elen. Helen is depicted as wise and intelligent and represents the best in women but like Penelope also has traits contained by the worst of women. She had powers in interpreting omens and secret mind altering recipes. Helen and Kirke have much in common whose powers are both respected and feared. The remedy is knowing Helen had ended up with Menalaos rather than Paris. Along with an affect on the reader's feelings on the story that unfolds, the constant contradicting of the "best in women" and the "worst in women" create a paradoxical message in the poem. Women are portrayed as having the capacity to do evil upon men but in trusting them, one could see the good that is in them. Through the story the dishonouring of marriages, destruction and suffering and use of sex as a weapon build up fear and hatred towards women by males. The fear is in trusting a women who lures them with sex or other offerings that their intent is to do harm. There is also hatred because the women hold such power and the suffering that they can cause. The dishonouring of marriages shows this suffering, which is another paradox. Men who avoid marriage avoid the evil in women as "The day of faithful wives is gone forever"(XI line 534), however, they end up dying without a partner. The adultery of men and women in the poem is what fuels the hatred between one another. Portrayal of women being more treacherous than men in matters of adultery and seduction builds on this hate towards men. Kirke would be a favorite of women as she turned men into the pigs they seemingly are. Related to adultery is the understanding of genders in the poem. The women is seen as treacherous when two parties commit adultery but from a modern perspective it is an unfair judgement as both are at fault. This establishes that at the time, women are the weaker of the two sexes. Women are slaves and spoils of war, if they are valued for sex they are used for sex. The universal po...
