Female Characters In The Odyssey – Helpers and Hindrances

Female Characters In The Odyssey – Helpers and Hindrances

What roles are played by the female characters in the odyssey?

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They are either Helpers or Hindrances. Women in the Odyssey offer an insight into the roles of women in general in ancient Greece during the time of the epic’s writing. The society of the day was patriarchal. Women were considered weak yet cunning. Men were strong, brave, courageous.

Greek mythology stretching back to Pandora portrayed women as often-foolish and weak-willed, with their curiosity far too strong for their own good, leaving them in need of a man to guide and control them. In the origins story of Greek mythology, Pandora was a woman who was given a box containing all of the woes of the world. Warned not to open it, she was unable to resist taking a peek. By opening the box, she released all of the woes that plague humanity to this day.

Like Eve of Christian mythology, Pandora is held responsible for all of the challenges and difficulties faced by men of the world. Women, in the Odyssey, live under the shadow of Pandora, and the disfavor of the gods. They are forever in need of the leading of men to prevent them from wreaking havoc and creating chaos in the world. 

Women were often used as pawns, whether in human affairs or those of the gods. Women were given and taken in marriage, held as objects of both desire and scorn. Helen, a great beauty, was stolen away, causing the Trojan war. She was criticized for giving in to her captors, costing thousands of soldier’s lives. No real mention is made of what Helen herself preferred in terms of where she would have liked to reside or who she wished to marry. She is only the object of desire and blame. 

 Symbolism About Women In The Odyssey

Women in the Odyssey fell into one of a handful of categories- they could be independent of male leading and control, and therefore dangerous. A woman could be a source of temptation and an object of sexual desire. A woman could be a wife or woman of virtue, to be defended and admired. Finally, a woman could be a chattel, a slave or a wife used as a pawn as men wrestled over power and control.