Female Agency and Virtue in the Odyssey

This is the first work that examines the actions and conduct of both immortal and mortal female figures in the Odyssey, and how they are valued within the Odyssean world.
Engaging with feminist literary criticism and feminist virtue ethics, the book provides readers with an insight into the actions, conduct, motivations and voices of all female figures in the Odyssey, including the unnamed, the silent, the maid servants, semi-divine females, mortal females, and the divine. It demonstrates that the Homeric Odyssean world has a values system underpinned by principles that are acted upon by both male and female figures; in some cases, solely female figures exhibit certain principles. This highlights their agency within the Odyssey and their importance within the values system of the Odyssean world.
This study is of interest to students and scholars interested in gender studies, feminist literary studies and feminist virtue philosophy, as well as those working on classical and Homeric literature more broadly.

About the author

Elizabeth Stockdale is an Honorary Associate of the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Sydney, Australia. She most recently was a Visiting Researcher at Girton College, University of Cambridge. Her research interests include Homeric epic, female figures in Classical Literature, ancient Greek thought.

Product details

• Authors: Elizabeth Stockdale
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 31.03.2026
• EAN: 9781032982526
• ISBN: 978-1-032-98252-6
• No. of pages: 224
• Series: Routledge Monographs in Classical Studies
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; HISTORY / Ancient / General, Ancient Greece, HISTORY / Ancient / Greece, Classical texts, Ancient History, Classical history / classical civilisation, Ancient, classical and medieval texts