Many of the female characters in The
Odyssey end up deceiving men in both malicious and helpful manners. Regardless
of the intent however, the less honest aspects of their personalities typically
define these women.
Among the women who are characterized
as helpful tricksters is Helen. After Menelaus’ hall becomes riddled with
grief, Helen tricks the guests into drinking wine that she has drugged with the
“mild magic of forgetfulness” (237). While this act in and of itself is meant
to be helpful, the language that is used to describe gives it a sinister edge. Earlier
in the epic, Menelaus recounts Helen’s malicious deceit of Odysseus and his men
while they are inside of the Trojan horse. Menelaus describes her as having a “cold
nerve” (292) because of her heartless temptation of the soldiers. All of Helen’s
tricks that take place after this malicious deceit are tainted and as a result,
the language associated with her is primarily negative.
Some other women of the epic
however, often pull tricks but avoid the blame that is placed on Helen. Penelope
for example, has a moment of deceit when she unwinds her tapestry in the hopes
that she will never have to marry a suitor. When the suitors find out about
this, they call her “cunning” and attribute her trick to “Athena’s gifts” and a
“clever mind” (124). In this instance, her trickery is not truly characterized
as an evil quality. This is most likely because in this particular aspect of
the epic, the suitors are meant to act as the villains. As a result, an action
that works against them cannot be referred to as a malicious act.
Additionally, at the beginning of
the epic, Athena hides her true identity and makes Telemakhos see her as
Mentes, a family friend. Instead of using language to project the identity of a
trickster onto Athena, she simply “seems” to be somebody else (131). This
language seems to hide the fact that Athena is purposefully tricking
Telemakhos. The blame that is given to other deceitful women is not given to
Athena. This may be because she is a goddess and as a result, transcends the
attributes that are casted upon other women in the epic.
While many women in The Odyssey
are referred to as tricky, they are only approached in a negative manner if
they have or have ever had malicious intent.
While I agree that there are different descriptions of the trickery by women in the Odyssey, I disagree with your conclusion about Helen. At Troy, she was attempting to sabotage Odysseus and his men, and at Menelaus' hall, her drugging is portrayed as sinister because she did it right after we learn about her trickery in Troy. I think Helen's trickery is rightly portrayed as negative.
ReplyDeleteGood catch with some of those examples - I hadn't realized that there were so many forms of trickery in the epic and had mostly categorized them into two separates sorts for men and women. Although Penelope's tricks are certainly intelligent, do we not also see that her suitors become extremely angry at what she's doing? Their words have positive connotations, but their actions certainly do not.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your interpretation of the different natures of trickery among the women. But is trickery really a female trait in the Odyssey? Odysseus himself is the greatest trickster of them all.
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