Role of Women

Comparing and Contrasting the Role of Women

in Homer 's The Iliad and The Odyssey

2006

Comparing and Contrasting the Role of Women in Homer 's The Iliad and The Odyssey

Homer 's epic poems , The Iliad and The Odyssey , portray women in various important roles . On their own merit , they stand out if only to be in keeping with their status in ancient Greece

Generally , the women in The Iliad are painted as either possessing great beauty or full of ideal wifely virtues subject to the protection to their

men . It is therefore not surprising that they are treated as objects and are often considered bounties of wars . They make good excuses for conflict and a justification for men to display their power Moreover , they are merely relegated to their homes doing their duties may it be as slaves or wives , with no participation in matters involving men

The Iliad opens in media res during the tenth year of the war between the Greeks lead by Agamemnon together with their mightiest warrior Achilles , and the Trojans lead by Hector

The falling out of the two Agamemnon and Achilles men was characterized by their somewhat childlike behavior . Quite early both had a bickering over a beautiful woman , Briesis , Achilles ' plunder , whom Agamemnon demanded as his right , as if she is a piece of property , in exchange for the beautiful Chryseis whom he was forced to return to her father after the intervention of the god Apollo . This disagreement , which resulted to the sulking of Achilles , sets an early tone of women 's role as hapless spoils of war and objects desired by the whims of their men . As exemplified by Agamemnon when he talked about the beautiful Chryseis in Ian Johnston 's newly translated work

But I have a great desire to take her home .In fact , I want her more than Clytaemnestra

the wife I married . Chryseis is just as good in her shape , physique , intelligence , or work (Homer , The Iliad ' Bk I . 120-123

This theme is repeated in Book IX , where while Achilles was out of the battleground , he and Patroclus slept with two beautiful women war prizes , Diomede and Iphis , respectively , and in Book XI , when Nestor 's was in the arms of his own prize , beautiful Hecamede , whom he won in the war in Tenedos Given the inferior status of women at that time , it was not a surprise that , on the surface , there was no better reason to start a war than the rescue of the lovely Helen , the wife of Agamemnon 's brother Menelaus who was abducted by Paris to Troy . Her departure , despite her love for Paris as the work of Aphrodite and not of her own volition , was considered an insult to Menelaus

Andromache , Hector 's wife , is a symbol of a good wife who obeyed her husband and protector and stayed at home to do her duties despite the threat to their lives . Before leaving for battle he said to her...