ROLE OF WOMEN IN ILLIAD
WHY I CHOSE THIS TOPIC?
Throughout history, women have held many different roles in society.Men have traditionally been viewed as superior since the beginning of time.Homer's Iliad is an excellent example of the suppressive role of women at this time.Women were treated merely as property and were used for producing material within the household. Paralyzed by their unfortunate circumstances, they were taken and given as if they were material belongings. In Homer's Iliad, we conceive how women are introduced as suppliants to the masculine heroines.They are depicted as being inferior to men both physically and intellectually.Throughout the Iliad, women play a modest but important role that embodies their relative significance and the impact they have on the affairs that take place.
INTRODUCTION
Different types of women are represented in the epic poem The Iliad: strong-willed andshrewd women, damsel-in-distress types, wicked and vengeful women, or even women who cause the downfall of the protagonist male hero. Moreover, there are also women depicted as possessions (war prizes) or women who have little or no control over her destiny. The epic poem, generally regarded as “a male-dominated world” focuses centrally on the rage between men but it also happen that most of the time this rage is affected, initiated, and inspired by a woman.
HELEN OF TROY
The most celebrated woman figure in the poem is probably Helen of Troy. Helen attracted men from afar and also close to home who saw her as a means to the Spartan throne. Her first mate was Theseus, hero of Athens, who had kidnapped her when she was a little girl. Then later in the story Menelaus married her. Helen of Troy in the Illiad was the main cause to the entire war fought between the trojans and the greeks. She basically had two men fighting over her and thats when everything began