Constructions Of Gender And Sexuality In Homer’s Iliad
The Iliad is an ancient epic poem composed by Homer, a Greek poet. Homer details the events of the final year of the Trojan War in which Agamemnon and Achilles quarrel leading to a series of destructive battles that ultimately leave the Trojans vulnerable and countless people from both parties dead. Throughout the Iliad, Homer juxtaposes feminine and masculine experiences to push a war narrative and explores the emotional consequences that a patriarchal warrior society has on both the men and women living in it. Homer uses these differences in his construction of gender and sexuality and places them in a space where they engage and deflect off one another. In the Iliad, women are used as a generative plot driver and are allowed to express vulnerability and fear. Often presented as powerless and dehumanized, the women serve as a critique of kleos, the pursuit of honor and glory.
Meanwhile, men are destructive on their quest for kleos and are often aloof and dismissive of the women’s sentiments. Masculinity and femininity work as opposite binaries in Homeric texts, with masculinity linked to stoicism while femininity is linked to mourning and loss. Sexuality is often repressed, especially for male characters who are not given the space to experience sexual desire being that the pursuit of kleos is their strongest driving force. Through these portrayals of gender and sexuality, Homer has created a dichotomy that is emphasized through the tribulations of war. By depicting the war in such a brutal and ruthless way and intertwining it with the character’s relationships to one another, Homer manages to produce dimensional people that not only conform to the gender roles under the standards of this society, but also provide an evaluation of the effects of war and everything one must lose in order to gain honor and glory.
With femininity in the Iliad being closely linked to mourning and loss, Helen is one of the women who stands to lose the most. While only appearing in the Iliad six times, Helen plays a pivotal role in the war. When Paris abducts Helen, not only does he inadvertently start a war, he also rips Helen away from the only things she has: her country, family, and husband. According to Brewer, Helen is “represented in three different ways throughout the poem: the repentant woman, the good wife taken against her will, and mere property subject to changes of hand as Menelaus and Paris contend for her. ”
By taking Helen as his own back to Troy, he strips her of her humanity and reduces her to a possession, only seen as an object of male desire. Helen is reduced to serving as a trophy for the men around her who only want her for her beauty and not because of her individuality. Helen is actually a complex character and is presented by Homer as someone who is aware of her place in the Trojan War. She shows inner conflict on her loyalty to the Greeks and even though the reader knows she does not hold Paris in high regard, she shows some respect for Hektor and Priam. Helen’s emotions are often unaccounted for as the men in her life determine her future. In Book III, Paris and Menelaus discuss and duel over Helen’s fate, while she sits and weaves. Helen joins Priam at the wall, as the men prepare to fight, solely as a bystander with no power to control the events unfolding. In this way, Homer’s characterization of Helen in the Iliad serves as a comparison to the men that battle over her, and she is the recipient of the consequences and destruction their actions bring. In their quest for kleos, Menelaus and Paris have dehumanized Helen, and now she must carry the tragedies of the war she involuntarily caused with her.
Homer portrays Helen as deviation from the usual imposed gender roles. Not only is she beautiful, but she is not associated with maternity like many of the other women in the Iliad. The purpose of women was to birth a child so that the father’s lineage could continue, and the sons could become warriors and pursue their own glory and honor. By portraying her as a childless woman, Homer is able to explore her sexuality as well as distance her from the men around her and make her a sort of social pariah amongst the Trojans. Some interpretations of Helen also reference moments in which she is sexualized or uses her beauty and appeal to manipulate. When Paris is saved by Aphrodite, the goddess coerces Helen into returning to his chambers. Helen initially refuses, admitting her feelings about the war, “I am not going to him. It would be too shameful. I will not serve his bed, since the Trojan women hereafter would laugh at me, all, and my heart even now is confused with sorrows. ” Homer allows Helen to express vulnerability in this scene by acknowledging that she cares about the women of Troy and her position among them, as well as demonstrating her inner conflict about her relationship and feelings towards Paris.
Each time Helen appears in the Iliad, she is shown to be an assertive individual, even if the outcome of her words is not positive, she is unabashed. Helen proceeds to shame Paris for being a coward and running away from his battle with Menelaus. Homer uses Helen to show Paris’ deviation from societal expectations and that shame that comes with not fulfilling the prescribed ideas of male gender. Paris is the only man who is not entirely concerned with the pursuit of kleos and instead only seeks self-centered desires and sexual pleasure. In this way, Homer characterizes Paris as unmanly and contrasts him to warrior figures such as Hektor, Achilles and Menelaus. Paris is not a warrior, and only has his beauty as his weapon. Similarly, Helen just has her beauty, and is essentially dependent on relationship with Paris. Farron states that they “are so completely dependent on their men because the war has cut them off from their previous loved ones. ”
Thus, Helen has no choice whether or not to comply to Aphrodite’s wishes. Helen wrestles with her attraction to Paris, eventually giving in. She would risk lose her place among the Greeks, as well as the Trojans, and her family. Unbeknownst to her, Helen has already lost her brothers, and Homer utilizes this to show the range of destruction the Trojan War has caused, and to humanize Helen’s character further and garner sympathy towards her. Paris and Helen’s relationship can be seen as an antithesis to the relationship Andromache and Hektor have. Their relationship is the unique since it is the only explicit portrayal of sexual desire from both a man and a woman, although Paris and Aphrodite simply treat Helen as a sexual object, dismissing her emotions and the guilt she feels.
Hecuba is the mother of Hektor, wife of Priam and queen of Troy. She serves as an unsolicited advisor for Hektor and Priam. Although the men seek her opinion, they do not take her into serious consideration. Her efforts to guide them often prove ineffective and futile demonstrating some disdain toward her place in society.
