Odysseus Is A Very Feminine Character, Now That I Think About It...

Odysseus is a very feminine character, now that I think about it...

Alright, let’s get something straight before anyone comes at me with a “bUt tHiS iS gEnDeR eSsEnTiAlIsM” take. I’m not saying Odysseus is literally a woman or that masculinity and femininity are these rigid, unchanging constructs. I’m talking about how the ancient Greeks perceived these traits. This is about Homeric gender coding, not modern gender politics.

Ancient Greek society had clear ideas about what was “masculine” and “feminine.” Men fought, conquered, and sought kleos (glory). Women used cunning, patience, and endurance to survive. Odysseus? He embodies the latter far more than the former. That’s the point. That’s what makes him interesting. I’m not slapping modern labels on him; I’m analyzing how he would’ve been understood in his own time.

Got it? Got it. Then let me explain.

Greek heroism is all about kleos (glory), right? You charge into battle, fight, die gloriously, and get immortalized in song. Odysseus? Not his style. His whole thing is survival. Achilles, the epitome of warrior masculinity, chooses an early death in exchange for undying fame. Odysseus chooses life, no matter what it takes. He hides, deceives, and grovels when necessary...all acts that a traditionally “heroic” warrior wouldn’t be caught dead doing.

Take the Cyclops episode: a classic strongman hero would just fight Polyphemus. Odysseus? He outsmarts him with wordplay, drugs his enemy (like a sneaky witch would), and escapes by disguising himself under sheep. You’re telling me this is masculine? If anything, it aligns him with figures like Circe and Penelope. Women who survive through wit and deception rather than brute strength.

This man’s mouth is his deadliest weapon. He doesn’t win with a spear; he wins with stories, persuasion, and trickery. The word polytropos (πολύτροπος), used to describe him in the very first line of The Odyssey, literally means “many-turned” or “twisting,” evoking the way a woman might spin or weave. The metaphor of weaving is all over his character, and weaving is, of course, the domain of women in Greek thought.

Even his lies are textile-like. He spins tales, unravels them, and reweaves them as necessary. And let’s not ignore that his narrative mirrors Penelope’s: she weaves and unweaves her shroud, delaying the suitors; he spins and unspins his identity to survive. He and Penelope are two sides of the same coin, both manipulating reality to stay in control.

If we take ancient Greek gender norms seriously, dominance in sex = masculinity, and submission = femininity. And Odysseus? The man spends years being kept by women. Calypso and Circe both hold him as a sex slave, reducing him to an object of desire rather than an active agent. That’s not exactly Achilles ravaging Briseïs, is it? He’s literally lying in bed (λέχος) while these women rule over him.

Even in Ithaca, his return isn’t some macho takeover. He sneaks in, disguises himself, and watches before making his move. Unlike Agamemnon, who storms into Mycenae post-Troy and gets murked by his wife, Odysseus waits, gathering intel like a patient, calculating woman.

He also cries...like...a lot.

Masculine heroes go out into the world to conquer (Iliadic energy). Feminine figures are more often concerned with the home. Odysseus’s entire goal? To get back to Ithaca, to his oikos, to his wife. He’s not seeking new conquests or greater glory. He wants stability, family, domesticity. He longs for the space traditionally occupied by women.

Odysseus is basically the Greek epic’s answer to the trickster woman trope. He’s wily, verbal, emotionally expressive, and constantly using the strategies of metis, not brute strength, to survive. While Homeric masculinity typically means fighting, dying, and achieving kleos, Odysseus thrives through deception, patience, and endurance. Traits that the ancient Greeks more often ascribed to women.

More Posts from Definitelynotluffy and Others

4 months ago
definitelynotluffy - If your hungry, eat.

wrong ithaca, ody.

2 months ago

Odysseus: You like bad boys, right?

Penelope: Yeah, so?

Odysseus: Not trying to show off, but when the GPS said turn left I turned right.

Penelope:

Penelope: You got lost, didn't you?

Odysseus: ...Yeah.

