The Odyssey Female Power Quotes

Odysseus and Calypso

But one man alone…
his heart set on his wife and his return – Calypso,
the bewitching nymph, the lustrous goddess, held him back,
deep in her arching caverns, craving him for a husband.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 15-18. Odysseus is trapped on Calypso’s island, where the nymph is keeping him and wants him for her husband. While Odysseus longs to return to his wife Penelope in Ithaca, the bewitching goddess Calypso holds him back. Calypso is portrayed in the epic poem as a maniulative seductress.

"But my heart breaks for Odysseus,
that seasoned veteran cursed by fate so long –
far from his loved ones still, he suffers torments
off on a wave-washed island rising at the center of the seas.
…Atlas’ daughter it is who holds Odysseus captive,
luckless man – despite his tears, forever trying
to spellbind his heart with suave, seductive words
and wipe all thought of Ithaca from his mind."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 57-60, 65-68. There is a strong theme of homecoming in The Odyssey, with Odysseus on a long, perious journey home after the end of the Trojan War. In this passage Athena, who has a special relationship with Odysseus, pleads with Zeus to allow the "cursed by fate" hero home. She says that he is being held captive on an island by the goddess Calypso, who is trying to wipe out all thoughts of his homeland. Calypso is portrayed in The Odyssey as embodying the feminine powers of seduction, manipulative language and beauty and using these to keep Odysseus on her island. Athena on the other hand employs her considerable power at a meeting of the gods to help Odysseus and persuade Zeus to allow him return home.
Telemachus in The Odyssey

"So, mother,
go back to your quarters. Tend to your own tasks,
the distaff and the loom, and keep the women
working hard as well. As for giving orders,
men will see to that, but I most of all:
I hold the reins of power in this house."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 409-414. The roles of each gender come into play early in The Odyssey, as Telemachus tells his mother to go into the house and tend to her womanly tasks of spinning and weaving. In the absence of his father Odysseus, Telemachus asserts his position as head of the household and says that men will give the orders. He is responding to his mother Penelope dissolving into tears at the bard’s song "The Achaeans’ Journey Home from Troy" and asking him to sing a different song. Classicist Mary Beard describes Telemachus telling mother to be silent as Western literature’s "first recorded example of a man telling a woman to ‘shut up.’"

"My heart tells me
to come right out and say I’ve never seen such a likeness,
neither in man nor woman – I’m amazed at the sight.
To the life he’s like the son of great Odysseus,
surely he’s Telemachus! The boy that hero left
a babe in arms at home when all you Achaeans
fought at Troy, launching your headlong battles
just for my sake, shameless whore that I was."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 4, lines 155-162. Helen is looking at Telemachus, who is crying at the loss of his father. She immediately recognizes the similarity between between Telemachus and Odysseus. Helen describes herself as a "shameless whore" fought for by the Achaeans who waged a ten-year war when she was abducted by Paris of Troy. This speaks to the power of someone regarded as one of the world’s most beautiful women and great sexual icon.

on the headland, sitting, still,
weeping, his eyes never dry, his sweet life flowing away
with the tears he wept for his foiled journey home,
since the nymph no longer pleased. In the nights, true,
he’d sleep with her in the arching cave – he had no choice –
unwilling lover alongside lover all too willing.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 167-172. The goddess and nymph Calypso keeps Odysseus as a sex slave on her island of Ogygia for seven years. Here the narrator describes Odysseus’ typical day in captivity: weeping by day because he is prevented from returning home, and being an unwilling lover by night. This is an exception to the patriarchal world of the time, with the woman having the power and the man being her captive.

"Much as you long to see your wife,
the one you pine for all your days…and yet
I just might claim to be nothing less than she,
neither in face nor figure. Hardly right, is it,
for mortal woman to rival immortal goddess?
How, in build? in beauty?"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 231-236. Here we see a battle for Odysseus’ heart between two powerful love rivals, Calypso and Penelope. The nymph claims that she is more beautiful than Penelope who waits for Odysseus at home. She pleads with Odysseus to remain with her, questioning how a human woman could rival an immortal goddess.

