Female Roles: Character Traits of Athena and Penelope

Female Roles: Character Traits of Athena and Penelope

Circe is a sorcerer goddess living on an island surrounded by animals, including lions, wolves. Circe plays a vital role in the book of Odyssey. She is used in the text to show some powers overdoes the unholy forces. Also, Odysseys are used to show that even sorcerers have human feelings. Odysseus arrives in this place with just one ship. He sends his men led by Eurylochus to the island. Circe promises them meals, which she has put unholy charm, changing them into swine. Odysseus gets the reports through Hermes, who instructs him to swallow moly, a magical herb which resists Circe’s unholy magic.

Circe portrays several character traits through her interaction with Odysseus. Circe is lonely. She lives on the island alone, with only animals like lion and wolves. She was the only person Odysseus, and his men encountered while on the island. Second, Circe is deceitful. She pretended to be welcoming by offering Eurylochus’ men food, only to add her unholy charm in it to change them into swine. Odysseus says, “The lady Circe mixed me a golden cup of honeyed wine, adding in mischief her unholy drug.” This shows that Circe was always pretending to offer food and drinks to strangers only to turn them to swine. Circe can be described as evil. She wanted to turn everybody into a pig through using her charms. In this excerpt, she changed Eurylochus men into swine and also had intentions to do the same to Odysseus, but she failed. Circe is sexual. When Odysseus moly overpowers Circe’s unholy charms, she enquires him to make love with him in her bed.

Circle says, “we two shall mingle and make love upon our bed.” Though Odysseus is not willing, he has to make love with her for her to turn back his men who had turned into swine back to rational human beings. She even goes ahead to make an oath with the gods for her to make love with Odysseus saying “or swear me first a great oath, if I do, you’ll work no more enchantment to my harm.” Lastly, Circle is caring. Though Circe is portrayed in the wrong way, we still find her caring and compassionate. The first incident is when she turns back Odysseus’ men back. She does not only turn them into ordinary people but to a more handsome and tall than before. This can be evidenced when Odysseus says, “… and they were men again, younger, more handsome, taller than before.” Second, when it was time to go home, Circe helped Odysseus with different strategies on how to overcome traps in different islands. This is evidenced when she tells him to plug their ears with beeswax so that they may not hear songs on the Island of Siren, which would cause trouble to them. If it were not for this advice, Odysseus and his men would have perished.

 

 

Penelope is the wife of Odysseus, the king who went to war never to come back. She is also the mother, Telemachus. She is featured in the poem to implicate the importance of faithfulness in marriage. Though she is not sure if her husband is alive, she starts to receive suitors who want to marry her. However, she keeps them for a long time before remarrying with hopes that Odysseus will come back.

Penelope portrays several character traits in part three excerpts. The first character trait represented is loyalty. Penelope was loyal to her husband. Despite his absence for 20 years, Penelope does not give in the suitors’ interests as she does not remarry or make love with any of them. Her husband made love with Circe as it is evidenced in part two for his men to be turned back to men. After being forced to give a contest to determine who will remarry her, she gives them a bow and arrow that only Odysseus would string. Penelope is also cunning. When it is time to have a contest who would remarry her, she brings a challenge that only her husband would complete. She brought up the bow, which knew that it was only her husband who would string the bow. This is evidenced when one of the suitors, Antinous, says, “Nobody bends that bow stave easily in this company. Is there a man here made like Odysseus?” All the suitors were unable to bend the bow until Odysseus, who looked like a beggar, being unrecognized, stood up, and turn the bow with a lot of ease. Lastly, Penelope was courteous. Penelope did not chase away his suitors despite of them staying for a long time in her compound. She was kind to them as she provided the suitors with food and drinks for the time they lived in her house. In her speech, Penelope stated, “My lords, hear me: suitors indeed, you commandeered this house to feast and drink in…” Not many people would allow the same but would instead send the suitors away.