As a distinguished figure amongst the Trojans, Hecuba is able convey the grief felt by everyone when Hektor is killed.
Briseis is a war captive, a reward given to Achilles. She is passed around as an object and seen as a possession taken by Achilles and then by Agamemnon. Achilles only seems to care for her when she is taken from him, her loss serving as an insult to his honor and kleos. She is used as a scapegoat for the men’s egos. After the death of Patroclus, she is used as a pawn to make amends between Achilles and Agamemnon and she is lumped amongst other objects such as horses, and gold. He emphasizes the helplessness of women. (pg 30)
“The poem constructs Hektor as a kind of liaison between the feminine and masculine worlds of Troy. ”[footnoteRef:7] He believes that he is defending Troy and working for a larger goal of not only defending the women in the city.
Hektor is the commander of the Trojan army leading courageously and responsibly. He is driven by the quest for kleos. Andromache is Hektor’s wife who we are first introduced to when she receives bad news about the Trojans in the war. Andromache seems to rely entirely on Hektor, admitting to him that without him she is powerless and alone. She is open in her helplessness, but he does not reassure her with warmth. Instead, Hektor’s character emphasizes the importance of kleos, and how father figures are the only parent that can guarantee a child’s accepted place in society. He speaks of the future and his lineage. Andromache expresses traits associated with femininity, such as vulnerability, while Hektor expresses the destructive nature of kleos associated with masculinity. Andromache is a mother, in this way she pushes the plot in a generative way, she understands Hektor’s pursuit of kleos, but is still wary of what this means for her and Astyanax. Andromache has already lost her father and brothers at the hand of Achilles, so it is reasonable for her to fear for Hektor’s life as well as for her well being and that of her child.
While the men in the Iliad are preoccupied with the pursuit of kleos, they also suffer tragedies due to the brutal war. Achilles, one of the Greek warriors is a hero who for the most part of the epic, takes no place in battle and instead let’s his damaged pride destroy the only relationship he seemed to care about. As stated by Fantuzzi, Patroklus is first introduced in Book I and “he is also immediately distinguished from them [the other warriors] by the fact of being named individually, whereas the other companions remain anonymous”.
In doing this, Homer establishes a clear connection between Patroklus and Achilles. While Homer does not acknowledge the nature of their relationship, whether it be sexual, romantic, or platonic, it plays a key point in the poem. Homer uses Patroklus’ death to inspire Achilles fury, Homer does not necessarily sexualize their relationship but acknowledges it’s intensity. Some interpretations point to the relationship between Achilles and Patroklus as pederasty, which was a romantic relationship between an older dominant male and a younger, submissive male. Warwick that it does not necessarily fit into those characterisitics. Achilles is somewhat warm in his interactions with Patroklus, while appearing overbearing and prideful towards others.
“Like a girl, a baby running after her mother,
begging to be picked up, and she tugs her skirts,
holding her back as she tries to hurry off—all tears,
fawning up at her, till she takes her in her arms. . .
That's how you look, Patroclus, streaming live tears. ”
Homer presents Briseis and Patroklus as alternatives to each other. When Patroklus is killed in battle, he is stripped of Achilles’ identity, he loses the helmet, the spear is broken, and the shield falls, his dead body is stripped of the armor by Hektor. “If the Iliad is the song of Achilles’ anger, it is also, and especially, the extraordinary tale of his grief. His honor is constantly at stake and the death of Achilles foreshadows his own. Unable to sleep, and cries. Achilles is vulnerable in this way, but not for long his anger turns into the pursuit of revenge. Homer uses this as a narrative forwarder(?) but also as a reflection of the way the men internalize the war. “Patroklus, whom I loved beyond all companions, as well as my own life. I have lost him…”
In the Iliad, femininity and masculinity, for the most part, exist as separate binaries. The work of the women is often generative and life sustaining (source), while the work of the men places an emphasizes on warrior culture and is destructive and bloody resulting in numerous deaths. Homer pairs images of idyllic life with war, to detail how much is lost in the quest after kleos. (Such as the shield) These images show the idealized life the characters would be living if the war had not started. The pride and ego of many of the men, leads the female characters to suffer the repercussions of their actions. Often, the women act as a memorial of the men and don’t have individual identities. Achilles’ pride is hurt when Briseis is taken by Agamemnon, but only because he sees her as an object. By not accepting his part in the war, Achilles’ plays a hand in Patroklus’ death. Through the characterization of the men and women in the Iliad, Homer is able to create a narrative in which men suffer silently, while women are able to voice their grievances. The male figures suffer as much as the women, but there is a finality to their suffering, while the women are left to grieve, defenseless as the end of Troy comes near.
Bibliography
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University Press, May 23, 2013. Oxford Scholarship Online. Date Accessed 21 Nov. 2019
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Farron, S. “THE PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN THE ILIAD. ” Acta Classica, vol. 22, 1979, pp. 15–31. JSTOR, www. jstor. org/stable/24591564.
Monsacré, Hélène. 2018. The Tears of Achilles. Trans. Nicholas J. Snead. Introduction by Richard P. Martin. Hellenic Studies Series 75. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies.
Signore, Sean Nicholas. “Achilles and Andromache: Gender Ambiguity in Motif, Narrative, and Formula. ” Brandeis University, 2002, getd. libs. uga. edu/pdfs/signore_sean_n_200708_ma. pdf.
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https://classical-inquiries. chs. harvard. edu/helen-of-troy-unwomanly-in-her-sexuality/#_ftnref2
