Does one ever stop and realize the role of women in our current life and how sometimes we force double standards on women without even noticing. Its not the fact that we are ignorant but it`s a thing of the past that we have been doing subconsciously since before history was being recorded. In Homers epic The Odyssey, Penelope, Klytaimnestra and Kalypso are viewed in different ways that test`s their ability to stay perfect while in tough life situations. Men react differently to how the women view act and speak and it affects their future within the book.

Even though most of the women in the Odyssey are unfaithful and untrustworthy there are a couple that are not only faithful, but cunning as well. The main example of a woman in the odyssey who isn`t only cunning but also faithful is Penelope. She is so praised as a woman because she fits the standards that society puts against her.

Penelope is cunning because she does her best to keep tricking the suitors and holding off choosing a suitor because she has faith that her husband was still alive. When Antinoos explains Penelope`s deceitful trick to the rest of the suitors, he claims: "She has her great loom standing in the hall... every day she wove on the great loom - but every night by torchlight she unwove it" (2.22.100-119). This clearly shows how even though she knew it could get her in trouble she did it to stay faithful and not fall into the same trap most other women in the Odyssey do. Penelope is also cunning and demonstrates it when she asks Eurykleia to move the bed that Odysseus built: "Make up his bed for him/built with his own hands"