Victim Soldier Duality in Female Characters in the Trojan War

Abstract

The complexities of womanhood in Homer and other Greek poets’ depictions of the Trojan War may be best understood by viewing female characters as both victims and soldiers simultaneously. By viewing them through this lens, we can better account for the perversion of traditional gender roles, and of femininity in particular, in times of war. Victim status is held implicitly by women of the Trojan War, because of the direct violence and lack of agency they experience. However, through their recurring victimization, female characters take on the status and roles traditionally delegated to male soldiers. These soldier-like traits include: devotion to a cause, loyalty to a comrade or savior, personal vengeance in battle, acceptance of death, and perceived wrongdoing as a motivator. This paper will examine this phenomenon in not just Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, but also in Euripides’ Trojan Women and Hecuba, and Aeschylus’ Agamemnon. These works present a variety of female characters, and a careful analysis of them will argue that each embodies a soldier-like trait. Victim-soldier duality is demonstrated by defining the traits of male soldiers and then drawing comparisons between said traits and the actions of female characters. Viewing characters through the dual lens of victim and soldier increases our understanding of female characters through the expansion of the one-dimensional characterization that they often receive. Therefore, to imagine a fuller and more accurate characterization of femininity in war, women must be realized as victims stepping into the role of soldiers.