"Ah great goddess
…don’t be angry with me,
please. All that you say is true, how well I know.
Look at my wise Penelope. She falls far short of you,
your beauty, stature. She is mortal after all
and you, you never age or die…
Nevertheless I long – I pine, all my days –
to travel home and see the dawn of my return.
And if a god will wreck me yet again on the wine-dark sea,
I can bear that too, with a spirit tempered to endure.
Much have I suffered, labored long and hard by now
in the waves and wars. Add this to the total –
bring the trial on!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 236-246. In the tug of war for Odysseus’ heart, it is Penelope who wins over Calypso. Odysseus declines the goddess’ offer to stay with her and be immortal. This shows how powerful a woman Penelope is. Odysseus longs to be back home with her in Ithaca, no matter what trials he faces along the way. Ultimately his loyalty to family and homeland is more important than anything Calypso can offer.

But Zeus’s daughter Athena countered him at once.
The rest of the winds she stopped right in their tracks,
commanding them all to hush now, go to sleep.
All but the boisterous North – she whipped him up
and the goddess beat the breakers flat before Odysseus,
dear to Zeus, so he could reach the Phaeacians,
mingle with men who love their long oars
and escape his death at last.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 421-428. Athena’s status as daughter of Zeus allows her to oppose Poseidon and get away with it. After Poseidon launches a huge wave and wrecks Odysseus’ raft, she calms down the winds and sea to help Odysseus survive. This is an example of Athena’s feminine power and strength coming to the rescue once again for Odysseus.

A rippling prelude –
now the bard struck up an irresistible song:
The Love of Ares and Aphrodite Crowned with Flowers…
how the two had first made love in Hephaestus’ mansion,
all in secret. Ares had showered her with gifts
and showered Hephaestus’ marriage bed with shame
but a messenger ran to tell the god of fire –
Helios, lord of the sun, who’d spied the couple
lost in each other’s arms and making love.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 8, lines 300-308. Demodocus plays a song about a betrayed husband Hephaestus, and the adulterous love affair between his wife Aphrodite with Ares. Hephaestus is god of fire and smiths, Aphrodite goddess of sexual love and Ares god of war. The bard’s tale will end with Hephaestus trapping the lovers in his marriage bed, bound in chains forged by the divine smith. There are certain parallels between the story and the situation of Penelope and the suitors. But there is one distinct difference: Aphrodite is the archetypal unfaithful wife, while Penelope is exemplary of wifely fidelity. They are two different examples of female power.

"how would you like to bed the golden Aphrodite?"
"Oh Apollo, if only!" the giant-killer cried.
"Archer, bind me down with triple those endless chains!
Let all you gods look on, and all you goddesses too –
how I’d love to bed that golden Aphrodite!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 8, lines 380-384. Like humans, the gods have a sense of humor too, as shown by this banter between Apollo and Hermes in the bawdy tale told by bard Demodocus. Apollo and Hermes are talking about how they would bed the goddess of love Aphrodite. This is after Aphrodite is caught in the act of adultery with god of war Ares. The goddess is married to god of fire Hephaestus.

"True enough,
Calypso the lustrous goddess tried to hold me back,
deep in her arching caverns, craving me for a husband.
So did Circe, holding me just as warmly in her halls,
the bewitching queen of Aeaea keen to have me too.
But they never won the heart inside me, never."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 9, lines 32-37. Odysseus tells Alcinous that beautiful goddesses like Calypso and Circe tried to seduce him to stay with them. But he didn’t succumb to their temptations, he reveals, because his heart always yearned for home and family.

She opened her gleaming doors at once and stepped forth,
inviting them all in, and in they went, all innocence.
Only Eurylochus stayed behind – he sensed a trap…
She ushered them in to sit on high-backed chairs,
then she mixed them a potion – cheese, barley
and pale honey mulled in Pramnian wine –
but into the brew she stirred her wicked drugs
to wipe from their memories any thought of home.
Once they’d drained the bowls she filled, suddenly
she struck with her wand, drove them into her pigsties,
all of them bristling into swine – with grunts,
snouts – even their bodies, yes, and only
the men’s minds stayed steadfast as before.
So off they went to their pens, sobbing, squealing
as Circe flung them acorns, cornel nuts and mast,
common fodder for hogs that root and roll in mud.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 10, lines 253-268. Circe’s offer of hospitality becomes Odysseus’ men’s worst nightmare. The enchantingly beautiful goddess uses trickery to lure them into her lair only to turn them into pigs. While she may not eat her guests like the Cyclops and Laestrygonians, she feeds them drugged food. She is a predatory temptress who uses her potions and powerful magic to ensnare men and transform them into animals. The only one to escape is Eurylochus, he smells a rat and doesn’t follow the others into Circe’s house.

