The story of the Odyssey has frequently been described as a man's journey home from war, struggling to overcome the opposition of gods, man, and nature itself. However, if one looks a little below the surface, one can also see it as a serious of short stories about the power and powerlessness of the women in his world. Odysseus' journey is not just a flight from one danger to another. He also flies from one woman to another, and their help or hindrance in each case determines his fate. If one rearranges the story in a linear fashion, rather than allowing Odysseus' pride to focus on his own part in the story, the role of the women because patently clear.

             Helen's love for Menelaus is the active force that dragged a thousand ships across the ocean to Troy. It would be a grave mistake to think she was a passive player in the game. Odysseus' great plan to destroy Troy with a wooden horse very nearly got derailed when Helen tried calling to the men inside to discover their position. Helen is a strong and manipulative queen, and even after Troy she survives to work her magic on her husband and Odysseus' son. Helen is the one who watches her adopted city be destroyed, and all the women she has befriended slaughtered or raped by the Greeks. The tragedy of the Trojan women is only hinted at in the Odyssey, but it is an important backdrop to the story. .

             Men treat women like stolen property in the Iliad, so it is rather interesting that Odysseus's journey home quickly lands him on an island where a woman treats men like food. Circe, who is called a witch, enchants all the men that come into her secretive home and turns them into swine. With her magic she is capable of remaining free from the control of men, and has developed a degree of autonomy. Even when she falls in love with Odysseus and convinces him to remain with her for a year, she does not become his property in the way that his slaves at Troy or his wife in Ithaca had done.