Homer and “The Beast”

Before we even cracked opened our ancient texts, we had to discuss “The Beast”. “The Beast”, of course, is the evident enslavement, chauvinistic, and sexist manner women are recounted in ancient literature, specifically in Homer’s The Iliad. With this concept usurping such a large portion of our initial class and mentioned almost everyday, the concept generates a necessity for excavation.


As a general concept, women’s role in Greek society varied based on time period, location, and their status.[1] As we see in the Iliad, the wives and daughters of prominent leaders were treated with great respect and could weld significant influence at times.[2] In Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus’s wife Penelope, holds court at Ithaca while her husband is away and is recounted as being held in high esteem by men.[3] Further scholars compare aristocratic Greek women to “great ladies in Medieval times” as having similar influence.[4]


On the island of Crete, during the time of the Iliad, it was common for women to be landowners. However, on the Greek mainland, only women who held a high religious position were landowners.[5] Even with these glimpses of female autonomy, virtually all scholars do agree, generally speaking, women in Greek society were almost entirely dependant on a male counterpart. This counterpart appears in the form of their father or husband and is the conduit that they have any “rights” at all.[6]


Free women, even aristocratic ones, primarily were responsible for running the household, managing slaves, rearing the children, and spending their leisure time at the loom.[7] Interestingly, women did not necessarily feel that these tasks were demeaning to their stature as many in contemporary society would contemplate. Often women felt these endeavors filled an incredibly important role in society, especially since “nymphs and goddesses” were proud to excel in these areas and were revered for their skill.[8]


In contemplating the enslavement of women in the Iliad, it may not have been an awful thing . . . considering the alternative. During the time of the Iliad, defeat in war brought three consequences upon vanquished inhabitants. They included: seizing all women and children to become slaves, seizing pre-existing slaves, and slaughtering all military aged men.[9] Therefore, in simplest terms, slavery would have been seen as an act of benevolence due to the alternative of being put to death. In other time periods, Greeks did not always slaughter their foes.[10] Further, scholars find no record of explicit violence towards female slaves in ancient texts.[11]


Concerning war booty and the feminine . . . women were considered the most precious of all possible plunder.[12] Consequently, they often went to the nobility or warriors who particularly distinguished themselves; thus, affording them an increased probability for better treatment.
[13] Of course, their initial master’s may have sold or traded them for other commodities.


So, perhaps “The Beast” is better viewed not from a purely feministic perspective that the treatment of women specifically was so deplorable. Rather, that the idea of slavery and the slaughter of people as a whole needs to be dealt with in our classrooms.


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[1] A Companion to Greek Studies(1963). In Whibley L. (Ed.), (4th ed.). New York: Hafner Publishing Company. p. 610.
[2] Garland, R. (1998). Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. p. 47; Companion, p. 610.
[3] Companion, p. 610.
[4] Perry, W. C. (1898). The Women of Homer. London: William Heinemann. p. 73.
[5] Budin, S. L. (2004). The Ancient Greeks. Santa Barbara, California: ABC CLIO. p. 408.
[6] Garland, p. 53; Perry, p. 62,65
[7] Garland, p. 53; Perry, p. 73
[8] Perry,p. 73.
[9] Pritchett, W. K. (1971). Ancient Greek Military Practices. Los Angeles: University of California Press. pg. 81; Perry, p. 63.
[10] Adkins, L., & Adkins, R. (1997). Handbook to Life in Ancient Greece. New York: Facts on File, Inc. p. 187, Pritchett.
[11] Perry, p. 66.
[12] Perry, p. 63.
[13] Pritchett, p. 81.