goddesses or possessed of some supernatural qualities, with the exception of the clever princess Nausicaa, who aided Odysseus in his time of need. Indeed, the mortal women of the story were clever and capable, but, as women, they were peripheral to the more important ideas of honor and glory in battle.  The only woman who was a warrior was the goddess Athena, and she was different from other women, since she had sprung from Zeus's head already fully-formed and dressed for battle. She was the patron of soldiers, perhaps representing the anima, or female spirit, as a stand-in for real women.

Even the other goddesses in the story were pictured as petty, vain, and seductive, trying to trap men with their scheming. The Greek society was andro-centric, meaning that it revolved around men. Women were necessary for reproduction and little else.  Still, Penelope and Nausicaa were portrayed as sympathetic characters, perhaps the ideal for Greek women to aspire to be.

One thing you should remember is that, like most ancient cultures (and the vast majority of societies historically), the ancient Greeks had a patriarchal and male-oriented society, and the Odyssey reflects that culture and those values with its depiction of the various women seen throughout the narrative.

This does not, of course, mean that there are not positive portrayals of women or that women cannot hold agency within the narrative; but those women do tend to ascribe to and submit themselves before the patriarchal values of their culture. Probably the two most significant variations on this theme can be found in the characters of Nausicaa and Penelope.

In Nausicaa, we find the young, unmarried princess of the Phaeacia who aids Odysseus when he washes up in her father's kingdom: she is, by the standards of ancient societies, an idealized young unmarried woman: she is explicitly characterized as virginal, obedient to her father, and mindful of her reputation as it reflects on her own marital prospects.

On the other hand, Odysseus's wife, Penelope, herself is a far more assertive personality, possessing a cunning comparable to Odysseus himself, as she outmaneuvers the suitors and plays them against one another and later devises a test to discern whether Odysseus is truly her husband or not.

But Penelope, in her own way, reaffirms rather than challenges these societal norms: consider that, for all of her manipulations, Penelope's primary goal lies in the protection of her household and family against those who would exploit it and who, by so blatantly infringing upon the cultural norms and expectations of hospitality, have already proven their unworthiness as prospective husbands. And even then, her manipulations amount to only delaying tactics: in the end, she must be rescued by her husband and her son, who are the ones that claim vengeance against the suitors.

Other notable personalities can be found in Circe and Calypso, who are far more independent and self-sufficient, not to mention far more powerful. Both are minor goddesses, qualities that would tend to place them outside the bounds and the dictates of societal expectations altogether, and both are obstacles in Odysseus's homeward journey. In Circe's case, she must be confronted and physically overcome (and note the role sexuality plays in this confrontation), after which she becomes an ally. In Calypso's case, she holds Odysseus in captivity, and he is only released by Zeus's decree.

Finally, there is Odysseus's own patron, the goddess Athena, the most powerful of the various women in the Odyssey and also, interestingly, the most masculine in her personality and depiction. Indeed, Athena has long had a history of existing outside of traditional gender norms altogether, a quality that can be seen even in her birth, when she sprouts fully formed out of her father's head. She is a virgin goddess, perpetually unmarried and sexually abstinent, not to mention a goddess of war.

At the same time, however, Athena is not without feminine attributes: just as she is the goddess of war (a traditionally masculine pursuit), she also has authority over the art of weaving (which was deeply feminine). There is an ambiguity about her gender, and this is reflected in the Odyssey as well, with her frequent use of disguises (often masculine) and her extraordinary authority and agency within a world predicated around men.

Women in The Odyssey serve as obstacles, guides, and goals.

Calypso and Circe are major obstacles for Odysseus in the story. They're also temptations he has to overcome. They both keep him from reaching his goal. Calypso is a nymph who keeps him trapped in pleasure; Odysseus still wants to be with his wife in Ithaca. Nevertheless, he was stuck there for seven years. Circe was a witch who trapped Odysseus by turning his men into swine. He freed them, and then they all stayed with her in comfort for a year before continuing their journey.

