Homer's Figurative Language In The Odyssey

Odyssey In-class Essay Outline H Name: Umar Muhammad

Prompt: What effect did figurative language produce in the epic poem, The Odyssey? In other words, how has The Odyssey’s figurative language added meaning for its audience?

The Odyssey created by Homer, a collective of Ancient Greek poets, is an epic poem that delves deep into human nature to answer questions about humanity's place in the world. This myth shows the hardships of Odysseus and his crew, showing how Odysseus alone persevered through a 10 year separation from his family. Myths like these often use figurative language to create more intense emotions in the work, as comparing an item to another sends a more thorough message than simply describing it. The Odyssey specifically uses figurative language to effectively share the message to its audience that, when confronted with death, we are reminded of our mortality and humanity.

When Odysseus faces monsters and gods, personification shows that nature is stronger than humans. The comparison of a ship to a bucking horse shows how easily nature towers over humans. After Odysseus’s men eat Apollo’s sacred cows, Zeus hurls a lightning bolt down to Odysseus’s ship. “With crack on crack of thunder, Zeus let fly a bolt against the ship, so that she bucked, in reeking fumes of sulphur, and all the men were flung into the sea” (II.331-335). In this short quotation, the ship is being compared to a

If the odyssey had no figurative language, the emotions and messages represented in the myth would be underdeveloped and distant, and it would be much harder to empathize with the characters. This story has stood, and will stand the test of time because of how relevant it is to modern day societies. Every person is a human, and we will all eventually die, but because of that we gain humanity- one of the defining qualities of a human