Justification Of Odysseus Justified In Homer's The Odyssey

In the Odyssey, a work of Greek mythology written by Homer, Odysseus, who is the hero, embarks on an extensive journey to get back to his homeland. This journey is not painless, though. Odysseus encounters sea monsters, cyclopes, and even intervention from gods that are working against him. All of these obstacles can be related to our life’s journey. We encounter hindrances that may momentarily shift our gaze off of the end goal.

Heroes pass down the idea of what good qualities a human should have, but some show how power can get to your head. In The Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus shows the complete opposite qualities by being merciless towards people that do any wrong to him, relentless in how his instincts come upon him, and violent towards any misfortune that happens to him. Odysseus cannot be considered a hero because he shows the opposite values of hospitality, loyalty and how much revenge is in his heart. Odysseus displays discourteousness or the opposite of hospitality to the suitors in his home because all he wants the outcome to be is violent without any understanding. While Odysseus gets angry with Polyphemus earlier in the story by saying, “...who dared to eat your own guests in your own house.” (9.479) Odysseus wants to kill every one of the suitors that is trying to marry Penelope, Odysseus 's wife.

Temptation is like a trap, it tries to make you do bad deeds that will affect you. The story The Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus was forced to fight in the Trojan War. After the battle Odysseus sailed back to Ithaca, his homeland facing many temptations they could not resist in doing. Odysseus and his men faced many challenges, but most of the challenges were due to their temptations. For example, Aeolus the god of wind, gave Odysseus a bag filled with wind.

The cave is dark and musty. The beast is gruesome: nasty, brutish and gross. He gobbles down men and sheep for breakfast, lunch and dinner. With only one eye, decaying, rotted teeth, and the stench of his rancid breath filling the confined cave, the journey Odysseus had embarked on, did not look like it had a bright future. But, this was part of the journey that he had agreed to.

Odysseus should be considered unheroic because he refused to listen to anyone's suggestions and kept putting his men in dangerous situations. For example, Odysseus’ men told him to take the cheese and lambs and leave but Odysseus told them,”Ah, how sound was that! Yet I refuse, I wished to see the caveman, what he had offer- no pretty sight, it turned out, for my friends” (Homer 5). This demonstrates unheroic behavior because they didn't know whether or not the cyclops would be nice but instead of putting safety first, Odysseus insisted on meeting the cyclops. He let his curiosity take over and stopped caring about what would happen to them.

In the epic poem, The Odyssey, the hero Odysseus shows many heroic traits, but the most important trait is restraint. The first episode when Odysseus shows restraint is when they land of the land of the lotus eaters. Odysseus could have stayed there and got super high and addicted and been happy on lotus for the rest of forever, but instead he got his men and he went back to his ship because he knew that he had a job to do. He had to have a lot of restraint to stop from trying out the lotus.

Imagine the craftiness it would take to weave through monster infested seas for ten years. Now, imagine the temptatious traps and how hard it would be to restrain from falling victim to them. In the Odyssey, by Homer, Odysseus has to use these traits to survive a long voyage after angering the gods. Even though he is a larger than life character, I can show that I also demonstrate these traits on a daily basis.

Greek Values One may have wondered how mysterious it is when two lives on separate journeys meet, combining their journeys into one. In the epic poem The Odyssey, by Homer, Odysseus and his son, Telémakhos, do exactly this through trials influenced by hospitality, loyalty, and cleverness. After a long war Odysseus sets a voyage for home in hopes of meeting his son for the first time, but runs into many set backs. The Odyssey is an epic poem about how Odysseus and Telémakhos are reunited and the trials they go through to get back home.

Many characteristics can be applied to Odysseus in the book the (Odyssey, Homer), but a few really stand out. In fact, Odysseus can be considered an epic hero in the Odyssey, as evidenced by his actions, his faults, and his loyalty. An epic hero is brave, adventurous, a leader, and loyal. Most epic hero’s have faults as well. These characteristics closely follow Odysseus’s own.

Odysseus’ slaughter of the suitors was an act of justice and revenge. The act was revenge because slaughtering 108 men for courting your wife and eating your food is insane. If someone did that present-day, society would frown upon the person who committed such an act. It would be considered mass-homicide and the person would be jailed for life. On the other hand, the act is a form of justice because of the setting of the story.