Are women portrayed in a positive manner?

http://geopolicraticus.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/dido-and-aeneas-in-portland/

Women in the Iliad and the Aeneid are not portrayed in a positive way, to me. There are 3 women mentioned in these books: Helen (Paris's wife), Andromache (Hektor's wife), and Dido. All of these epics show women as being the second choice or have no
freedom to do as they please. They have to do whatever they are told by men. These three women portray these things in these epics.
To me, women are all weak and give into men in these epics. Whatever men say, goes. There's no if's and's or but's about it. Andromache doesn't want her husband Hektor to fight in Troy because she's scared he'll die. He decides to anyway obviously not putting her or her son first. Hektor ends up dying by Achilles. Andromache is taken by the people of Greece and ends up marrying Achilles's brother. She didn't have a choice whether she wanted to or not. Andromache and Hektor's son was thrown over the wall of Troy and killed.
Helen was abducted by Paris from her other husband. She was married before Paris and let Paris take her away. Was it for love, or was it because she was forced?  Helen ends up being taken back by her old husband when Troy was taken over by Greece. She went back and forth from guy to guy. She just had to go with whatever men wanted.
Dido ends up getting shot by the love arrow from cupid. She falls in love with Aeneas. The question is did she really love him, or was it the arrow that caused her love? Either way she was going to get hat she wanted. In return, Aeneas leaves her to be able to find Italy. Dido ends up killing herself. This portrays women to be weak and vulnerable. She kills herself because she can't live without a guy. This gives a negative view on her.
As you can see, women are not portrayed in a positive way in these epics. They are shown as dependent upon men. Also, the men show that they aren't dependent upon women. Women are almost shown as a second choice or even an option in their lives.
The artwork to the right of my blog is showing Dido meeting Aeneas for the first time. This artwork portrays the story and shows how this epic influenced artwork.This website gives some examples of artwork and information about how art and the Iliad go together. The epics were a major influence for the artwork used back then. I learned that they used the artwork for marriages and everything. That's how big of an effect the epic had on artwork. Although, it's not as important now, it was a big deal then.