i was reading lillian doherty's 'gender and internal audiences in the odyssey', and when looking at the gendered social rules of the (patriarchal, obviously) society the story takes place in, she writes how "[Penelope] -- and her female slaves, who would also be fair sexual game for Odysseus according to the cultural norm -- must remain completely celibate in his absence."
and i had to sit back for a moment and take it in, because man, i'd never fully considered that aspect of it. obviously odysseus is never implied to take sexual advantage of any of his slaves within the epic, but as master of his household he is meant to be in total control of his slaves' sexuality and bodies. their failure to remain celibate (whatever the circumstances...) in itself equals betrayal against his authority and against the household, acting outside their allotted station.
i think it's interesting how the first night odysseus is back at ithaca, disguised as a beggar, he lies down plotting the suitors' deaths the next day, but he is much more tempted by and fantasizes about rushing the slave women and killing them right then and there, because the sight of the suitors taking them to bed is making "his heart growl with rage". this is before the contest, before any battle. odysseus has already decided the slave women must die.
like yes, within the narrative and society of the odyssey the slave women are presented as undoubtedly and irredeemably guilty, and then when they are executed -- excruciatingly slowly -- for their misdeeds (contrasted to the suitors, who are all dealt quick deaths in combat) the text doesn't imply that that is an unjust decision at all. but i think in modernity we ought to consider what those twelve enslaved women (trapped for decades in a leaderless household where overly entitled young men are running wild) are meant to be guilty of.
