(Delsy Espinoza) Potential Thesis Paper 1

Theme: Women, with a focus on immortal women and the power they hold with their sexual independence as well as the punishment that comes from that

Possible Thesis:

Goddesses, although straying from the “powerless” stereotype linked to women, end up being punished for their sexual independence. Homer shows society’s (both that of the immortals and the mortals) double edge sword on the topic of sex.

Passages:

 “You gods are the most jealous bastards in the universe—

Persecuting any goddess who openly takes

A mortal lover to her bed and sleeps with him.

When Dawn caressed Orion with her rosy fingers,

You celestial layabouts gave her nothing but trouble

Until Artemis finally shot him on the Ortygia—

Gold-throned, holy, gentle-shafted assault goddess!

When Demeter followed her heart and unbound

Her hair for Iason and made love to him

In a late-summer field, Zeus was there taking notes

And executed the man with a cobalt lightning blast.

And now you gods are after me for having a man.

Well, I was the one who saved his life, unprying him

From the spar he came floating here on, sole survivor

Of the wreck Zeus made of his streamlined ship,

Slivering it with lightning on the wine-dark sea.

I loved him, I took care of him, I even told him

I’d make him immortal and ageless all of his days.”

(Book V: Lines 118-143)

-Calypso talks about how goddesses are shamed and even punished for taking on mortal lovers and includes many examples where this has also occurred to other goddesses.

 

“Father Zeus and all you blessed gods eternal,

Come see something that is as ridiculous

As it is unendurable, how Aphrodite,

Daughter of Zeus, scorns me for being lame

And loves that marauder Ares instead

…..

Poseidon came,

The God of Earthquake, and Hermes the Guide,

And the Archer Apollo. The goddesses

All stayed home, out of modesty; but the gods

Stood in the doorway and laughed uncontrollably

When they say Hephaestus’ cunning and craft.

One of them would look at another and snigger:

“Crime doesn’t pay.””

(Book VIII: Lines 328-332 and 348-354)

-Another example of a goddess being punished and ridiculed for taking on another lover even when gods were known for cheating on their partners and fathering many children with many different mothers, both mortal and immortal.

 

“Who are you, and where do you come from?

What is your city and who are your parents?

I am amazed that you drank this potion

And are not bewitched. No other man

Has ever resisted this drug once it’s past his lips.

But you have a mind that cannot be beguiled.

You must be Odysseus, the man of many wiles,

Who Quicksilver Hermes always said would come here

In his swift black ship on his way home from Troy.

Well then, sheath your sword and let’s

Climb into my bed and tangle in love there,

So we may come to trust each other.”

(Book X: Lines 346-357)

-In some ways Circe is being punished for her power over men by Herme’s interruption of her next “victim”. In the end, she ends up using her sexuality as a “weapon” since Odysseus and his crew end up staying with her for a year.