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Examples Of Justice In The Odyssey

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Odysseus uses his powers as king quite unfairly. The Odyssey, written by Homer around 3,000 years ago is an epic poem about how Odysseus restores justice to Ithaca. As Odysseus returns home, he brings with him a style of fear, revenge, and brutal justice.
Ithaca's fear of Odysseus’s style of justice is restored in two ways. The first reason is how fear is restored to Ithaca. In the book slaughter in the hall, Odysseus kills the leader of the suitors, “when they saw their leader down. They got up from their seats, milling about, desperate”(22.23-24). This event shows that Odysseus kills the leader of the suitors first to strike fear into the others. The second way is Odysseus restores fear in Ithaca. For example, when Odysseus kills all the suitors Odysseus calls over the maids “ So Odysseus looked now, splatted with gore”(22.430-431 ). It was by killing the suitors that Odysseus was able to restore justice in Ithaca because it scared the people and caused them to follow him. These …show more content…

First off, when Telemachus finds Melanthius, he sends him to Odysseus for further instructions. In the words of Odysseus “you two wrench Melanthius’ arms and legs behind him[...]/ lash his back to a plank and strap a twisted cable fast to the scoundrel's body”(22.181-183). I believe that this is overkill because it would have been much easier to kill Melanthuis with the others but instead he chose to torture him. Once Odysseus kills all the suitors he makes the maids clean the bodies up. Then Odysseus tells his men “ hack them with your swords, slash out their lives [...]/ blot out their minds the joys of love they relished”(22.468-469). Odysseus tells the maids that once they clean up the dead suitors they themselves are going to be killed. This is brutal because once he kills the maids who will look after his house. These two examples show how Odysseus uses brutal force to restore justice back to

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