Even before the book, The Odyssey by Homer is created, there are many instances where women are to be believed as people who could not be trusted, and men has many different thoughts on how a woman acts. In The Odyssey, there are many dealings where this major theme of women continually repeats itself in books nine through twelve, where the lustful goddess, Circe tricks Odysseus’ men, and Clytemnestra, Agamemnon’s wife kills her own husband. Homer tries to point out that women cannot be trusted by showing numerous instances that women betray or trick men.
Homer puts out that women are not dependable after the first of many examples where women deceive men. Odysseus is not the only one man who is tricked by a woman but many of his men at Aeaea Island got decieved as well. At Aeaea Island, Odysseus’s men run into Circe, and Eurylochus, being wary, decides not to trust Circe while the others do, “She opened her gleaming doors at once and stepped forth, inviting us all in, and in we went, all innocence. But I stayed behind – I sensed a trap” (Homer, 10.281). Eurylochus shows his feelings on beautiful women such as Circe, when he says, “I sensed a trap” meaning that even though in The Odyssey people trusts other when it comes to hospitality he does not trust Circe since she is a woman. Sensing a trap even before Circe had done anything to the men shows distrust toward women in general.
Eurylochus also expresses his opinion on the men for acting in all “innocence” since all of the men goes in without thinking about the consequence that would follow after. Without taking into account that Circe is a woman, the men all went in blind to the tricks up Circe’s sleeve. Later, at Aeaea Island, when Odysseus finds out that his men are pigs, he goes to confront Circe, “In a golden bowl she mixed a potion for me to drink, stirring her poison, her heart aswirl with evil” (10.350). Odysseus shows his disbelief toward Circe, when she had “stirring her poison” knowing from Hermes that inside that potion will poison him. Looking at Circe makes Odysseus feel that her personality is dark, when he think that her, “heart aswirl with evil” and not a woman that he should trust. Women, in total, are creatures that cannot be trusted at all in Homer’s point of view.
Homer again conveys how women are not faithful and are backstabbers. When Odysseus meets Agamemnon in Hades, Agamemnon teaches Odysseus that he should not believe women. Agamemnon learns this lesson the hard way when his own wife, Clytemnestra, kills Agamemnon her own husband when he come back from the war in Troy. “But she that whore, she turned against her back on me, well on my way to death – she even lacked the heart to seal my eyes with her hands or to close my jaws.
So, there’s nothing more deadly, bestial than a woman (…) (11.481). When Agammenon rants about how women are all beasts, “there’s nothing more deadly, bestial than a woman” shows how he feels that no one should trust a woman, even their own wife. Agammenon, who wholeheartedly believes that women are not people to be trusted, and that women have no heart, “she even lacked the heart to seal my eyes with her hands or to close my jaws”. If a woman has no heart, there is no reason to trust in that person, knowing that they will do harm. Agammenon tries to show Odysseus that never trusting women is the best path to go. Women backstabbers and hurtful people, and women are not to be believed no matter how related they are.
Throughout The Odyssey, continually Homer shows different examples that try to prove that all women are evil, where Clytemnestra kills her own husband, and Circe tricks all of Odysseus’ men. Women are believed by Homer to be people that are not trustworthy or dependable. What Homer missed is the fact that it may be the man who makes themselves not trustful at the first place, so that the woman has no choice but to betray the “untruthful” men after all.
