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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. |
