How is the Ancient Greek family structure represented in The Odyssey?
Ancient Greek culture embodied specific family ideals that are represented in The Wanderings of Odysseus through Odysseus’s family structure. As he attempts to return home to Ithaca, his wife is left to tend to the house for seven long years. She must supervise her servants, as the reader sees in Chapter 5, Telemachus Seeks His Father. This is the first time that readers are introduced to Odysseus’s family and their whereabouts at the time of the story. According to The Civilizations of The Greeks, “A wife was..
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expected to take care of her family and her house, either doing the household work herself or supervising the slaves who did the actual …show more content…
How is this represented through character actions in the Odyssey? Ancient Greek culture focused on the art of philosophy. Also, known as a love of wisdom, this love for wisdom is very much represented in The Wanderings of Odysseus as can be seen through the way Odysseus handles his adversities.. For instance, his encounter with the sirens. When Circe spoke to him of the sirens Odysseus realized that no one can resist the temptation of the sirens. So instead of hitting the sirens head on he used his cunning to formulate a plan that would keep all of his men living. According to the text, “He himself hungered to hear the siren song, so he ordered his men to bind him to the mast with strong ropes, and not to unbind him however much he might struggle and cry out to them, until the island was well behind them”. Which serves to prove that Odysseus relies more on his cunning than his strength. Which relates to the Greeks love of wisdom because according to The Civilization of the Greeks, “Early Greek philosophers were concerned with the development of critical and rational thought”. Critical and rational thought is exactly what Odysseus constantly finds himself using to get out of situations instead of brute strength. Ergo, expressing the ancient Greeks love of