The Weakness Of Odysseus In Homer's Odyssey

Nazar Abbas

Lit 2110

Prof. Sebacher

Essay on Odysseus

An individual's characteristics are the key to their conduct and this is very true in Homer's the Odyssey, which takes place in 700 BC in the Mediterranean, near Greece. The epic story is about a Greek hero, named Odysseus, who has left his home country to fight in the Trojan War twenty years earlier. The focus of the epic and his mission now is to make his way back home to Ithaca. On his way, he shows some great qualities along with strengths that influence the course of his journey. Despite Odysseus getting bad a name from some readers, I do not believe that was he was a bad man or some woman-hating monster who used women to get what he wanted in life instead his mission was to get

After that she pointed at him, her magic stick which didn’t work on Odysseus as it did with his crew “who had drank it giving her a chance to turn them into pigs by a stroke of her wand” (Book 10, lines 255-257). Now Odysseus is mad like any man would be and swiftly changes his attitude saying, “Circe, how can you ask me to be gentle to you after you turned my men into swine?” (Book 10, line 359-360) Having been told by Hermes, Odysseus threatens her with his sword. She is dumbfounded and instantly falls in love with him. He must have been very handsome. The goddesses Circe and Calypso the two women with whom Odysseus had an extended affairs are somewhat similar and different in that Circe is far less clingy to Odysseus than Calypso. This is one of the reasons she lets him and his crew go without complaining a

She is as wise as Odysseus so doubts his return because he does not look the same anymore. She tests him by asking Eurycleia to move their bed outside of the room for him. This is impossible since they both know that the bed is built from an olive tree grew in their palace and is immovable (Book 23, lines 196-198). So to prove to his wife that he built the bed and knows that it’s secured to the ground Odysseus tells them that if you move the bed it may be destroyed. This revelation relieves Penelope and she accepts him as her long-lost husband. For the first time in twenty years they spend a blissful night in their special bed. I believe Odysseus treated women, including his wife with respect and compassion. The fact that his wife is such a strong woman is a testimony to