Living in Deep Time

Gaining perspective through the Goddess in a post-Kavanaugh world

For those who need a refresher, The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus, the Greek war hero who triumphs in the Trojan War but ultimately spends years trying to make it home, facing a variety of nasty trials and tribulations along the way. Meanwhile, his wife, Penelope, has been faithfully waiting for her husband’s return while also trying to fend off a host of suitors who desire Odysseus’ wealth as much as they desire her.

When Penelope finds a singer entertaining a group of would-be suitors in her house with a particularly dreary song, she requests a cheerier one, only to be told to shut her trap by her own son, Telemachus, who proclaims, “Speech will be the business of men, all men and me most of all; for mine is the power in this household.”

Well then.

I read The Odyssey in high school or college — I can’t remember which one, but I do know that this passage was neither remarked upon nor considered inappropriate, and that was in the 1990s. That line is just the tip of the Odyssey misogyny iceberg, by the way. Nonetheless, it continues to prevail as a classic, and I’m guessing there’s still very little discussion about what it teaches our boys and girls about relationships between the sexes.

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