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Text and Context: Women in Homer

Module description

This module enables you to explore the roles of women in the Homeric epics, alongside investigation of the latest scientific and archaeological discoveries unearthing the real experiences of women in the Late Bronze Age, which might have informed the Homeric poems. We will ask questions like: why has the Iliad often been thought as “all about men”? Why does the Odyssey start with a woman being told to shut up? Is there a way that we can read women back into Homer? And how might discoveries in archaeology and science shed new light on the experiences of women – and make us read these texts in a different way?

Module aims - intentions of the module

The aims of the module are:

• To enable you to explore the many different roles played by women in the Homeric poems, and to unpack how setting these alongside the historical experiences of women in the Late Bronze Age can change and shape the way we think about Homer – as well as the importance of women, both narratively and historically.
• To enable you to analyse the Homeric epics within their ancient literary, historical and cultural context, and – at the same time – to critically examine how contemporary concerns and theoretical approaches can change the way we understand the past.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate a broad and detailed knowledge of a selection of primary texts relating to women from Late Bronze Age sources, and a selection of passages from the Homeric epics (in English translation)
• 2. Demonstrate a detailed knowledge of the realities of women’s lives in Late Bronze Age and ancient Greek society
• 3. Analyse the complexities of the ways in which women are represented in Homer and evaluate critically the representation (and marginalization) of women in ancient epic/historical records, from a range of theoretical perspectives

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Demonstrate advanced skills in the analysis and critical evaluation of ancient texts
• 5. Demonstrate advanced academic and library skills specific to Classics and Ancient History
• 6. Demonstrate an advanced understanding of and critical engagement with different approaches to reading women in Homer, including (but not limited to) neoanalysis, narratology and feminist literary criticism

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Demonstrate advanced study skills in research and the presentation of findings
• 8. Demonstrate advanced skills in the selection and organisation of relevant material
• 9. Demonstrate an ability to produce a strong and convincing argument

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• How do we recover the women of the past? An introduction
• Women in Homer: The state of play
• Helen of Troy (Iliad and Odyssey)
• Briseis (Iliad)
• Hecuba (Iliad)
• Aphrodite (Iliad and Odyssey)
• Thetis (Iliad)
• Circe (Odyssey)
• Penelope (Odyssey)

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Primary reading:

• Homer, The Iliad, trans. Emily Wilson (W. W. Norton, 2023).
• Homer, The Odyssey, trans. Emily Wilson (W. W. Norton, 2018).
• A detailed list of additional primary texts, giving editions, will be provided by the lecturer

Selected secondary reading:

• Blondell, Ruby. ‘“Bitch That I Am”: Self-Blame and Self-Assertion in the Iliad’. Transactions of the American Philological Association, vol. 140, no. 1, 2010, pp. 1–32.
• Cohen, Beth, ed. The Distaff Side?: Representing the Female in Homer’s Odyssey. Oxford University Press, 1995.
• Dué, Casey. Homeric Variations on a Lament by Briseis. Rowman & Littlefield, 2002.
• Ebbott, Mary. ‘Seeking Odysseus’s Sister’. Michigan Quarterly Review, vol. 56, no. 2, 2017.
• Felson, Nancy. Regarding Penelope: From Character to Poetics. University of Oklahoma Press, 1994.
• Felson, Nancy, and Laura M. Slatkin. ‘Gender and Homeric Epic’. The Cambridge Companion to Homer, edited by Robert Fowler, Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 91–114.
• Hauser, Emily. ‘Women in Homer’. The Cambridge Companion to Greek Epic, edited by Emma Greensmith, Cambridge University Press, 2024.
• Hitchcock, Louise, and Marianna Nikolaidou. ‘Gender in Greek and Aegean Prehistory’. A Companion to Gender Prehistory, edited by Diane Bolger, Wiley-Blackwell, 2012, pp. 502–25.
• Katz, Marilyn. Penelope’s Renown: Meaning and Indeterminacy in the Odyssey. Princeton University Press, 1991.
• ——— ‘Ideology and “The Status of Women” in Ancient Greece’. History and Theory, vol. 31, no. 4, 1992, pp. 70–97.
• Kopaka, Katérina, ed. Fylo: Engendering Prehistoric ‘Stratigraphies’ in the Aegean and the Mediterranean. Proceedings of an International Conference, University of Crete, Rethymno 2-5 June 2005, Université de Liège, University of Texas at Austin, 2009.
• Morris, Sarah, and Robert Laffineur, eds. EPOS: Reconsidering Greek Epic and Aegean Bronze Age Archaeology. Proceedings of the 11th International Aegean Conference, Los Angeles, UCLA-The J. Paul Getty Villa, 20-23 April 2006. Université de Liège, University of Texas at Austin, 2007.
• Sherratt, Susan, and John Bennet, eds. Archaeology and Homeric Epic. Oxbow Books, 2017.
• Slatkin, Laura M. The Power of Thetis and Selected Essays. Center for Hellenic Studies, 2011.

Key words search

women, gender, Homer, epic, Bronze Age