[nopardons]

Child, one son, who was set to inherit the throne. And in those days, women, even queens, had NO say-so at all, in Greece.

It would REALLY be a man's "voice", because it would be a male, with dynastic sensibilities, re his son and his kingdom, who would have such concerns.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Penelope, for example, is helpless to protect her estate from the guys who came over and ate up her goods every day, and again, even the powerful women in the Oddyssey are all Goddesses, firmly being controlled by the male Gods, and who pay heavy prices when trying to work around them.

Even Helen is mostly passive, the victim of a kidnapping, unable really to do much - she's a very ambivalent figure, more done to than doing.

Clytemnestra steps out of the mold with her murder of Agamemnon and is constantly compared to Penelope. And even Clytemnestra, in taking this action, can't rule in her own right...daughter of a king even so, but has to have Agamemnon's cousin to fulfil the kingly duties.

Cassandra, in many ways a tragic figure, tries to make her own way, but gets Apollo mad at her, and no one credits her for the truth she tells them, and still goes down to death at the hand of another woman because she refused to be what Apollo wanted her to be.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Indeed. But Penelope does have a say if only because her suitors wanted everything to appear legal and aboveboard. That she held out so long is proof of that. Her say may not have been a traditional kind of power but never the less it was still there.

She played them very skillfully.