Papel e imagen social de las mujeres libres en los poemas homéricos desde la perspectiva de su alteridad

Abstract

The main identity in Homeric poems is not individual but collective and is represented by being Achaean, male and noble, states acquired at birth. The members of this group have the exclusive capacity of taking an active part in society, of changing and building it, by taking part in a political institution, the assembly, and their leadership role in war. From this archetypal definition of the dominating identity we can construe - negatively - alterity. Women are included in one of this Other's group. The aim of this paper will be to analyze which role had women, how they were symbolized in the poems and which kind of relationship occurs between the bearers of identity and the alterity represented by women.