Roles Of Women In Homer's The Odyssey

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Throughout the plot of The Odyssey, the main hero Odysseus encounters a few women on his journey home to Ithaca. He even had affairs with a couple of them. Despite caring about his wife as much as he does, Odysseus had succumbed to temptation more than once. There were three other main female characters that he encountered during the epic. He met Calypso, Circe, Athena and at the end he finally reunites with his wife Penelope. Odysseus has a different relationship with each woman and they each treat him differently as well. The first woman Odysseus encounters is Calypso. Calypso is the beautiful goddess nymph who resides on the island of Ogygia. Once Odysseus ends up on her island, she falls in love with him and keeps him captive there for seven years. Calypso is very possessive and hopes to marry Odysseus. It takes Hermes, the messenger god to relay Zeus’ order to release Odysseus to make his way home. Even then, Calypso is desperate for Odysseus to stay with her and offers him immortality as a last ditch effort. After he refuses this offer, Calypso lies and tries to make herself look better by telling Odysseus “...after all these years with me, you still desire your old home? Even so,…show more content…
She serves as his guide throughout his mission to get home. She ensures that everything goes the right way for Odysseus. Athena often intervened to disguise Odysseus like when he finally made it to Ithaca. And once it was finally time to reveal his identity she also aided him in battle. Athena deflected the suitors’ attacks and made sure that Odysseus and his son would live and take back the palace. The last significant thing Athena did to aid Odysseus in his quest to reclaim his home was to make Ithaca forget the massacre so his name would not be sullied by the fact that he killed all the greedy bachelors in the area. Athena was just helpful to Odysseus. He did not have an affair with her and she just served as his guide throughout the

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