Powerful Women of Homer's Odyssey Essay Sample

All characters in The Odyssey are brilliant in their own way, but something that stands out about female characters in The Odyssey is that they are all, to put it simply, strong. Their strength, whether in the mind or the body, makes them unique and memorable. They are never “damsels in distress” or play into common stereotypes about women, they have depth and characteristics that make a male save-the-day hero unnecessary. Women in The Odyssey are portrayed with strength and depth through powerful Calypso, intellectual Athena, and cunning Penelope. 

The first example of women being portrayed with strength is Calypso. Calypso was an egocentric goddess that captured Odysseus on her island for approximately seven years while having strict power over Odysseus during his stay. In The Odyssey, Calypso is described as “powerful” and “cunning” (The Odyssey), which is a true statement. For Odysseus’ entire stay at Calypso’s island after he washed up there alone without a crew, the dynamic between them is dominated by Calypso, the woman. She restricts his departure from Ogygia and does not let him go until she is commanded to by gods more powerful than her. Although Calypso is commanding and visibly strong, which are typically desirable traits, she uses them to cause adversity and seems to strangle Odysseus in a metaphorical chokehold while forcing him to be her lover. The “good” traits that Calypso shows through her womanhood are also the ones that cause her to be considered a monster. However, Calypso’s evility does not stop her from being a well-developed character. She is manipulative and seductive, but she is also smart, ambitious, and insightful. She does not necessarily prove nobility through her actions, but she does show her control and power as a woman with her multiple sides and strength.

The second example of strength and depth being used to portray women is Athena. Athena is the goddess of war, wisdom, and female arts, and in The Odyssey she aides Odysseus through the hardships and battles he faces using her powers as a goddess. She is battle-smart and clever, helping Odysseus and Telemachus win their battle against the suitors to get to Penelope. She encourages the two warriors, and eventually even influences the battle so that the spears of the suitors cannot hit Odysseus and Telemachus, but their spears always hit the suitors. This strategy soon quells the battle and lets the two win against the dozens of suitors. Athena and Odysseus also have a large amount of respect for each other. This respect does not come from love, admiration, or even the relationship between a god and a mortal, but from the ability, they both have to recognize each other’s brilliance. Athena aides Odysseus many times throughout the story, such as when she helps him out of his shipwreck caused by Zeus because she sees his abilities and recognizes herself in him. One is not above the other in the relationship, they acknowledge that both wield a large amount of power and treat each other as equals. This respect leads Athena to help Odysseus in multiple ways, one of which is disguising him as a beggar so he can enter Ithaca and his palace, revealing him only to his son: “Saying no more, she tipped her golden wand upon the man, making his cloak pure white, and the knit tunic fresh around him.” This plan, along with her aid in the suitor battle and Odysseus’s respect for her show that she is a well-rounded female character. Athena is respected, powerful, commanding, and a supreme intellectual and she shows this through her actions in helping Odysseus through his struggle home for Ithaca. Homer presents Athena through a lens of brilliance, showing her compelling influence over Odysseus’s story while not letting her femininity make her a character of little strength or one whose only purpose is to fawn over a man she cannot have.

The third example of women in The Odyssey being portrayed with strength is Penelope, wife of Odysseus and queen of Ithaca. Penelope proved herself over and over again to be a bright and clever individual, dealing with the entire country of Ithaca as the solitary ruler while simultaneously dealing with the violent suitors that came to take her husband’s place. Penelope was suddenly deprived of her husband to help her rule her country and had to handle it for not only the time Odysseus was away at battle but for the entire twenty years of him at war and traveling home. Odysseus even acclaimed her rule as queen after he returned home, saying that “Your name has gone out under heaven like the sweet honor of some god-fearing king, who rules in equity over the strong: his black lands bear both wheat and barley…” Penelope’s reputation and rule as queen prove her to be a strong female character- one that does not need to depend on a man to guide her in the face of difficulty. As a matter of fact, Penelope consistently rejected the many men that attempted to pursue her in the later years of Odysseus’s disappearance. She even came up with a plan that could save her many years of having to remarry: weaving the tapestry she had to finish to be wed by day and unraveling her work by night. This delayed her eventual marriage to one of the suitors for years until her husband arrived home. Her action used to prevent an unwanted marriage to a suitor displays that she was a skillful and cunning woman, as well as how she led an entire country by herself while dealing with the disappearance of her husband. These actions prove to the reader that Penelope was determined and independent, and could protect herself in times of trouble. She did not need her husband to save her or chaperone her through her queenship, she was an excellent and faithful leader on her own and could solve problems with her strong mind. 

As shown throughout The Odyssey, women are portrayed as well-rounded and deep characters, all remarkable in their ways. They are just as profound and well-developed as their male counterparts, with stories that are concurrently devoted to expanding the plot of the story and evolving the characters. None of the main female characters explained in this essay rely on Odysseus or any other man to “rescue” them, in fact, Odysseus is not the hero of any of their own stories. Women in The Odyssey prove their tenacity through their actions and sovereignty, as well as showing that they can be equal with men regardless of gender or physical strength.