OK. So Helen’s beauty sparks a war.
Athena is a strategic goddess guiding Odysseus.
Penelope embodies clever loyalty.
Circe turns men into pigs, which frankly is still the most realistic female character arc in literature.
Calypso traps the hero on an island for seven years.
Cassandra can literally see the future but nobody listens, making her the first woman in recorded history to experience a meeting.
The Sirens weaponize music.
Nausicaa saves Odysseus when he washes up naked and useless.
Andromache gives one of the most devastating anti-war speeches in the Iliad.
Hecuba is basically the emotional wreckage of empire in human form.
Aphrodite starts half the problems in Western civilization by being hot and petty.
Hera is running divine opposition research.
Thetis gets Zeus involved because Achilles is having a workplace dispute.
But apart from Helen, Athena, Penelope, Circe, Calypso, Cassandra, the Sirens, Nausicaa, Andromache, Hecuba, Aphrodite, Hera, and Thetis...
WHAT HAS HOMER EVER DONE TO GIVE FEMALE CHARACTERS ATTENTION?
📷 Una pareja de recién casados a la salida de la Iglesia de San Juan el Real, en Oviedo, año 1923. Fotografía de autor anónimo. Publicada en el diario El Comercio.
Expreso mi gratitud al Señor por el #ViajeApostólico que me ha permitido realizar en España. Agradezco al pueblo español, que me ha acogido con gran entusiasmo y devoción; y, de manera especial, a Su Majestad el Rey. Mi agradecimiento afectuoso va igualmente a los obispos, a las comunidades que he visitado y a toda la Iglesia que está en España. ¡Que Dios bendiga siempre a España!