid, where Dido, the princess of Carthage, is manipulated by the goddesses into losing her head over Aeneas. Because of the way Dido is portrayed and because of her previous actions, we are left in no doubt that she is being used by the goddesses against Aeneas, with the direct purpose of stalling him on the way. Many have seen her as Aeneas's counterpart, as she herself has led her people from Tyre to Carthage in an attempt to escape environmental vicissitudes. Like Aeneas, she is a true leader, a strong willed character and independent woman. Juno and Venus (the Roman counterparts of Hera and Aphrodite) manipulate them and Dido is soon seen infatuated with Aeneas, neglecting all ruling duties. She cannot change destiny and realizes this in Book IV, as she points out that "What am I saying? Where am I? What madness / Takes me out of myself? Dido poor soul, / Your evil doing has come home to you." According to ancient traditions, for a strong character such as Dido, the only possible ending is by suicide.

A comparison between Dido and Helen, both in terms of the influence they have on men and on their power to change courses in history and determine political events is necessary at this point. On one hand, we have Dido, a strong character, a character that has shown the capacity to influence her people positively and induce political trends that were accepted by her people (such as leading them into Carthage). On the other hand, we have Helen, whose lust has caused her people (the Spartans, more or less) to start a ten-year war on the Trojans and whose influence on politics did not only resume to that (acknowledging that she provides the Trojans with useful information about the Greek forces, their officers and soldiers etc.). Dido is described with respect by the author and her gestures and actions appear as having nothing to do with her own character, but are strictly determined by the gods' will. In this sense, she is a tragic character, a character that has proven her worthiness, but falls to gods' will and to destiny. On the other hand, Helen is no less a tragic character, the similitude with Dido coming from the fact that she herself is an instrument of the gods. It is not her that shows herself to Paris, it is not her that triggers the sentimental drama. She only accepts, but we may consider that she accepts simply because destiny does not allow her to refuse.