Throughout the
book thus far, we have encountered many female characters (especially in Book
11). I wanted to highlight Penelope and Calypso in particular and look at the
role they play in the story, given that the story mainly involves male characters.
These two characters, I feel, are unique compared to the other women in the story
and both have a relationship with Odysseus.
Penelope (Odysseus’
wife) is extremely smart and beautiful. We learn early in the story that she is
being sought out by inconsiderate and mean suitors. Despite passing her nights
in misery and days in tears, Penelope still has hope that her husband will return.
To delay choosing a suitor for as long as possible, she tells them that she
must weave a shroud for her father-in-law Laertes. During the day she weaves
and during the night she unravels what she had done during the day,
consequently making no progress. This plan works for three years until she is
betrayed by one of her servants who tells the suitors her plan. Throughout the
story, she is constantly acknowledged for her loyalty to Odysseus and having their
son right before Odysseus leaves for Troy. If there was a main motherly figure
in the Odyssey, it would be Penelope.
The next main
female character is Calypso. She is the goddess who traps Odysseus on her
island because she is in love with him. Like all the women in this book, she is
beautiful (even more so because of her status as a goddess). No matter how hard
she tries to sway Odysseus, he always wants to leave and go back to Ithaca and
see his own wife. When Hermes comes to tell her that the Gods want her to free Odysseus,
she is initially upset. All the other Gods are allowed to have relationships
with mortals, she doesn’t see why Odysseus is any different. Despite being
upset, she doesn’t put up a fight and agrees to let him go. Personally, I
thought she would have disobeyed their wishes or have been a little more difficult.
In general, women
in this book are pretty and mainly serve to have children. This was the idea I
expected for wealthy women (even goddesses) in Greek myths. My expectation was
met with many of the characters (even the two above), but there were a couple
of aspects that I found surprising. For Penelope, I was surprised that she was
given the capability to think of her weaving plan, I was surprised that Athena
didn’t whisper is to her. With Calypso, I was surprised that she held Odysseus
on that island and called the Gods out when they asked her to free him. I was
disappointed she didn’t put up more of a fight (given that she had gone this
far) but at least there was something. I
was also surprised that Calypso never had any children with Odysseus (none that
we know of). She slept with Odysseus for the fun of it, which is surprising to
hear from a woman in this time period. In no way am I saying that these
characters break all stereotypes of women, trust me there are still plenty, but
I wanted to acknowledge the little things that didn’t fall into the stereotypes.
Is it fair to refer to characters as stereotypical when they were written at the very beginning of Western culture? I don't know.
ReplyDeleteI get where you're coming from about some of the stereotypes represented by the women (the translation of Calypso saying "my body is better than hers" is just so ridiculous - and she's a goddess, she should have better things to do) but I think Penelope deserves a little more credit. Her character is pretty much defined by Odysseus, but still, I think a woman who married very young, was abandoned with a newborn, raised said kid without her husband and also kept the country together without its king in a super male-dominated society, and then dealt with all of the idiot suitors, managing to stay chaste and faithful while cleverly remaining within the confines of societal norms is much more than a stereotype. And in the end, Penelope just wants the same thing as Odysseus - to be a family again. However, part of that is probably just that I'm so surprised by any agency in female characters from a book this old that I'm giving it too much credit.
Nice blog post, though, and you brought up some interesting ideas. I might steal them for my next post.
It's interesting that these characters seem to break (in at least a few ways) the stereotypes of women of the time, but also it seems to be that the characters in the Odyssey are surprised with it as well. The suitors remark about Penelope's trick, which they regard with some surprise that she was able to hold them back. And with Calypso, no one explicitly is surprised by her response, but it certainly is portrayed as if the listeners should be surprised. These irregularities in the stereotypes of women might have just been "plot hooks" for people to notice.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think it's safe to say that the ancient Greeks weren't super woke when it came to gender. Pretty much every woman we see is basically sorted into two categories: cheater and faithful, and basically only Penelope (and sort of Anticleia) get to be deemed the latter. Every other woman is dishonest, evil, etc. And it's funny, because tons of guys do the same stuff and it's, like, fine. I mean, how would Odysseus have felt if Penelope had done the same as him and spent a year partying with Circe when everyone was missing her back home?
ReplyDeleteI also think it's important to acknowledge how we're supposed to perceive the breaking of the stereotypes. When Penelope does the weaving trick, I think we're supposed to see it as indicative of how she's uniquely loyal and basically the only good wife in Greece. Meanwhile, when Calypso sleeps with Odysseus I think we're supposed to see her as evil. So I think that these transgressions are definitely viewed in very different lights and contribute to our overall perception of their characters as good/evil etc.
I think fundamentally our hyper-focus on the faithfulness of women throughout the epic is a stereotype. Even in today’s society, some of the worst insults you can throw at a woman involve her being promiscuous or a cheater. Similarly, both then and now, these standards don’t seem to apply to men, conversely, men are praised for sleeping with a lot of women. It’s a little depressing that these ideas have been around for such a long time and yet are still so prevalent in our society.
DeleteWell, I think the fact that they have been around so long is why they're still around. Like old habits die hard, and it's honestly impressive that we've come as far as we have you know? This goes back to class discussions but it's important to put yourself in the culture of ancient Greece when reading this poem and women in ancient Greece were literally seen as deformed men, not quite people. I think that attitude is one we're still trying to shake today.
DeleteI think this is a really interesting topic to delve into, one which we often ignore in class. I think, for one, it is not unusual to see women (particularly goddesses) in Greek culture who are very, let's say, promiscuous, though the more common women may not follow that same trend, or if they do, are put down for it (much like modern society). Athena's lack of an interest in Penelope can sort of be seen to follow another trend of ignoring the possibilities of women. Despite Athena's being a woman, she still focuses her attention on the men, who are expected to be smart , rather than the women.
ReplyDeleteNice post! I think Calypso is really interesting, especially since she actually calls out the gods for being unfair to goddesses. I read a graphic novel version of the Odyssey a few years ago and from that I got the impression that Calypso was evil or at least sort of sneaky and manipulative. So I was surprised to find out that she wasn't trapping Odysseus so much as just making the best of being stuck on the same island he was stuck on. Maybe Homer thought her actions were evil but she seemed morally fine to me. I guess I just think it's interesting that even a modern interpretation of Calypso can't make her a woman who has sex but isn't evil.
ReplyDeleteCalypso is in many ways a sympathetic figure, especially when she calls out Hermes for the sexual double standard on Mount Olympus, when it comes to illicit relations between gods and mortals. And Odysseus's "imprisonment" on her island isn't depicted as a result of her evil character--he describes her as "helping" him when he first arrives, and by all accounts she treats him really well when he arrives. He has no ship to return with, and neither does she, so she seems to basically see it as, fate has brought them together. She seems genuinely baffled that Odysseus wouldn't prefer immortality and her godlike beauty to his mortal wife--it sounds like a pretty good offer to her. But she acquiesces to Zeus's command (under protest), and does her best to, again, help Odysseus on his way.
ReplyDelete