Women in the Iliad
Women as an object
Women referred to as 'prizes' 13 times (Book 1)
To fight it out over Helen (Book 3)
'The winner will take the women (Book 3)
'I have three daughters... of these he shall choose for his own (book 9)
'For the winner a woman skilled in arts and crafts (book 24)
Women portrayed sympathetically
'Hera gave him in her concern for the Greeks' (Book 1)
'I respect and admire you' (Book 3) - Helen to Priam
'Filled Helen's heart with sweet longing for her former husband' (Book 3)
'Gentle, generous mother Hecabe' (Book 6)
'My dear brother-in-law' (Book 6) - Helen has a good relationship with Hector and is trying to be kind to him
'She had gone up to a tower on the wall... crying her heart out' (Book 6)
'Andromache, bursting into tears...' (Book 6)
'When I lose you, I might as well be dead' (Book 6) - Andromache's dedication for Hector, she's suggesting the death is inevitable
'She was distraught to the point of death' (Book 22)
Women being degraded
'she heaps me with abuse for this... she slanders me constantly' (Book 1) - Zeus talking about Hera
'Obstinate Wretch!' (Book 3) - Aphrodite about Helen after she refused to sleep with Paris
'slut that I am' (Book 3)
'What a cold, evil-minded slut I am' (Book 6) - self-deprecating, maybe saying what she thinks she should be saying
'Hera and her feminine wiles tricked him' (Book 19)
Women involved in the battle
'Athene stood behind Achilles and seized him by his auburn hair' (Book 1) - Athene prevents Achilles from killing Agamemnon
'Menelaus would have won unutterable glory but Aphrodite broke the strap' (Book 3) - stopping Paris from being choked
'Aphrodite hid Paris in a dense mist and whisked him away' (book 3)
'She distilled some nectar and lovely ambrosia into achilles chest' (Book 19)
'Aphrodite anointed the body with ambrosial oil of roses o achilles could not lacerate it' (Book 23)
Women following men's instructions/men giving them instructions
'protect your son. Go to Olympus... supplicate him' (Book 1) - Achilles commanding Thetis
'Paris wants you to go to bed with him' (Book 3)
'So he spoke, and Hector's mother went' (Book 6)
'Go home now and attend to the work, the loom and the spindle' (Book 6) - Hector wanting to return to a normal life
'So he spoke and the goddess silver footed Thetis complied' (Book 24)
Women standing up for themselves
'Hector you are possessed' (Book 6) - Andromache is fierce
'I refuse to go and share that man's bed again' (Book 3)