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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 4 page paper which examines the way in which mortal women of all social classes are portrayed in the Greek epic poem. No additional sources are used.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TG15_TGodwom.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
and realistic portrayal of mortal women that distinguishes itself from other classical works of the period. These women are not simply one-dimensional war prizes to be fought over in
combats (which more closely resembled testosterone contests), as they were portrayed in "The Iliad." They were not adornments or limp male appendages. These were women who enjoyed a
large degree of independence and assertiveness. But no matter how strong or self-sufficient they seem to be, they never lose their femininity or compromise their female identity in any
way. Therefore, while they prove to be in more than one instance to be forces to be reckoned with, they never threaten the considerable male ego in any way.
The most famed mortal woman in "The Odyssey" is Spartas Queen Helen, wife of Menelaus, whose kidnapping resulted in the Trojan War. She has historically been portrayed as weak,
but Homer deviates from convention by depicting her as clever and perceptive. When Telemakhos seeks to uncover his fathers whereabouts, it is Helen who surprisingly offers to help him.
She shares important insights into Odysseus, while at the same time reassuring Telemakhos he was still very much alive: "Not that I think of naming, far less telling, /
every feat of that rugged man, Odysseus, / but here is something that he dared to do / at Troy, where you Akhaians endured the war. / He had, first,
given himself an outrageous beating / and thrown some rags on - like a household slave - / then slipped into that city of wide lanes / among his enemies.
So changed, he looked / as never before upon the Akhaian beachhead, / but like a beggar, merged in the townspeople; / and no one there remarked him.
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