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| Being
a Woman
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Contents
1. Introduction
2. “The Hymn to Demeter” vs “Odyssey
3. Homeric representation of gender roles
4. Conclusion
Introduction
Homer is a famous and mysterious figure in the ancient literature
who made a significant contribution in the development of
literature of all times. His personality and existence is
the subject for numerous discussions since some specialists
consider that he did not live at all but despite these arguments
the importance of works, which are known as works by Homer,
is not less significant.
Homeric works are characterized by description of ancient
Greek traditions, beliefs, stereotypes. At this respect the
attitude to women and their role in the society seem to be
very interesting to analyze in the context of his works, such
as “The Hymn to Demeter” and “The Odyssey”.
These two works represent a gradual evolution on the role
of women in society that will be discussed in terms of this
paper.
“The Hymn to Demeter” vs “Odyssey”
On comparing two works by Homer, “The Hymn to Demeter”
and “The Odyssey”, it should be said that they
represent the transition of views from initially matriarchal
prevailing to the new patriarchic views where the role of
women becomes more dependable on men. Nonetheless, there may
be found a lot of common features that make both works similar.
In fact “The Hymn to Demeter” depicts women to
a certain extent dominating and controlling people. obviously
in this work the traces of the matriarchal epoch are very
strong because the Goddesses, namely Demeter, are so influential
that even Zeus, the head of the Greek pantheon feels a kind
of apprehension from her part. She is so influential that
“she would have destroyed whole race of men and would
have deprived Olympians of splendid honor of gifts and sacrifices”
(The Hymn to Demeter). The reason is that at that epoch women
Goddesses as well as women at large were traditionally associated
with fertility consequently in such a context Demeter’s
threats seemed to be more than real for ancient Greeks.
At this respect “The Hymn to Demeter” is quite
different from “The Odyssey”. The reason is that
in “The Hymn to Demeter” people are very weak
creatures fully depending on Gods and Goddesses will while
“The Odyssey” symbolizes the increasing role of
men and their power along with the decreasing role of Gods
and Goddesses that is one of the symbols of the transformations
that took place in the ancient Greek society. For instance,
Odyssey remarks: “Verily Calypso, the fair Goddess,
would fain have kept me with her in hallow caves, longing
to have me for her lord; and likewise too, guileful Circe
of Aia, would have stayed me in her halls longing to have
me for her lord. But never did they prevail upon my heart
within my breast” (“The Odyssey”). Obviously
it directly opposes to “feeble tribes of men and Gods”
(“The Hymn to Demeter”).
At the same time such transformation concerned not only divine
sphere but everyday life as well. In “The Odyssey”
the role of women is more limited as compared to “The
Hymn to Demeter”, where women played a very important
social role and occupied significant social position while
in “The Odyssey” the role of women is narrowed
and now women are basically occupied with the family. A symbol
of such loyalty to a man and keeping faithfulness to the husband
is Penelope, the wife of Odyssey. She remains loyal to him
and brings up their son.
Furthermore, if in “The Hymn to Demeter” the author
depicts women being deceived by men than in “The Odyssey”
he attempts to depict women as violating ‘rules’,
for instance, when Odyssey speaks about Circe “who hast
turned my company in swines within thy halls” (“The
Odyssey”), practically the same may be said about Calypso
who wanted to stay Odyssey with her. While in “The Hymn
to Demeter” a reader witnesses the capture of Persephone.
In all probability it is another evidence of the gradual transformation
from matriarchal to patriarchal society and in such a transformation
negative features traditionally were applied to the deprived
gender.
Speaking about similarities, it is possible to say that women
still play quite a significant role in both works though in
“The Odyssey” the role of women have significantly
been decreased since they do not control the life of the whole
world and all people and Gods as it used to be in “The
Hymn to Demeter”. But even speaking about women domination
in the latter work, it is still quite relevant because to
a certain extent this work symbolizes a ‘gender revolution’
that has been started when a man, on kidnapping a woma, made
her to obey and this trend was only continued in “The
Odyssey”.
Homeric representation of gender roles
In fact it is hardly possible to speak about objective representation
of gender roles in works by Homer, including the two discussed
above. Nonetheless, it is still quite skillful and reflects
the main processes that took place in the ancient Greek society
at the epoch. It should be also said that in Homer represents
both Gods and people and his Gods and Goddesses look like
ordinary people and behave correspondingly but what is really
important is the fact that they were perceived as samples
as sources for models of social behavior. In such a context
the decreasing role of Goddesses in the Greek pantheon revealed
by Homer is quite symbolic.
Furthermore, despite a certain degree of subjectivity it is
still obvious the inequality that existed between genders
at the epoch of Homer. And the gradual growth of the role
of men in the context of decreasing role of women is evident
that obviously reflected the process of the formation of patriarchal
society.
Furthermore, in “The Hymn to Demeter” a reader
observe a kind of admiration and respecting of women that
is clear even from the title while in “The Odyssey”
the attitude to women is very critical though the author still
admires with women beauty but such admiration lacks of socially
significant actions that women could carry on.
Consequently it may be said that in his works Homer underlines
the fact that women get started to be perceived differently
and new qualities have become important, such as loyalty,
tolerance, etc. In all probability if “The Hymn to Demeter”
and “The Odyssey” are taken as the basis for comparison
than it would be possible to admit that Demeter used to be
an ideal woman which possess such traits of character which
later would be considered typically male, for instance her
boldness to find Persephone, while in “The Odyssey”
Penelope takes her place, a woman that is obedient and loyal
to her husband, for her family is of a paramount importance.
Conclusion
Anyway, on summarizing the presentation of genders in Homer’s
works it should be said that they reflect unfair attitude
caused by unequal position of men and women in the ancient
Greek society.
Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is possible
to conclude that Homer has skillfully reflected the changes
in social views on the role of women in the society and he
underlined the disturbing trends for women which became more
and more deprived that found its reflection not only in their
everyday life but in art and in literature in particular.
And this is exactly what makes his works so important for
contemporary readers since they help to understand how people
lived thousands of years ago and what a kind of society was
in that epoch because knowledge about problems that existed
in the past can really contribute to better understanding
of the current problems and their solution.
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