On one hand Athena is a powerful, resourceful and respected character. On the other hand, Penelope is the stereotypical wife, waiting at home working on household chores while Odysseus sails the globe and has a lady in ever port.
Now a days women have almost as many rights that men do, and equality is much more popular. During the time of the Odyssey many women were forced to stay at home and do house hold chores, be forced in to slavery, not being able to fight in the wars, and have no effect on if their loved ones get home or not. I would most definitely consider Homer to be and old-fashioned sexist.
Many thought that the typical woman stays at home and does all the household chores, this idea is portrayed by many women in the Odyssey including Penelope. Penelope stays at home, cleans and cooks all day long. I would consider this to be sexism because its the stereotypical view on women that many men had back in the old days, and now. Most men didn't think that women can do what they can because of what the past has taught us, so in Homers days that role for women was typical. Even though he was just going along with what everyone else thought, he was still a sexist in the sense that he didn't believe Penelope or any other women could amount to the work that the men did. During the Odyssey women not only had to stay and home, they were often forced into slavery when others attacked the city. Unfortunately today women are still sometimes taken advantage of, but it is now frowned upon because women have the right to say no. Yet in the Odyssey when women were forced into slavery none of the other people had a problem with it. Penelope along with many other women were forced to work for and pleasure the men who "controlled" them. The fact that Homer wrote about this numerous times and didn't hint at anything immoral with this, completely portrays him as a sexist. Not only were women taken advantage of, but they were never given the chance to prove that they could do more with their lives. There were and are women who are just as smart as men and many times even wiser than men. In the Odyssey women were never given the chance to fight, and prove that they could. Homer wrote that some women, such as Athena, were able to fight. Yet Athena was a goddess, and there were definitely many women that if given the chance, would fight to defend their home and family. Homer shows his sexism by portraying many of the women in this poem as week and unable to defend themselves. Due to this lack of ability to fight the women of this tale were unable to help their loved one, husbands and sons, return safely from war. Now a days we have many women fighting over seas to protect our country, but in the times of the Odyssey it was never even talked about. Again Homer was just writing about the truth of what society was like, but that still doesn't justify his sexism. If Homer was in fact not a sexist he would have possibly hinted or even directly wrote about a strong, wise, and driven woman who made a difference in society. Instead he just wrote about hundreds of men. After reading the Odyssey there's no doubt in my mind that Homer was a sexist.
2 comments:
I like your view and how you portrayed it. I think it's really cool how you brought up America is so farmiliar and tied them to The Odyssey. The women of our country faught so hard for rights that had never been given to them. It is a huge part of American history and its amazing to think how sexism started way back in ancient Greece. Also it made me wonder about how Zues in The Illiad told Aphrodite not to fight because it was not her place. Was that because she was too weak to fight? or was he just stereotyping her because she's a girl? I really like how you explained your view and made the connections.
Paige you are completely right. Homer was definitely a sexist for the reasons you mentioned above. Some may argue that Circe and Athena played influential roles in the story, but they were goddesses and, like you said, "many women if given the chance, would fight to defend their home and family". I really liked how you managed to tie present day beliefs into your answer.
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