Loyalty in Homer's Odyssey Essay Sample

In Homer's epic The Odyssey, Greeks valued loyalty. The women were expected to remain loyal to their husbands, and the people were expected to remain loyal to each other. Odysseus views Penelope as a loyal wife, but the suitors see her only as a temptress. Due to the value of loyalty, women were viewed as either temptresses or housewives. This is similar to today's society, where women are judged harshly for anything they do. In The Odyssey, Penelope is seen as both a temptress and a loyal housewife. First off, Homer portrays Penelope as both a temptress and a loyal housewife. He wants to show the value of loyalty more in-depth. By contrasting how Penelope is viewed, it shows her loyalty to Odysseus. When Homer shows Penelope as a crude temptress by having her lead the suitors on for many years, she is remaining loyal to Odysseus. She is also shown to be loyal when one of her servants lashes out at Odysseus, Penelope quickly comes to his defense and wheels “on the maid and tongue-lashed her smartly [saying] make no mistake, you brazen, shameless bitch, none of your ugly work escapes me either-you will pay for it with your life” (19.318). At this point in the book, Penelope only knows Odysseus as a beggar who knew her husband; she has no clue he was secretly Odysseus. However, because he is a friend of her husband, she comes to his defense. Penelope is so loyal to her husband she defends one of his friends even though she believes him to be dead. Another example of Penelope’s loyalty is when she is recounting the tale of what happened to her husband and how she wishes he would come back. Penelope believes that “if he could return to tend to my life the renown I had would only grow in glory. Now my life is torment…” (19.319). Penelope, like the loyal wife she is, believes she needs her husband, and without him, her life is just tormenting. After 20 years, she is still holding onto him, and cannot believe she can lead a life without him. This kind of loyalty, women in Greek society are expected to uphold. They are expected to still care about their husbands and remain loyal to them unless they are confirmed to be dead, which is why Penelope is a perfect example of this. On the other hand, Penelope is also portrayed by Homer as a temptress to the suitors. Eurymachus tells Telemachus to have his mother marry one of the suitors because, “the Queen drags out our hopes to wed her, waiting, day after day, all of us striving hard to win [her] matchless beauty. Never courting others” (2.24). Penelope leads on her suitors, having them fight for her hand, give her gifts, and flirt with her trying to win her hand. However, she never intends to marry any of them. When with the suitors, she is showing temptress characteristics. When Odysseus shows up at her house in disguise to speak with her, she recounts what happened with Odysseus.

Finally, in today’s society, women are still expected to remain loyal, even if men aren’t. Women are still viewed mostly the same today as they were back in ancient Greece. Many men today argue that if a man cheats it’s purely out of lust, but if a woman cheats it’s out of emotion. There are podcasts such as “FreshandFit” circling the internet claiming that men should be allowed to cheat but not women, just like in The Odyssey. One of the “FreshandFit” podcasts says that if a woman has an Instagram it should be considered cheating. The men on this podcast say that they pay the bills and take care of their girlfriends, so their girlfriends have to show their love for them by deleting their Instagram or any other app where they show off their bodies. The men in these podcasts are very toxic and to them, even having a girl’s night out with your friends is cheating. The sad part is, that seven hundred and two thousand people follow them. This correlates to The Odyssey because when Odysseus is talking to Calypso, he tells her that Penelope “falls short of you, your beauty, stature” (5.84). He continues to go on to say that he misses Penelope and loves her, but then he and Calypso withdraw “into the cavern’s deep recesses, long in each other’s arms they [lose] themselves in love” (5.84). Although Odysseus claims he loves Penelope, he still cheats on her with Calypso, not thinking or caring about how she might feel. He doesn’t care about the consequences of his actions and how they would affect others. No matter how much he says he loves Penelope, he still cheats on her with other women. He could claim it is out of lust but if he truly loves his wife, why should it not matter if he sleeps with other women? Many men today feel that their supposed love for their partners makes up for all of their “mistakes that will only happen one time”. Your love should be the reason you would never do that, not the reason your partner should forgive you. Women in both ancient Greek society and modern-day society are expected to be married to a man and have children. If you don’t have that or want that, you are put down and told you will change your mind later in life. Penelope didn’t want to re-marry, but her wishes cause people like the suitors to try to force her to remarry because that is expected. Today’s society is the same, although it is no one’s life except that woman’s, everyone else feels the need to tell her what to do. If she isn’t married, she’ll need to get married soon because no man will want her past a certain age. Or if you are married, then you might want to get plastic surgery because your husband might want to go for your child’s nanny. In some cases, it’s said as a joke, but that person is just ingraining misogyny even more into society. Men can cheat on their wives, but the second a woman makes a joke about it, they are called horrible names and put down. If a man has many flings, they are praised and congratulated, but a woman is put down for doing the same thing. Odysseus can cheat all he wants, while Penelope is expected to sit and wait for his return, but then after a certain point, she has to get remarried. In the end, women are still put down and viewed the same in today’s society as they were in Greek society because loyalty is required from women.