s. Therefore I weep y our death without ceasing. You were kind always.' So she spoke, lamenting, and the women sorrowed around her grieving openly for Patroklos, but for her own sorrows each.So, one could make an argument that the p oet of the Iliad does portray women as objects which men use to jockey forposition with one another. He portrays them in stereotypical roles and with stereotypical characteristics. He portrays them astotally impotent outside the protection of their ma le guardians. But he does all this in a way that doesn't seek to support orjustify that system. Instead, he presents it with such honesty and clarity that it makes the injustices of the society clear. This doesnot 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 anyway. 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 olook upon the situation of women with some sensitivity and compassion....
