Literature overview and analysis

¶ … Role of Women in the Odyssey and Oedipus the King

In both Homer's the Odyssey and Sophocles' Oedipus the King the role of women is subordinate to the central male figures, as was the norm in Greek Society. Women were expected to follow established roles and Sophocles and Homer made sure that they did. Both works are named for the men who are the heroic focus, but both are structured around women who are essential to the artistic purpose. In the Odyssey, being much larger in scope, Homer presents a variety of female figures, while in Oedipus the King Sophocles offers mainly Jocasta to represent his vision of womankind.

The Odyssey centers around the travels of a male hero, but it is women who provide the core of his adventures. Odysseus is trying to get home to his beloved woman, after the Trojan War, which was fought over a woman. Athena, a female goddess, literally guides and forms the action. Odysseus is a hero as his journey begins, but the women he meets, enlarge his quest for self-knowledge and his heroism. Homer's attitude toward women sometimes seems inconsistent, but he is simply depicting varieties of women in his world. The Odyssey is a portrait of his society's ideas of gender roles, and attitudes toward women. All the women, human and divine, who interact with Odysseus, are important, but none are as important as the hero. Homer echoes his culture's conception of women as being either helpers of men or hindrances to them, but always essentially insubstantial in their own right.

Penelope, loyal wife of Odysseus, waits two decades for him to return from the Trojan War, not knowing whether she is wife or widow. She is Homer's model of the perfect Greek wife and mother. She loves Odysseus, shedding many tears of misery and longing. Penelope is forced to play the traditional woman's role of frailty and powerlessness, yet she is a complex character. Although strong-willed in resisting the suitors, she is helpless when it comes to getting rid of them. She is stereotypically depicted as a woman who uses her weaving, a typical feminine pursuit, as her only defense, yet she shows intelligence, strength and resourcefulness through the ruse of weaving and unraveling. The wit and ingenuity of young Telemakhos further reveal the intelligence of his mother, who has raised him alone during the absence of Odysseus. Penelope must, however, subject herself to Telemakhos, because in the traditional Greek view, man is superior to woman. On several occasions Telemakhos puts his mother in her place so that she withdraws to her room "her son's clear wisdom ringing in her head" (I 409).

In his effort to show many possible kinds of women, Homer introduces us to Penelope's opposite, Klytaimnestra, who we don't actually meet, though we often hear about her. Penelope is the best of all possible wives, Klytaimnestra is the worst, as vile as Penelope is virtuous. Penelope waits faithfully fending off suitors. Klytaimnestra helps her lover, Aegisthus, kill her husband as he returns from the war. Remembering the tale that Agamememnon's ghost told in the underworld, Odysseus is cautious about revealing his identity on his return home. Klytaimnestra's treachery has dirtied the reputation of all women forever. This "bestial" (XI 497) woman has "defiled herself and her sex... even those few who may be virtuous" (XI 504). Homer uses the treachery of Klytaimnestra to sustain suspense that even the faithful Penelope may yet fall. The contrast makes Penelope look even better:

fortunate Odysseus,...

The girl you brought home made a valiant wife!

True to her husband's honor and her own,

Penelope, Ikarios' faithful daughter!

The very gods themselves will sing her story

Tyndareus' daughter waited, too -- how differently!

Klytaimnestra, the adulteress,

Waited to stab her lord and king. That song

Will be forever hateful. A bad name

She gave to womankind, even the best. (XXIV 215-228)

Through Penelope Homer depicts ideals of family values, the harmony of civilization, all that is good in the female, to which Odysseus struggles to return. The peaceful female world of Penelope is the alternative to the male world of war and violence.

The scene between Penelope and Odysseus that occurs the night before his revenge helps to show why Penelope, ideal mate for the hero, is definitely worth coming home to. She pretends not to recognize Odysseus, yet really knows who he is. She suggests the contest of the bow and the axes, which allows Odysseus to reveal himself and put the fear of Zeus into the suitors. Odysseus gets the credit for his great feat of arms, but it is Penelope's idea. Homer is showing that though man is superior to woman, this one exceptional woman deserves to be highly valued.

Helen serves, like Klytaimnestra, as contrast to the virtuous Penelope. Although happy in her marriage to Menelaus, Helen, under Aphrodite's spell, lets Paris carry her to Troy, causing the Trojan war as Menelaus fights to get her back. Homer's picture of Helen is not of a sluttish adulteress, but of a beautiful loving wife. Helen offers Telemakhos a gift, when he visits after her restoration to Menelaus. Her words are the model of Greek womanhood, and traditional family values, yet the reader remembers the scandalous past of the most beautiful woman in the world:

I, too, bring you a gift, dear child, and here it is;

remember Helen's hands by this; keep it for your own bride, your joyful wedding day; let your dear mother guard it in her chamber.

My blessing; may you come soon to your island, home to your timbered hall (XV 155-161).

In Phaeacia, Odysseus meets the young princess Nausikaa, who is helpful, as woman should be, offering advice on how to best be received by the island's rulers, her parents. She embodies many pleasant female characteristics supporting traditional Greek family values. Homer says she is: "so fine in mould and feature that she seemed a goddess" (VI 19-20). Yet, she shows daughterly obedience, knows how important clean clothes are to her family's reputation, and she thinks of only what a good girl should, finding a suitable marriage. A sweet young thing, she knows how to blush, yet, she is strong and energetic: "Nausikaa took the reins and raised her whip, lashing the mules" (VI 88-89). Homer's image of Nausikaa and her attendants doing the laundry is charmingly wholesome:

Then sliding out the cart's tail board, they took

Armloads of clothing to the dusky water,

And trod them in the pits, making a race of it.

All being drubbed, all blemish rinsed away,

They spread them, piece by piece, along the beach

Whose pebbles had been laundered by the sea;

Then took a dip themselves, and all anointed with golden oil, ate lunch beside the river

While the bright burning sun dried out their linen.

Princess and maids delighted in that feast;

Then putting off their veils,

They ran and passed a ball to a rhythmic beat,