Athena's Role in the Odyssey An English professor once wrote these words on the board: "Woman without her man is nothing." She then proceeded to ask her class to correctly punctuate the sentence. The males in the class wrote down: "Women, without her man, is nothing." While the females in the class wrote down: "Woman! Without her, man is nothing." This simple exercise displays the various perceptions that people have concerning the role of women …showed first 75 words of 1162 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1162 total…wanted to honor the goddesses in his literary work. However, the most conclusive answer is that Homer wanted everyone reading his epic to understand the importance of women in society. Without Athena, Odysseus would have never made it home, and would not have learned to overcome trials in his life. Therefore, one can assume that the women in that English class have read Homer's epic when they wrote down: "Women! Without her, man is nothing!"