Her-story in the Homeric Epics and the Classical Period
    
Author: Chen, Rongnu
Affiliation: Beijing Language and Culture University

As “masculinized” epics, the Homeric epics display two different kinds of females: the muted female and powerful female. However, these two kinds do not go to extremes, and even integrate into a perfect figure, Penelope. This paper tries to show how Homer illustrates inclusively the so-called her-story ranging from praising good women at one extreme to an androcentric view at the other. Just from an ancient feminist perspective Homer could keep a balance between these two opposite viewpoints. Later in the classical period the literary images referring to Greek woman have been broken up toward two directions, which could be said to be oriental seclusion or female intruder.