Women's Role In The Odyssey

Woman’s role in greek society

Women’s roles in society have changed since the time when the Odyssey was written by Homer but some of the roles they had are still relevant today even though this is a time when women now equal to men. There are Three females in the Odyssey who show women’s roles in ancient Greek society. They are Penelope who is Odysseus’ wife, Nausicaa who is a princess and Athena who is a woman/goddess. Together these three women show that the Greeks had a complicated view of women which included them being in traditional roles as wife, or princess but also nontraditional roles such as over powering and imprisoning a man or powerful, outspoken and independent.
Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, is a very traditional woman and plays that role in the Odyssey very well. One piece evidence that proves this is that she passively accepts that there is nothing she can do about the suitors who are destroying her home. It was expected that the woman would not take action in Homer’s world and she plays this traditional role very well. The other piece of evidence that shows how traditional she is, is that for twenty years she does not remarry but instead hopes her husband
The first piece of evidence is that she is very obedient to her parents and does exactly what they say when they tell her to go down to the river to wash clothing. This shows that she is a good girl and does not have any desire to be independent. The second piece of evidence is that her major concern is that she should get married to the right man. The evidence of this is that she immediately falls in love with Odysseus. All in all Nausicaa is almost like a cartoon character and is not a role model for young girls today but in Homer’s time she was a role model for the girls listening to the story. But not all of the females were as traditional as Penelope and