The Odyssey is a major Greek poem and is attributed to Homer with its fundamental nature to the modern canon of the Western world. This poem centers on the Greek hero who is Odysseus and his journey after Troy’s fall. Odysseus had his wife Penelope remains at home as he went for war and men came around wanting to marry her. This essay aims at exploring how gender—masculinities and femininities—is portrayed in the poem and further explain how male characters think about the female and how the females and males interact. In general, the essay has an intention of seeing into gender issues especially in the Greek context.
Gender masculinities and femininities are portrayed in this poem as the males having more power than the females. It is evident when the man Odyssey leaves for war and leaves his wife home and his wealth giving an impression that the males are the ones who worked and the females staying back at home. The males treat the female characters with disrespect and behave in a manner that the females have no rights. The suitors approach Penelope for marriage yet she is married and the only absence of her husband is because he was away working. It is a sign of disrespect and is further facilitated by the son, Telemachus who urges the suitors to approach his mother and wants her to get married.
Telemachus stays back at home with his mother and helps her consume his father’s property with many people eyeing his mother and he supported that. The man Odyssey kills those who were eyeing his wife and the men around also carelessly follow a married woman just because the husband is away. The patterns that emerge here are disorganization and disrespect amongst the characters. A model of femininities and masculinities appearing in the poem is gender identity. The different genders are identified in a manner that the females are having less power as compared to the males whereby the males provide for the males and go to work leaving the females. Furthermore, the females are not respected and everyone in this poem wants to sleep with Penelope.
The major two male characters that will be discussed in this essay are Odyssey and his son Telemachus. Odyssey is seen to be dominating and hardworking. It is true because Odyssey sees his wife as not able to provide thus his gender allows him to work and even go for war trips in order to provide for his family. Odyssey is even seen to be jealous when he finds out that his wife had suitors when he was away and does away with the culprits including the maiden. This particular man has adequate wealth that even makes his son want to misuse. It is thus evident that he is hard working and this enables him to be rich and provide for his family without straining. His busy schedule in the name of working away from home proves his hard work even more. Telemachus is opportunistic and disrespectful. As a son, he should respect his mother but surprisingly he encourages men to suit his mother and wants some to marry her while his father is away. His opportunistic character comes in when he wants to squander his father’s wealth.
Finally, the female characters here are Penelope and Athena the goddess. Penelope is seen to be soft and is even approached by men for marriage and when her son agrees to this she does not react. Athena is protective and is said to be the protector of Odyssey. The male characters violate issues of gender since both men and women are equal and the disrespect given to women should not exist. The ancient Greek’s ideas about gender correspond with the poem because the males were seen to be better than females and females had no voice but to subdue to the males.
References
Johnson, D. B., & Mowry, T. A. (2012). Mathematics: A practical odyssey. Belmont, Calif: Brooks/Cole/Cengage Learning.
Kasoff, S. (2008). Odyssey: Early days on the Tonight show starring Johnny Carson : fun and games, insights and observations, from someone who was there at the beginning. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse.
Robinson, M. E. (2007). Korea's twentieth-century odyssey: A short history. Honolulu, T.H: University of Hawai'i Press.
