The Woman's Domain in the Iliad

Edward J. Kotynski (Vanderbilt University)

Until now, little scholarship has focused exclusively on women in the Iliad, since it has been generally assumed that studies addressing the role of women in the Homeric epic give an accurate portrayal of women in the Iliad.  Finley’s World of Odysseus (1979) made a big impact on our understanding of Homeric society.  However, much of what he said about the Homeric woman does not hold true for the women of the Iliad.  Previous studies (e.g. Brulé 2003, Taplin 2003) have addressed the problem by analyzing a few scattered episodes within in the Iliad.

My study focuses only on the roles of free women in the Iliad through a study of the entire text.  I correct errors propagated by the lumping together of all epic poetry when studying Homeric society, pointing out the divergences between what has been claimed about women in the “Homeric World” and what we read in the Iliad.  I also show through my study that while the rules of epic composition exudes male dominance, there is an undercurrent of thought within the Iliad that runs counter to this and betrays the importance of women.

Specifically, I deal with the value of the free women to her community, showing that although beauty and usefulness were important traits needed in choosing a wife (13.429-431), there is also a positive romantic ideal within the Iliad that never gets realized (14.294-296, 18.491-496, 22.126-128).  Also included in this analysis is a description of the specific role a wife has in the Iliad.  It has long been noted that the privilege of a Homeric wife was not exclusive rights to her husband’s sexual activity (9.128-142).  Despite the prevalence of male sexual promiscuity, there was a definite social code of how men were to behave towards their wives.  Men were required not to have such passion for their sex-slaves that they honored them above their wives (1.110-114, 9.449-452).  This and other social rules constituted a kind of respect for women and in turn often led to affection on both sides of the relationship (5.480; 6.482).  Finally, because the Iliad is an epic of war, the role of women in war comes to the forefront.  Wives and women were not only a commodity to be protected (15.497-499), but their opinion of men was very important to the community (6.442; 6.480-481; 17.208).  In addition, the Trojan women also had specific roles in warfare – weaving and weeping (1.29-31; 22.405ff.), but Homer also gives us a glimpse of a world where women could take part in war (18.514-515) – a world foreign to the reality portrayed in epic, but nonetheless thinkable in the mind of the composer.

The male dominated epic of the Iliad does not portray as male-oriented a society as is generally thought.  Women are treated differently in the Iliad than in the Odyssey, and thus the two epics must be treated separately.

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