Role of Women in Odyssey

In the Odyssey women play an important role and many events occurred because of them. For instance the entire Trojan War started because of Helen, because of Odysseus’ love of Penelope he needed to get back to Ithaca, and with the help of the immortal goddess Athena he finally made it home. Women in this story have very meaningful roles in Odysseus ' life.
The first very important role of a woman is Helen, who started this journey. It began when he his men left to battle in the Trojan War. Helen with powerful beauty was the cause of this war. Many men went to fight that battle Odysseus being one of them, he left his home, risking his life, and risking the fact he might never see his wife again. Odysseus might 've never left Ithaca, get lost, and wouldn 't have been taken in by a great destiny of unpredictable adventure if it wasn’t for her. Helen had started a turning point for Odysseus.
His reason for leaving Calypso 's Island was that he missed Penelope and he worried about getting home to his wife. He missed her so much that he left Calypso, and immortality. His voyage home was based on coming back to his loving wife, love for Penelope brought about the next cause that led him to needing to come back to Ithaca. The Goddess Athena, who sent Odysseus on his way home, put hope into the heart of his son, and his. She let him know he is needed at home and watched Odysseus ' every step, appearing to Odysseus in different disguises. When he felt that he could not go on, Athena would encourage him to not give up. To help him save Ithaca she disguised him as a beggar and only his son could recognized him. Without Athena, Odysseus probably would never have successfully returned to Ithaca.
Penelope is the main woman in the story while most of the others were goddesses or demons. She was completely loyal to her husband even though he was gone for twenty years. Having no word from him and not know whether he is alive or not she refused to remarry putting off the many suitors taking advantage of the rule of hospitality. She was very cleaver in that she weaved the marriage cloth by day tearing out the weaves by night. The suitors were not as cleaver as her and failed to notice. Reluctantly after her son Telemachus went to look for his father and returned with no success she agrees to marry the man who can string Odysseus bow and shoot it cleanly through ten ax heads. By that time Odysseus finally made it home and in disguise stings the large bow and shoots the arrow through the ax heads cleanly.
After proceeding to shoot all the suitors in revenge he makes his maid servants clean up the bodies and then hangs them for being disloyal to him by sleeping with the suitors while he was gone. Odysseus 's mother and wife are both quite strong women, though the maids are a somewhat different story with an exception of a few who were loyal. Penelope and Odysseus recognize each other after the marriage bed test embrace each other and the story ends.
The women in the story they shaped his entire journey. Even though women didn 't seem like big part of the story the women make most major reasons for situations to evoke. Without Helen, Athena, Calypso, and Penelope the story would not be.

Works Cited
Smith,Nicole.’’The Role of Women in the Odyssey’’by Homer. Article Myriad.15 November, 2011 < http://www.articlemyriad.com/183.htm>

Cited: Smith,Nicole.’’The Role of Women in the Odyssey’’by Homer. Article Myriad.15 November, 2011 &lt; http://www.articlemyriad.com/183.htm&gt;