In the Iliad women are items of exchange and markers of status for the men who possess them (Chryseis and Briseis, whom Agamemnon and Achilles argue over in Book I) obstacles that the male hero has to overcome or resist to fulfill his heroic destiny (Andromache's entreaties to Hector in Book VI). To the extent that the Iliad has a moral lesson to impart to its readers, part of it would have to be that …showed first 75 words of 983 total…

…showed last 75 words of 983 total…society clear. This does not make him a revolutionary, a reformer or a proto-feminist. There is no reason to think that he wanted to, or thought that he could, change society in any way. From his point of view he may have simply been telling it like it is. But it does show a capacity in a Greek male writer t o look upon the situation of women with some sensitivity and compassion. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**