"Come, sheathe your sword, let’s go to bed together,
mount my bed and mix in the magic work of love –
we’ll breed deep trust between us."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 10, lines 370-372. Circe has respect for Odysseus after she sees his ability to withstand her magic and realizes who he is. The lustful goddess takes the initiative to invite him to sleep with her, starting an affair that will last a year. Sharing her bed will breed trust between them, she suggests, making clear that she wants to pursue a close relationship with him.

"Aegisthus hatched my doom and my destruction,
he killed me, he with my own accursed wife…
he invited me to his palace, sat me down to feast
then cut me down as a man cuts down some ox at the trough!
So I died – a wretched, ignominious death – and round me
all my comrades killed, no mercy, one after another,
just like white-tusked boars
butchered in some rich lord of power’s halls
for a wedding, banquet or groaning public feast."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 11, lines 462-470. Odysseus meets many people in the underworld. One of his most poignant encounters is with Agamemnon’s ghost. When Odysseus asks the great general how he met his end, Agamemnon tells how his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus invited him to a feast, then killed him. He describes it as an ignoble death, comparing it in a simile to a man cutting down an ox at a trough of food. The story of Clytemnestra’s cheating and treachery stand in contrast to Penelope’s loyalty and fidelity to her husband during his twenty year absence.

"But the death-cry of Cassandra, Priam’s daughter –
the most pitiful thing I heard! My treacherous queen,
Clytemnestra, killed her over my body, yes, and I,
lifting my fists, beat them down on the ground,
dying, dying, writhing around the sword.
But she, that whore, she turned her back on me,
well on my way to Death – she even lacked the heart
to seal my eyes with her hand or close my jaws."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 11, lines 476-483. The ghost of Agamemnon tells Odysseus that his treacherous wife Clytemnestra killed Trojan princess Cassandra over his body as he lay dying. While Penelope stands as a symbol of loyalty in the epic poem, Clytemnestra is the very opposite. After helping her lover kill her husband, she then cut down Cassandra, lover of Agamemnon.

"So,
there’s nothing more deadly, bestial than a woman
set on works like these – what a monstrous thing
she plotted, slaughtered her own lawful husband!
Why, I expected, at least, some welcome home
from all my children, all my household slaves
when I came sailing back again…But she –
the queen hell-bent on outrage – bathes in shame
not only herself but the whole breed of womankind,
even the honest ones to come, forever down the years!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 11, lines 483-492. Agamemnon’s ghost goes on a rant against women, believing that his wife Clytemnestra’s treacherous behavior stains the reputation of women everywhere. Agamemnon describes how his homecoming from the Trojan war was met, not with the expected warm welcome, but a plot by his wife to kill him.

"How terrible!
Zeus from the very start, the thunder king
has hated the race of Atreus with a vengeance –
his trustiest weapon women’s twisted wiles.
What armies of us died for the sake of Helen…
Clytemnestra schemed your death while you were worlds away!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 11, lines 493-498. Odysseus sympathizes with Agamemnon on his falling victim to "women’s twisted wiles" – referring to his scheming wife Clytemnestra. Odysseus blames the hatred of Zeus for Agamemnon’s fate. He also mentions the grief and suffering caused by another trouble-making woman, Helen, with whole armies dying for her sake.

"I tell you this – bear it in mind, you must –
when you reach your homeland steer your ship
into port in secret, never out in the open…
the time for trusting women’s gone forever!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 11, lines 515-518. The ghost of Agamemnon advises Odysseus to sail home into Ithaca in secret and not to tell his wife. Agamemnon doesn’t want the same thing to happen to Odysseus as happened him. Agamemnon arrived home to a treacherous wife plotting to kill him and Odysseus doesn’t know if Penelope will welcome him and still be loyal to him.

"First you will raise the island of the Sirens,
those creatures who spellbind any man alive,
whoever comes their way. Whoever draws too close,
off guard, and catches the Sirens’ voices in the air –
no sailing home for him, no wife rising to meet him,
no happy children beaming up at their father’s face.
The high, thrilling song of the Sirens will transfix him,
lolling there in their meadow, round them heaps of corpses
rotting away, rags of skin shriveling on their bones."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 12, lines 44-52. Circe prophesies that on Odysseus’ journey home he will pass by the powerful and deadly Sirens. She warns what happens to men who sail near the mythical female monsters and are ensnared by their song. For those who hear their voices, there will be no homecoming. So she advises Odysseus to block his shipmates’ ears with beeswax, but if he wishes to hear the Sirens, to have his men tie him hand and foot to the mast-block.

