Role of Women in Homeric Greek Society Essay - 1927 Words

Including both Homer’s works, the Odyssey and Iliad, he echoes his cultures conception of women as being either helpers of men or hindrances or restraints to them, however essentially insubstantial in their own right. Yet the only exceptions to this rule are immortals such as Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite, who function by a different set of guidelines because they are goddesses. For instance, they are allowed to have more independence then flesh- and-blood women because they are already symbols of some random abstract virtue or perhaps a principle, or beauty, and therefore they instantly have their own role to fill. As we know Iliad and Odyssey are poems relating adventures surrounding the Trojan War where both poems women are common and†¦show more content†¦However, despite the fact that it was her flight which spawned the Trojan War, she seems to just go with the flow. Hector’s mother Hekabe (in many translations, called Hecuba) is another character whom seems to fit squarely into a socially-acceptable feminine role. She treats those whom her husband and son abhor, fear for her son, and urges or advocates him not to re-enter the battle; he disregards her on purpose, of course, because to have listened to her would have considered as unmanly in his culture. She almost functions in the same capacity as the Chorus in a Greek tragedy where hers is the voice of her culture. In addition, Hector’s wife, Andromache, also appeals with Hector to remain with her; just like Hector himself, she know the Trojan cause was doomed, and she wanted to hang onto her husband and child for the brief time they will have left together. Now, it is clear they really love each other, and the love they share for their little son touching and human. Accordingly, he tells her, â€Å"Please go home and tend to your own tasks, the distaff and the loom, and keep the women working hard as well† (Iliad, Book VI, 304-305). Although in Andromache we see a flee ting glimpse of not only a respectful devoted wife but a frightened woman, we still see her only in relation to her husband, and in the end this is how her husband sees her as well.Show MoreRelatedHomeric Hymn To Demeter1287 Words   |  6 PagesThe Homeric Hymn to Demeter details the kidnapping of Persephone and the consequent fallout of this event. The myth itself represents a change in the structure of Greek myth, shifting from a centrally matriarchal system to that of a patriarchal. By casting feminine traits in a negative light and masculine traits in a positive light, the myth spreads a new ideology to the formerly matricidal Greeks. 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