A Timeless Double Standard

It’s a story that’s been repeated many times: wife cheats on husband, vengeance is sought, and shame and glory are interplayed. There’s no doubt that Homer presents this theme so persistently for a reason; Helen, Clytemnestra, even the goddess of love herself Aphrodite have been ensnared in these love triangles. Perhaps he’s trying to teach a Greek value, or foreshadow for some future event. Regardless, it’s clear that female disloyalty as frowned upon with gravity. Yet our hero Odysseus seems to find no shame retelling his affairs with Calypso and Circe, too nymphs with whom he spent extended periods of time with. In fact, these events are told in such a way that it seems the women are the instigators, and the men the culprits who should be pitied rather than judged. This seems a little backwards to me.

When it comes to women in The Odyssey, grace, beauty and femininity are usually associated with goodness (Penelope) while savageness and ugliness are characteristics of evil (Laestrygonians). Yet the nymphs like Circe, “lifting her spellbinding voice as she glided back and forth at her great immortal loom,” are the epitome of femininity, yet are involved in adultery that would seem shameful. Why is it that when a man cheats on his wife with another beauty, there is no downside, yet if a woman were to be disloyal to her husband she is shamed forever?

Ultimately, this only reiterates what we have seen; the relationship between man and woman has hierarchy, not reciprocity. While it is clear that Odysseus cares deeply for Penelope, the reader is allowed to take pity on him despite his actions, while Penelope, who still is innocent, is made to look like a seductress. That type of inconsistent judgment, though, is present in our society too. Double standards are not uncommon, especially in literature. What is really surprising to me is that Odysseus time with Circe, even Calypso, is not seen is just a delay, but an obstacle. Perhaps in Greek times this would have created a sense of pity for the hero, playing on the audience’s sympathies for the climax to come. Yet in this day and age, it has the opposite effect; like it or not, I think we are all growing to resent Odysseus a little more than the idealized version of him we first imagined.