I. Introduction
In Homer’s The Odyssey, female characters are not the central focus in the epic. However, female characters prove to be powerful characters, maybe as powerful as the male characters. The female characters illustrate their power in the epic by either helping a man achieve his telos or hindering it. This can be seen through three female characters in the epic: Athena, Calypso, and Penelope, who all helped and/or hindered men achieve their teloi.
II. Body
A. Athena
Throughout the epic, Athena shows obvious favor towards Odysseus by using her magic to help him.
“She shriveled the flesh on his gnarled limbs,/ And withered his tawny hair. She wrinkled the skin/ All over his body so he looked like a man,/ And she made his beautiful eyes bleary and dim” (Book 14, Lines 447-50).
Athena uses her magic to disguise Odysseus as an old man so that he could be unrecognizable when he returns to Ithaca. This way, he can explore his home and distinguish between those who have remained loyal to him and those who he was going to kill.
“A fresh tunic and cloak replaced his rags,/ And he was taller and younger, his skin tanned,/ His jawline firm, and his beard glossy black./ Having worked her magic, the goddess left” (Book 16, Lines 184-87).
Athena then transforms Odysseus to an idealized version of himself, so that he can be reunited with his son. Once they were reunited, Odysseus and Telemachus schemed up a plan to rid their house of the suitors.
B. Calypso
Initially, Calypso was one of the main reasons why Odysseus was so delayed on his journey home.
“‘…he’s still languishing on that island, detained/ Against his will by that nymph Calypso,/ No way in the world for him to get back to his land'” (Book 5, Lines 15-17).
She kept him imprisoned on her island without a means of leaving. However, shortly after she is paid a visit from Hermes, she provides Odysseus extra aid on his journey back to Ithaca.
“She filled up a skin/ With wine that ran black, another large one/ With water, and tucked into a duffel/ A generous supply of hearty provisions. And she put a breeze at his back, gentle and warm” (Book 5, Lines 264-268).
Calypso, like Athena, had a soft spot for Odysseus and wanted to do whatever she was capable of to help him get what he desires. In her case, Calypso provides Odysseus with supplies to him survive his travels back home.
C. Penelope
Unlike Athena and Calypso, Penelope is not a goddess. Even so, she does what she can within her limits to help Odysseus. She uses weaving to her advantage to delay being wed off to one of the suitors and gives Odysseus more time to return home.
“‘Every day she would weave at the great loom,/ And every night she would unweave by torchlight./ She fooled [the suitors] for three years with her craft'” (Book 2, Lines 113-115).
Even though her weaving and unweaving is beneficial to Odysseus’ telos, this action ultimately eradicates the suitors’ teloi.
III. Conclusion
Female characters in The Odyssey, be it divine or mortal, prove to be powerful characters who can help determine whether or not men achieve their teloi. Athena used her magic to help Odysseus, Calypso used her resources to keep Odysseus prisoner on her island, but also to free him from it, and Penelope used her weaving to give Odysseus more time to return home, while delaying the time for the suitors to achieve their teloi.
I like your choice to include Penelope here. Though her influence on his journey wasn’t direct, Penelope was so clever and really worked hard to protect Odysseus’ home from the suitors. I think it provides another layer to your paper, a sort of deeper idea within the binary of god and mortal which you mention in your discussion of Penelope and in your conclusion. I also think your introduction is good and provides a nice basis for your paper. You chose really smart examples from the text, too. Overall, I think it looks really good and like you have a solid plan for your essay.
It’s great how you decided to include Calypso as both an obstacle for Odysseus, and a major factor in him getting home form the island (even though she was the only one holding him back). I definitely think you should include one or two sentences about how intelligent/witty Penelope is, just to acknowledge how she was able to quickly devise a plan to ward off the suitors via her weaving. Starting out with explaining Athena’s character and her favoritism toward Odysseus/how much effort she put into helping him is smart. It gives the reader a prime example of how powerful women are in The Odyssey, and how that power can be used for good. Your outline is really solid and cohesive, and gives a diverse range of examples from the story.
It’s awesome to read Regina’s outline and then yours and contrast the two. It seems like you really took a step back and asked the question of “what are women doing in this epic at all?” Bringing in Penelope as a non-goddess is a great choice of character to analyze. I would not have intuited including her, but I love how you are bringing her in as almost have a Faith-like role in Odysseus’s telos through her weaving.
I would only suggest emphasizing the progression through the three characters that you chose. It seems like there is some variation among them. Going from helpful goddess to hindering goddess to helpful mortal. Maybe something can be played with there? Just a thought.
Your outline is organized and excellently formatted. Writing this piece should flow nicely and be packed with power.
Hi Fean,
This is a well-organized outline, and I’m excited to see how it develops into a paper. That said, it feels risk-averse. Your central claims seem to me to be 1) That women in the Odyssey are in fact powerful and 2) That some help, some hinder Odysseus. These claims would be hard to argue against–any careful reader of the text would agree with you. In this paper–and in all papers!–I really want you to argue strongly for a position–for something you’ve noticed that (potentially, at least) other readers of the Odyssey have not. The point isn’t to be right, or to present a “balanced view,” but rather to turn your encounter with the text into an analytical, wholly original argument.
This is a careful piece of writing. But it isn’t, yet, a work of original literary criticism/analysis.
-Prof Kolb