A Woman's Role

In the Odyssey a person's roles is determined by their class, age, and gender. At the top of the pyramid are the wealthy men and kings, below them are the male citizens, still further down on the ladder are the women. Even the noble women are considered below any young man. Below women there are only three groups, children, servants and slaves. There are many instances in this story of men exercising their power over women.

In the first several books of the Odyssey it is made very clear that men are superior to women. When Telemachus is introduced to Helen at the palace of Menaleus, the queen clearly feels regret of her actions in Troy. Her image of herself in the past is very negative and she calls herself a "shameless whore" (129:163). She has very little self respect because of the images forced upon her by men. She is considered the most beautiful woman alive at the time and yet she has very little power or confidence. Even though Helen is beautiful she is not considered to be very clever.

Penelope on the other hand is cunning and wise. Even though this wisdom helps her to keep back the suitors, she is frowned upon for being smart and tricky. When Telemachus tells the suitors to leave his house, they blame Penelope calling her "the matchless queen of cunning" (96:95). The suitors believe that she has been leading them on for a very long time. They are disgusted by the idea that a woman can outsmart them. The suitors accuse Penelope of "[exploiting] the gifts Athena gave her-- a skilled hand for elegant work, a fine mind and wubtle wiles too--" (97:128-130). They punish Telemachus for Penelope's supposed wrongs. This introduces the idea that even young men like Telemachus, have power over the women of society, even their own mothers. When Penelope begs the bard to pick a different song Telemachus has the power to send her back to her chambers. He clearly puts his power as the male heir of Odysseus into play saying "Mother go back to your quarters" (89:409-410). He also makes clear the role of women in the household adding "tend to your own tasks, the distafff and the loom, and keep the women working hard as well. As for giving orders, men will see to that" (89:410-414). He explicitly states the male power in the Greek household at the time. It is interesting that he wants the women to work, but at the time all of the men were lounging and eating lazily. Throughout the stories women will bathe the visiting men. This puts the females of the time in a serving role. There are no examples in the story of men bathing women. All of these examples point to the obvious male dominance during the time of the Odyssey.