Women in The Odyssey impact the lives men. More often than not, these women represent negative issues. In particular, Skylla and Charybdis are portrayed as harmful beings that bring hardship to men by threatening their safe passage home. Kalypso and the Sirens are also represented as women who exert negative influences on men. It can be safely sated that female figures in The Odyssey are constantly portrayed as negative beings and as sources of much misfortune and suffering for men.

The descriptions of Skylla and Charybdis reinforce the idea of women as negative beings. Skylla lives in cliff on which the sun never shines due to the dark clouds that constantly envelop its peak. The opening to her cave is described as being "misty-looking / and turned toward Erebos and the dark" (12.81). In other words, the direction that her cave faces is Hades. Charybdis lies as a whirlpool beneath...