Wednesday, February 13, 2019

The Portrayal of Women in Homers Odyssey Essay -- The Odyssey by Home

Does Homer exhibit gender bias in the Odyssey? Is the nature of muliebrity as depicted in the Odyssey in any way telling? Upon examining the text of the Odyssey for differential treatment on men and women, it becomes necessary to tell between three possible conclusions. One, differences in treatment reflect the implicit in(p) Homeric thesis that women are different but equal in nature, Two, different treatment of men and women in the text reflect a thesis that women are different and unequal in nature -- arguments closely misogyny fall in here but a soldiery of other interpretive possibilities are possible too. Three, the different treatment reflects impartial ignorance. How much do we attribute what we discover to male authorship -- or female authorship? In beginning, we might look to the gods for a clue. The criminal conversation between Ares and Aphrodite for example is evenly represented -- both parties are to institutionalize -- both are shamed -- both are banished. Al though there is whatsoever locker room talk between two of the male gods that they would willingly lie in chains several layers thick to be beside Aphrodite. sexuality among mortals is another key to this poem and this question. Women and men are represented differentially in this regard -- The herdsman Eumaios -- Odysseus brother by adoption recounts how he came to Ithaka a captive of a slave fair sex Phoinikia -- a woman who had been seduced by a roving seafarer w... .... 17-27. Griffin, Jasper. Homer on animation and Death, 1980, Clarendon Press. Richard Brilliant, Kirkes Men Swine and Sweethearts, pp. 165-73. Helene Foley, Penelope as Moral Agent, in Beth Cohen, ed., The Distaff nerve (Oxford 1995), pp. 93-115. Jennifer Neils, Les Femmes Fatales Skylla and the Sirens in Greek Art, pp. 175-84. Lillian Doherty, Siren Songs Gender, Audiences, and Narrators in the Odyssey (Ann Arbor 1995), esp. chapter 1. Mary Lefkowitz, conquering and Rape in Greek Myth, 17-37. Marilyn Art hur Katz, Penelopes Renown Meaning and Indeterminacy in the Odyssey (Princeton 1991). Nancy Felson-Rubin, Regarding Penelope From Courtship to Poetics (Princeton 1994).

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