Discuss the portrayal and role of women in the Odyssey.

You can find an excellent portrayal of women in
The Odyssey in Margaret Atwood's The
Penelopiad. That said, notice that the very few women in the story make only
brief appearances. Even Penelope, by far the most important one, is mostly spoken of.
Anyway, each woman stands for a different archetype. Penelope is the faithful wife whose
guile protects her husband's estate from the suitor's greed. She's also a mother
contending with the ineluctable fact that her teenage son will no longer be ruled by
her, and a kind mistress to a bunch of -with some exceptions- treacherous servants who
more or less openly serve what they deem will, in the long run, be the winning side;
namely, the suitors. Bold and determined when alone, once her husband is back and her
prudent test of his identity is satisfied, Penelope contentedly stands in his shadow as
he regains his authority.

Old Euryclea seconds Penelope,
watches over the maids, and keeps her eyes and ears open to the schemes devised by the
suitors. As Ulysses' former nurse, she's instrumental in ascertaining that he's no
fraud when, on his return, she bathes him and recognizes an old scar on his leg. At
times one has the feeling that the whole Laertian household would collapse were it not
for her moral strength and unyielding belief in the return of the
master.

Helen, true to her nature, plays the gracious
hostess to Telemachus when his quest takes him to Sparta. Nothing in her demeanor hints
to her shady past; it's as if she has never cuckolded her husband, let alone kindled a
war that cost so many lives. (We know the war was due to other reasons, but need to
stick to Homer's version.) Menelaus dotes on her as on day one; these two have succeeded
in erasing the past, which has taken on the characteristics of a
narration.

Nausicaa is a clever literary device to
introduce Ulysses into the Phaeacian royal palace, where her mother, Queen Arete,
encourages her husband to aid the hero. While Arete clearly stands for the dominant
wife, she doesn't flaunt her power for, as every woman knows, in a world of men,
sweetness achieves better results than authoritarianism. Although Nausicaa was engaged
to some prince, the Phaeacian monarchs offer her in marriage to Ulysses, an offer that
he of course refuses but that stresses her role as a compassionate soul (see the scene
on the beach) and an obedient daughter.

Penelope's maids do
not differ much from one another, but Melantho is the one whose voice and behavior stand
out. The maids' attachment to the suitors could be understood as a desire to cast off
their anonymity, or as a manner of survival if they were threatened with rape and
ill-use. The part they played in the story and their execution at the end is open to
debate, which brings us back to Atwood's novel. She provides a wonderful explanation of
the murders, one that is too intricate to summarize in this brief
comment.