The Aeneid by Virgil and The Odyssey by Homer have many parallels, and most historians argue that Virgil based his epic on the epics of Homer. For instance, the first six books of The Aeneid correspond to The Odyssey because Aeneas searches for a home much as Odysseus wanders for years trying to get home in Homer’s epic. Of course, Homer’s epic is a depiction of heroes whose ideal would be Odysseus, while Virgil’s is a patriotic effort to glorify Rome, whose ideal citizen would be a man like Aeneas. However, both epics share another commonality and that is their depiction of relations between men and women and the characterization of them. In both stories women, either god or human, appear as either good or evil and even the ones who are good are often viewed as being suspect in their loyalty and fidelity.
In the epic of Homer we see women as different but equal in nature to men. If we look to the gods for an example, we see that Ares and Aphrodite are equally blamed and shamed for their adulterous affair. Yet, we see a little bit of male superiority in the male gods who share some ancient form of “locker” talk when they admit they would gladly lie in chains to be with Aphrodite. Yet, when we look at the sexual relations among male and female mortals we see things are not quite so equitable. For example, Odysseus’ brother Eumaios talks about how the slave woman who captured him was ravished by a seafarer to the point where Phoinikia was confused in her frailty. In other words, we still see this far back in history that men were often seen as studs while women were seen as frail and treacherous. However, we see that men and women are often moved emotionally by the same kinds of concerns in The Odyssey. Home, memories of old love, lost friends, lost youth and death appear to affect women and men equally in their deepest thoughts and emotions. We also see this portrait drawn in Virgil, particularly in the love ...