3 months ago

i swear every day i notice something new in Epic

the little piano notes in Puppeteer playing the Luck Runs Out melody starting around the 30 second mark?? i heard the other riffs but missed this one. oh man. Ody wanting to be alone, remembering how Eurylochus warned him. thinking about the 551 men who died because of him. Eurylochus remembering it too, but he doesn’t seem to hold resentment, just the guilt of knowing him opening the wind bag got them there. Ody maybe knowing about the wind bag already and pushing Eurylochus away so he doesn’t have to hear it when he’s already lost so many friends…

what a masterpiece

3 months ago
My Volleyball Au With The Iliad Boys, Who Should I Add Next!!! :0
My Volleyball Au With The Iliad Boys, Who Should I Add Next!!! :0
My Volleyball Au With The Iliad Boys, Who Should I Add Next!!! :0

my volleyball au with the iliad boys, who should i add next!!! :0

more yapping below

tbf all my knowledge of volleyball is from haikyuu + the 2 olympic matches ive seen so. but anyway im kinda obsessed with this (it was between volleyball/soccer)

i wanna add more characters but idk how they would fit!!! i guess the trojans are a different team? and are the greek gods their coaches?

athena as the coach for the boys team - 100% trying to get ody and dio to play professionally

ares as the coach for the girls team

hermes is like the supervisor but he dgaf lowkey he just watches for the thrill and the drama (LOVES doing the cheers)

maybe poseidon as the coach for a diff team, would def still have beef with ody somehow #trust

anyway if u read all this 1) please tell me ur thoughts and 2) thank u for reading here’s a gold star ⭐️

4 months ago

hi hello i’ve seen far too many people find out about the telegony and be devastated that the odyssey’s happy ending does not remain happy for long.

so.

the telegony is not canon. it was not written by homer. some wannabe called eugammon of cyrene wrote it. telegonus was a character from one of hesiod’s works (not homer’s) and he’s never mentioned in the odyssey. eugammon just decided to make him odysseus’s son with circe because why not.

the telegony directly contradicts the ending of the odyssey in which odysseus and penelope grow old and die together. ALSO. odysseus’s bloodline cannot have more than one than one male heir per generation. some ancestor of his was cursed by a god. so that makes telegonus’s existence impossible. if odysseus ever had a kid with circe (which he didn’t in canon) it would have had to be a girl.

homer was long dead when eugammon was like. telegonus is gonna kill his dad and bring his step family to his mom’s island, marry his stepmother while is half-brother marries his mother. never happened. this is ancient fanfiction.

TL;DR : feel free to entirely ignore the existence of the telegony; it’s what i’ve always done anyway.

3 months ago

Kinda a long video but I worked hard and I hope you guys like it!☺️☺️

3 months ago
Made A Second One Hehe

made a second one hehe

2 months ago

Here’s the Odydio god Au I did in late October oh my god I completely forgot about this

My bad I just woke up and finished my breakfast, here it is!

So this Au is about Odysseus dying at one point in the war and Athena turned him in to a god (idk how that work) so now he’s like the mix of Athena and Hermes. But the thing is his memories are completely wiped out and he fully believes that he’s a god from the start. All the memories of his family , friends are all gone.

He seeks out a Greek hero to be his warrior (just like Athena) and came across Diomedes (who he completely forgot about). Diomedes is still in the process of mourning Odysseus death, having a full on mental breakdown all alone in his tent for months and Odysseus just randomly appeared one day and offer himself to be Diomedes’s patron. And Dio did not listen, he just need to embrace Odysseus just one more time even though this is just a shell of who he once loved (Leading in to the bottom pic of the second image) He accepted Odysseus offer and doesn’t speak a words about who they once were in fear of Odysseus leaving him again.

And things continue just like the Iliad, Greek won. Everyone returns home. But instead of living peacefully away from war like the original, Diomedes continues to fight in various wars just for him to be able to stay with Odysseus. He will die fighting at one point, and Odysseus will move on to find a new hero to be his warrior.

Here’s The Odydio God Au I Did In Late October Oh My God I Completely Forgot About This
Here’s The Odydio God Au I Did In Late October Oh My God I Completely Forgot About This
3 months ago

He was as tall as he was tall, and his eyes were the color they were. To describe his hair one would say that he had some. His face had all the features you'd expect, and none of the ones you wouldn't. "There he is," people would often say of him, but only when he was there. And they were right.

3 months ago
Tryna Keep My Ody Consistent And Failing Spectacularly
Tryna Keep My Ody Consistent And Failing Spectacularly

Tryna keep my Ody consistent and failing spectacularly

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definitelynotluffy - If your hungry, eat.
If your hungry, eat.

I'm in love with Luffy rn Currently hyperfixating: One Piece Main fandoms I'm in: Rottmnt, Transformers Prime, One Piece, The Mandalorian and AOT ⚠️DNI⚠️: Tcest, incest, proshippers, pedophiles, racists, disrespectful people, toxic bitches‼️

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