"No mariners yet can boast they’ve raced their ship
past Scylla’s lair without some mortal blow –
with each of her six heads she snatches up
a man from the dark-prowed craft and whisks him off."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 12, lines 108-111. Circe warns Odysseus of the deadly danger posed by the female monster Scylla to mariners. None have yet managed to get their ship past her cave without her snatching up a man with each of her six heads. This is foreshadowing of what will happen to Odysseus’ men.

"Atop it a great fig-tree rises, shaggy with leaves,
beneath it awesome Charybdis gulps the dark water down.
Three times a day she vomits it up, three times she gulps it down,
that terror! Don’t be there when the whirlpool swallows down –
not even the earthquake god could save you from disaster."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 12, lines 114-118. Odysseus will pass by the fearsome Charybdis on his voyage home to Ithaca, Circe prophesies. She describes the giant whirlpool, warning him to stay clear of this powerful female monster. She says with some irony that if Odysseus’ ship is swallowed by Charybdis, not even the mighty Poseidon will be able to save him. Considering how much Odysseus has angered the sea god, there is little chance that he would ever help him.

"So stubborn!" the lovely goddess countered.
"Hell-bent yet again on battle and feats of arms?
Can’t you bow to the deathless gods themselves?
Scylla’s no mortal, she’s an immortal devastation,
terrible, savage, wild, no fighting her, no defense –
just flee the creature, that’s the only way.
Waste any time, arming for battle beside her rock,
I fear she’ll lunge out again with all of her six heads
and seize as many men."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 12, lines 125-133. Odysseus believes that he will be able to fight Scylla off without suffering casualties among his men. But sorceress and goddess Circe angrily reminds him of the immortal Scylla’s devastating power. Circe understands Odysseus’ proud heart and urges him to rein in his instincts for battle. She tells him not to fight Scylla or arm for battle. But he should just flee this creature, otherwise she will seize as many men as she can, Circe warns.

"Come closer, famous Odysseus – Achaea’s pride and glory –
moor your ship on our coast so you can hear our song!
Never has any sailor passed our shores in his black craft
until he has heard the honeyed voices pouring from our lips,
and once he hears to his heart’s content sails on, a wiser man.
We know all the pains that the Greeks and Trojans once endured
on the spreading plain of Troy when the gods willed it so –
all that comes to pass on the fertile earth, we know it all!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 12, lines 200-207. As Odysseus’ ship races past the Sirens, Homer describes how the hypnotic but deadly women of the sea burst into their irresistible song. In their bid to tempt Odysseus, the Sirens feed into his ego and pride, referring to his fame and how he is the pride and glory of his people. A metaphor compares their voices to the pouring of sweet honey. The Sirens ask him to moor his ship on their coast, promising that he will sail away a wiser man. This is an example of irony, since the readers knows that the Sirens mean the opposite of what they say, they use their hypnotic feminine voices to lure sailors to their deaths on their rocky shores.

"no man on the face of the earth could find fault with you.
Your fame, believe me, has reached the vaulting skies.
Fame like a flawless king’s who dreads the gods,
who governs a kingdom vast, proud and strong –
who upholds justice, true, and the black earth
bears wheat and barley, trees bow down with fruit
and the sheep drop lambs and never fail and the sea
teems with fish – thanks to his decent, upright rule,
and under his sovereign sway the people flourish."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 19, lines 117-125. Odysseus, still in disguise as a beggar, praises his wife Penelope for the fame she has achieved as the Queen of Ithaca. Using an extended simile, he compares her to a just and flawless king who rules over a flourishing country that is thriving because of his good government.

"Mother,"
poised Telemachus broke in now, "my father’s bow –
no Achaean on earth has more right than I
to give it or withhold it, as I please.
…As for the bow now,
men will see to that, but I most of all:
I hold the reins of power in this house."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 21, lines 381-384. When Penelope says that the beggar (Odysseus disguised) should have his chance to string the boy of Odysseus, Telemachus asserts his authority as head of the household. Greek society at the time was very patriarchal. Telemachus tells his mother to attend to her tasks and that a decision about the bow will be made by men.
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