Athena is a major guide for both Odysseus and Telemachus. It is she who convinces Zeus to allow Odysseus to go home at all. She helps Telemachus resist the suitors who are plying Penelope for her hand. She convinces him to stay strong and train and to believe that his father is still alive. She helps him figure out what path to take. Without Athena, the story would have turned out quite a bit differently.

Penelope serves as a goal in The Odyssey. She is Odysseus's wife and the personification of the life he wants to get back to. Penelope is the goal to which Odysseus hopes he can return. She is clever and faithful. She tricks the suitors and convinces them she's weaving a shroud for years, unraveling it each night. Even when Odysseus appears, she tests him to be sure that he's really her husband. He is able to achieve the goal of going home to Ithaca and to her.

Various women, including gods and mortal women, have a pivotal role in the Odyssey, which is, for the most part, about Odysseus's journey home from the Trojan War, a journey complicated by the intervention of women.  For example, the rape of King Priam's daughter Cassandra by Ajax enrages the goddess Athena against the Greeks, and she is initially responsible for delaying Odysseus's return to Ithaca.  Later, Athena encourages and aids Odysseus's son, Telemachus, to begin the search for his father, who, Athena already knows, is on his way back to Ithaca after a delay of nearly twenty years, many of which have been spent with women.

Throughout the Odyssey,women appear in the form of temptresses and either seduce Odysseus into staying with them, sometimes for years or try to destroy him.  Women's power is always pitted against men's greatest weakness (women), and women almost always win.   In one of the most important episodes, Odysseus's stay with Calypso for seven years, clearly Calypso has seduced Odysseus (who has been willingly seduced).  Scholars have pointed out for years that Odysseus's seven-year stay with Calypso has had the beneficial effect of keeping him out of trouble and out of the god's eyes during that time.  Athena, however, has convinced the gods that it is time for Odysseus to go home, and Zeus therefore sends Hermes to Calypso to tell her that she must let Odysseus go.  Her reply indicates women's ultimately powerless role in this society:

And now you are angry with me too because I have a man here. . . .I got fond of him and cherished him. . . . Still, I cannot cross Zeus (V. 120 and following)

Calypso, even though she has fallen in love with Odysseus and intends to make him immortal, must give him up in accord with Zeus's command, and one can sense the genuine heartbreak in her speech, which depicts the secondary position of women, even immortals, in this male-dominated world.

After leaving Calypso, Odysseus and his men deal with Circe, another temptress, who drugs the men and turns them into swine.  She eventually seduces Odysseus by using the posture of a supplicant (therefore, subservient), and Odysseus stays with her for over a year, and then he and his men escape to continue their journey.  They almost immediately encounter the Sirens, who though permanently part of the rocks from which they sing to passing sailors, use their beautiful voices to lure passing ships onto the rocks.  Although the Sirens have a kind of seductive power over men, their ability to destroy is limited but does display, as Calypso and Circe did, man's weakness.

One can argue that the most powerful woman in the Odyssey is Penelope, Odysseus's wife whom he hasn't seen for twenty years.  Throughout his stays with Calypso and Circe, Odysseus has never lost sight of his goal of returning to Penelope and his son, Telemachus, and it is Penelope's image that repeatedly draws him back to his original goal, which is to return to Ithaca and re-establish his life as husband, father, and king.  Penelope's personal power as a woman is often debated, but throughout the narrative, she remains faithful to Odysseus and waits, sometimes impatiently, for his return.

Roles of women in the Odyssey reflect the actual customs of archaic Greece, although certain characters who only appear in the backstory, such as the powerful queen, Clytemnestra, may have reflected older Mycenean traditions.

The main role in which we see women in Homeric epic is domestic, as part of the "oikos" or household, and responsible primarily for weaving cloth and food preparation. Penelope's weaving is not only a plot device, but reflects the central economic function of women in large households of producing clothing. Women are generally portrayed as wives, potential wives, or as objects of sexual desire.

Female divinities or semi-divinities play an important part in the plot of the Odyssey, with Athena protecting Odysseus and Telemachus, and the sirens, Circe, and Calypso, inter alia, acting as potential obstacles to the return.

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.