Representation of Women in the Iliad

 Homer's epic poem The Iliad, which showcases the last years of the Trojan War, sheds light on gender roles in this society. Through the conflicts between men, this epic shows what roles women were expected to fill. In The Iliad, men are depicted as in charge and higher up on the social ladder than women. Women are viewed as either objects or powerless interlocutors with the male characters or as manipulative and evil creatures set on ruining a man's purpose.

The women of The Iliad are often treated as objects to be traded or stolen from the men in the story. The very first woman to be depicted this way is Helen, who is the cause of the entire Trojan War. Paris, a Trojan prince, steals Helen from Menelaus, a king in Sparta. The Spartans go to war against the Trojans in hopes of winning Helen back. In the Spartan camp, Briseis and Chryseis also become objects to be gifted as war prizes or traded among the men. Both women are captured as spoils of war, with Briseis going to the warrior Achilles, and Chryseis was given to Agamemnon, the leader of the Spartan army. Unfortunately, Agamemnon is forced to give Chryseis up to appease the god Apollo, and he isn't happy about it at all. Agamemnon declares: ''Find me than some prize that shall be my own, lest I only among the Argives go without since that was unfitting.'' In exchange for giving up Chryseis, Agamemnon is given Briseis, who 'belongs' to Achilles. Both Briseis and Chryseis, and even Helen to an extent, are discussed as prizes, not people. This type of discussion shows women as lacking the same rights as men in this culture. Women were taught to obey men, who held power over them even to the point of being able to trade them like cattle. In fact, Achilles gives other women away as prizes during the funeral games for Patroclus. "For the winner, a large tripod made to stride a fire / and worth a dozen oxen, so the soldiers reckoned. / For the loser he led a woman through their midst, / worth four, they thought, and skilled in many crafts (23.782-785). Not only was she a prize in a contest, but she was also a prize for the runner-up. This is a very demeaning and degrading position.

In The Iliad, women are presented as manipulators and liars who use sex to get what they want. For example, the very heroine, Helen is considered the cause of all the life losses even though she was totally voiceless in the whole game of macho power. Again, the goddess Hera seduces her husband, the god Zeus, in an attempt to get the Trojan War to go in her favor. When Zeus finds out about the reason behind the seduction, he calls Hera a ''mischief-making trickster.'' Furthermore, he says, ''I would remind you of this that you may learn to leave off being so deceitful, and discover how much you are likely to gain by the embraces out of which you have come here to trick me.'' Here, Zeus is lashing out at Hera for being able to seduce him to get what she wants. Through the relationship between Zeus and Hera, we see that men and women fit into stereotypical roles, with the woman being seen as deceptive and seductive, and the man being viewed as helpless to a woman's sexual tricks. Worst of all is the representation of strife as a goddess, Eris. The tale of her apple, too, portrays women as jealous and vain showing how three goddesses fight for the golden apple scribed with ‘for the fairest.’

To understand the role of the women in The Iliad, we must first understand the role of Greek women in Homer's time. Considered equals under the law, women nevertheless lived separate and segregated from men, performing domestic work and avoiding male spaces unless invited and accompanied. Women were regarded as extensions of their husbands, fathers, or captors. This is often the case in The Iliad as well, where most women are indistinguishable as persons from their husbands. Women were also portrayed as weaker than men in several scenes, in both the physical and the mental sense. The opening quote can be used as evidence for this, when Hector tells the women of Troy to go back to doing the projects of women, such as working on the loom and the distaff. In other words, Hector is saying that this is the only work women are suited for, certainly not the works of war that occupy men. Even an immortal goddess can be wounded by a mortal man. Women in the Iliad are referred to by both themselves and others, as liars and bitches who twist the desires of men to suit their own purpose, such as when Helen tries to persuade Hector to rest with her in book six. "My dear brother, / dear to me, bitch that I am, vicious, scheming-- / horror to freeze the heart" (6.407-409)! She is, thus, debasing her own character.

So, the female characters of the Iliad, including the slaves, the aristocrats, and the goddesses all alike were considered not only inferior to males as less powerful and mere interlocutors but also were considered as objects, and even as evils.