Mythological characters play critical functions in literature. Apart from featuring in literature as persons with developed characters, they also play an instrumental role either directly or indirectly in creating a platform for development of literal features, construction of characterisation, and/or the development of rhetorical argument. This essay sets out to evaluate the way in which Penelope and Jocasta, among the prominent women who featured in Greek mythologies, played a pivotal role in influencing the fate of their husbands. Through acknowledging that these characters often maintained a state of ignorance, the essay will examine specific scenarios in which these women contributed either to their husband’s triumph or downfall. To achieve this, the essay will not only rely on Homer’s Odyssey and Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex but also on analysis of these characters as featured in scholarly analyses and opinions over the years.
神话人物在文学中起着至关重要的作用。除了在文学作品中表现为具有发达性格的人外，他们还直接或间接地在创造一个发展文字特征、构建性格特征和/或发展修辞论证的平台方面发挥着工具性作用。本文旨在评估希腊神话中的杰出女性佩内洛普和乔卡斯塔在影响丈夫命运方面所起的关键作用。通过承认这些角色经常保持着一种无知的状态，本文将考察这些女性对丈夫的胜利或失败做出贡献的具体场景。为了实现这一点，这篇文章将不仅依靠荷马的《奥德赛》和索福克勒斯的《俄狄浦斯·雷克斯》，而且还将根据多年来学术分析和观点中对这些人物的分析。
One of the notable aspects concerning Penelope and Jocasta is embedded in the fact that these women were the essence upon which their husbands rose to power, and were also the cause of their husbands’ demise. To begin with, there are numerous accounts that Penelope plays a critical role in inspiring her husband, Odyssey, to desire to return to his homeland, Ithaca, and as such, his sought for victory after victory just to come back home. Notably, Penelope and Odysseus had true love between them and as such, they desired to be together with each other (Lewis 5). The true love that Odysseus had for Penelope is evident in the sense that despite the staying away from his home for twenty years, all that he longed for was to return home to his wife. This is irrespective the challenges and battles that he constantly faced while away from Ithaca.
关于佩内洛普和乔卡斯塔的一个值得注意的方面是，这些妇女是丈夫掌权的本质，也是丈夫死亡的原因。首先，有很多报道说，佩内洛普在激励她的丈夫奥德赛渴望回到自己的祖国伊萨卡（Ithaca）的过程中发挥了关键作用，因此，他一次又一次地寻求胜利，只是为了回家。值得注意的是，佩内洛普和奥德修斯之间有真爱，因此，他们渴望彼此在一起（刘易斯5）。奥德修斯对佩内洛普的真爱显而易见，尽管他离家二十年，但他所渴望的只是回到妻子身边。这与他离开伊萨卡时经常面临的挑战和战斗无关。
The love that Odysseus had for Penelope does not just inspire him to fight battles and seek to return home, but also help him to withstand tough tests during his epic journeys. In one of the tests, Atlas’s daughter, Calypso, the goddess living on the island of Ogygia, detained Odysseus with the aim of forcing him to marry her (Homer 85).
奥德修斯对佩内洛普的爱不仅激励他去战斗并寻求回家，还帮助他在史诗般的旅程中经受住艰难的考验。在其中一次测试中，阿特拉斯的女儿，居住在奥吉亚岛上的女神卡利普索拘留了奥德修斯，目的是迫使他娶她（荷马85）。
According to Homer: 根据荷马的说法：
He was weeping in the palace of the nymph Calypso, who keeps him there by force. He has no way of getting back to his own land—he lacks companions and ships equipped with oars, to carry him across the sea's broad back.
他在仙女卡利普索的宫殿里哭泣，卡利普索强行把他关在那里。他没有办法回到自己的土地上，因为他缺少同伴和配备桨的船只，无法将他带过广阔的大海。
Odysseus’ triumph over Calypso’s power and charms reveal his deepest love not only for his homeland Ithaca but also for his wife Penelope. Researchers and scholars agree that among the tests that Odysseus passed through, Calypso’s test was the toughest considering the fact that she did not offer him marriage alone but had also promised to offer him immortality if he agreed with her terms (Whelan 456). “Calypso offers Odysseus an opportunity that is enormously tempting” (Whelan 456). This is further emphasised in the work of Patrick J. Dobel on Mortal leadership in Homer’s Odyssey. In this regard, this scholar emphasises the fact that despite living with Calypso for ten years, he still escapes with the aim of returning back to his wife, Penelope (Dobel 221). Thus, because of his love for his wife, and knowing how faithful his wife had been to him through consulting through fortune tellers, Odysseus manages to overcome the temptations to become like a god.
奥德修斯战胜卡利普索的力量和魅力，不仅显示了他对祖国伊萨卡的最深爱，也显示了他对妻子佩内洛普的最深爱。研究人员和学者们一致认为，在奥德修斯通过的测试中，卡利普索的测试是最难的，因为她并不是单独向他求婚，而是承诺如果他同意她的条件，她会给他永生（惠兰456）。“卡利普索为奥德修斯提供了一个极具诱惑力的机会”（惠兰456）。这一点在帕特里克·J·多贝尔（Patrick J.Dobel）关于荷马《奥德赛》中凡人领导力的著作中得到了进一步强调。在这方面，这位学者强调了一个事实，即尽管与卡利普索生活了十年，但他仍然逃跑，目的是回到他的妻子佩内洛普身边（多贝尔221）。因此，由于他对妻子的爱，以及通过算命师的咨询知道妻子对他是多么忠诚，奥德修斯成功地克服了成为神的诱惑。