After reading The Odyssey, I learned about the role of women from Ancient Greek and how the people’s beliefs in gods made huge impacts on their lives. To begin with, women are often treated less equally and are often the scapegoat of men’s own faults. For instance, when Telemachus called on an assembly to talk the suitors into leaving his house and mother alone, the suitors blamed Penelope for keeping them there. The suitors thought that Penelope was tricking them with her shroud, but it was really their fault for disturbing Penelope every single day. In addition, even Goddesses are treated this way. For example, when Hephaestus caught Aphrodite cheating on him for Ares and made the other Gods watch them getting stuck in his trap, only male Gods went. The Goddess were expected to stay at home and out of this situation because women are not trusted to be handling things like these. Moreover, female characters in the book were mostly described as weak and not trustworthy. It was pointed out in the beginning of the book that Penelope had no choice but to fight the suitors with her wisdom because she couldn’t fight them physically. Last but not least, characters such as Agamemnon’s wife and a few of the younger maids in Odysseus’ house represented the traits of betrayal and disloyalty. Agamemnon’s wife plotted against Agamemnon with Aegisthus and killed him when he returned home from the war. Similarly, twelve young maids betrayed Odysseus and slept with the suitors when Odysseus was away.
The way Homer used Homeric similes in his book to create different kinds of imagery is interesting. I like how all the Homeric similes reflect on the behaviors and emotions of the characters. For instance, the simile “Like vultures with crooked talons and hooked beaks descending from the mountains upon a flock of smaller birds…” creates a violent and fierce imagery of Odysseus and his men chasing after the suitors. It made the attack seem sudden because in the simile, the vultures flew down to the smaller birds, which meant they had an advantage of being high up in the sky. The Socratic seminar did enlarge my understanding of the text because it helps me see the story in different perspectives since everyone has different opinions on how the characters act. To add on, it also helps me understand the confusing scenes better.
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