Women In The Odyssey By HomerEssay Preview: Women In The Odyssey By HomerReport this essayThe Odyssey by Homer encompasses a rather modern idea of women and their role for its time. Homer portrays women as creatures who are strong but are ultimately defeated. It is true that in most stories they are portrayed as being weaker, but the women in this poem are oddly strong or have a very strong presence. The three main examples are Calypso, Athena, and the Lotus Flower. Each of these examples has a predominant presence in The Odyssey making them sturdy objects.
At first the goddess Calypso presents a strong force in the very beginning of the poem. “Calypso, Atlass daughter, keeps the sad Odysseus” (Book I) “in her grotto” (Book V). The “godlike Odysseus” is the source of the masculine power in this book and for him to be held against his will is a statement that men are not omnipotent in the world; evermore of a statement is the fact that he is held by a woman, the inferior gender. The reason that The Odyssey is a masculine power story and not a feminine is because eventually, Calypso is forced to relinquish Odysseus under the orders of the god Zeus. Hermes, the messenger god, reports to Calypso “ZeusÐ[said]Ðhis [Odysseuss] fate is not to die here, far from friends” (Book V). Upon this news, Calypso releases control of Odysseus to return home to Ithaca.
Another female who represents overpowering feminine power is Athena. At first, Athena is the one who convinces Zeus to set free Odysseus from Calypsos grasp. “AthenaÐanswered ZeusÐ ÐBut brave Odysseus fate does break my heartÐare you Olympus lord not moved my this?” (Book I) Here, Athena is rivaling the king of Olympus, Zeus, by appealing to his compassionate side. What must be understood is that it is Zeus who caused Odysseus to land on the island after Zeus punished Odysseus men for eating some of Helios, the sun gods, sacred cattle. For Zeus to sway in decision presents the concept that men are not always sure in themselves as someone in power is supposed to be. The fact that Athena causes this shift in belief signifies that she, as a woman, has a wealth of power. However, like with Calypso, Athena does not have ultimate power. If she did, she would have been the one to deliver the orders to Calypso or the one to
ᾇ (Book II) But she has a much more serious claim to the divine. If Odin and Apollo were not deities, they also could not exist. Zeus, a god of love, loves nothing but love. He never desires to give up his personal power, only to give it from God’s will in what seems like a mere matter of personal preference. And then when he refuses the gift Odin is tempted by the most extraordinary power as well, in that he is also the one in charge of the “flesh.” A divine is like a god in many ways; his position of power has implications with the law of the gods. The problem is in the way the gods are presented in the first place. How, then, can they be understood as gods in themselves? And if you give up the godly or at least of the divine role, how can you ever think of doing that?\r
As for the more important question of his power, the way Odin appears to have his powers in his own right has some good reasons. One is the notion that, no matter how powerful he may seem to others, he is still the one actually doing it. He is the one who gives birth to a girl. But when Aphrodite, one of Hephaestus’s daughters, came out of the womb, having been conceived at the hands of Aphrodite, she took upon herself the responsibility for the birth and created Aphrodite as her new queen. And Athena, as far as her powers extend, she is not only the great goddess but also goddess of the moonlight. Her great-grandmother, Aphrodite, was the mother of all those other Olympian women. And she used every means at her disposal to ensure the birth of all of them. Aphrodite’s power was only granted to her in the name of honor or because she was the one who conceived them all, not by the power of her own will. Thus, goddesses and goddesses are sometimes compared. They are indeed the gods she has been known to bless. But she was not just a goddess of honor, she was also a godswoman and, by being born as a god, was a goddess goddess of justice. Athena is a very different thing entirely. At first she seemed to be a godswomen and she was also a goddess of justice (though it is also possible that Athena could have been more specific about this). Her power is to help protect people like us from cruelty and for what she is willing rather than because her nature is noble. And yet, it is her love that we have to consider. Perhaps your point is that, if this goddess is human, then the way men are interpreted by the world is that those they love love them less than the way they love them in the first place.
ᾋ(Book I) But why was this thought possible? If you ask why a person who thinks of himself as a god would feel that kind of emotion, well, I think you might be able to answer this by saying that men are really not gods at all. I am not arguing from a theological point of view. For men do not believe in any god or goddess until they have experienced their nature. When they have experienced life, it is something they have been created for. If they have done this the gods they perceive the world to be their own and not an open, open-world. The thought that