Manners, Wives and Women of Homer

Considered one of the most influential authors in the history of the written word, Homer was an Ancient Greek poet and the credited author of two foundational works of ancient Greek literature, the Iliad and the Odyssey. – Public domain image of Homer

The Women of Homer

Although the women of Athens in the days of its glory had a position which is to-day believed to have been not merely inferior, but servile and debased, yet the earlier women, both of what may be called the period of the Homeric singer and of the Homeric listener, were evidently a very superior order, receiving respect and duty, and giving a high tone to their social life. 

There are but two ignoble women in all the pages of Homer, Helen and Clytemnestra; and even to them a certain sort of honor was awarded by those about them. All the other women of Homer’s song were dignified, gentle, noble, with lofty standards of morals and behavior, and exerting a wide and valuable influence. They are generally characterized by a sweet courtesy; they have a natural refinement; and in all the story that is told of them we recognize a warmth of family feeling, a lofty elegance of manners, a grace which is hardly excelled by the manners and habits of the ladies of today. 

It was evident this feeling about marriage in ancient days which made the position of women honorable, gave them safety, allowed them to cultivate the graces, lent them an authority and influence that were forceful, and, made the tale seem real to those who heard it sung, because there was nothing in it contrary to their own experience. We read of it all with a great sense of naturalness and kinship, feeling that what is right is so the world over, and realizing that it is with women to-day as it was three thousand years ago; their power and their protection lie in the obedience and the reverence that are given to the sanctity of marriage. 

It is interesting to find that years ago, when all the people who heard the Homeric songs first sung are dust blowing on the four winds of heaven, this institution of marriage, which had its happy exemplification in the lives, the singing of which touched all hearts with a kind and familiar finger, should remain as fixed and solid as the rock, and that, indeed, among those of our generation who think the highest and live the best it is regarded as sacramental in its nature, and not to be lightly considered, rudely spoken of, nor carelessly broken.—Harper's Bazar, 1898

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