Blog 3

The Odyssey sites many examples of the trickery of the female sex.  All such examples are targeted directly at their opposites: men.  The most unnecessary comes from Helen and her deceit of the Akhaians during the strike of Troy.  Menelaos reminds us of her doing as the soldiers were crowded in the hollow horse: “Three times [she] walked around it, patting it everywhere, / and calling by name the flower of our fighters, / making your voice sound like their wives, calling” (IV.299-301).  The Sirens that Odysseus passed similarly attempted to deceive the passersby with their irresistible call.  Odysseus recalls, “The lovely voices in ardor appealing over the water / made me crave to listen” (XII.246-247), but fortunately Kirke warned him of the death that would come had he heeded their songs.  Speaking of the devil, Kirke was also one who practiced tickery before her change of heart.  She successfully changed Odysseus’ great men into swine, and attempted to do the same to the hero. 

Although all of the above women tricked the men for unexplained reasons, The Odyssey does include some who lied for explicitly selfish reasons.  Klytaimnestra’s turn on her husband carries the most magnitude.  Agamemnon from the dead recounts: “It was Aigisthos who designed my death, / he and my heartless wife, and killed me, after / feeding me, like an ox felled at the trough” (XI.476-478).  Penelope does the opposite and lies to her suitors to protect her husband.  Antinoos explains that she would only marry once she finished her weaving: “So every day she wove on the great loom— / but every night by torchlight she unwove it; / and so for three years she deceived the Akhaians” (II.112-113).  Although we see this as a noble act because it protects the protagonist, it remains an example of a female tricking men.