There is a quote by J.R.R Tolkien that goes “faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens”. In The Odyssey, written by Homer and translated by Robert Fagels, the crewmen perfectly embody this quote. If a person is truly loyal to someone then they will stick with them through tough times like crewmen do to their leader, but sometimes the leader may not deserve the loyalty he receives. In the epic poem, the epic hero Odysseus and his crewmen go through a series of trials while trying to return home from the Trojan War. They have to escape a cyclops’s cave, sail past the monsters Scylla and Charybdis, escape cannibals, and more.
His crew, who he viewed as friends, would all be gone, and with this knowledge, he makes decisions only he can make. “Though you survive alone,bereft of all companions, lost for years, under strange sail shall you come home, to find your own house filled with trouble. (Odyssey)”. Under the pressure of gaining this very important, and also hard to accept, information, Odysseus as the leader makes sure he makes the right decision on what is right and what is wrong. He also changed in his character, and began to reflect and respect his crew even more.
Odysseus’s Traits Throughout the Odyssey, the main character Odysseus goes on an epic adventure with his focus being to get home to his wife Penelope, and his son Telemachus. He faces many obstacles dealing with characters such as the Cyclopes, Poseidon, Aeolus, Athena, Helios, Calypso, Zeus, Hermes, Scylla, and Circe. Odysseus’s men are some of the most valuable people to him throughout the Odyssey. He always puts himself in front of danger for them to protect them even though they all died from an unexpected turn of events soon before he returns home. When Odysseus comes home he greets his twenty year old son and straightens things out on his homeland, Ithaca.
An example shining his courage is when him and his men had to go past Scylla when he knew any of them could die and he was also putting himself in danger. Another example is when he chose to be tied up for the passing of the Sirens. This was a courageous act because no other mortal man had been able to do that and make it out alive. One last example is When he came home to all of the suitors in his house. This is courageous because the suitors only cared about getting Penelope and if they cared so much about that why would they want Odysseus to come home to ruin their chances?
Hector and Achilles both strive for arete and honor, but they have very different intentions and motivations behind this. Hector fights for honor for all Trojans, and to protect his family from falling with Troy. He expresses his feelings of a need to fulfill his duties in Book 6 Extract J ADD QUOTE NEAR LINE 155 OF EXTRACT J. Achilles, on the other hand, fights more for personal honor and glory. He could not bare to think of his name being forgotten. This is what drove him to become courageous and fight in the war, abandoning his other potential fate, where he could have lived a long happy life.
“Like strength is felt from hope, and from despair” (Homer). Odysseus -the reigning king of Ithaca- took part in the Trojan War for 10 long years. He then ventured on for another 10 years to return to to his homeland of Ithaca. On and on he raced to go home but was challenged with many challenges along his journey. Three major events were when Odysseus got caught in the land of the cyclopes, the journey through the ventures, and when he challenges the suitors to a duel to win back his home and wife.
Plunder we took, and we enslaved the women, to make division, equal shares to all… But on the spot I told them: “Back, and quickly out to sea again!” My men were mutinous fools on the stores of wine.”(Homer 43-58). Odysseus and his men after the battle of troy are sick with pridefulness, and decide to stop for a pit stop at the city of Ismarus and pillage the city in celebration, they ransacked their meat, wine, and their women. Odysseus knew what would happen and he tried to get his men to leave again, but his crew kept raiding and got Odysseus in trouble along with them. The gods looked down on this as an act of hubris and cursed their ride home as
What Chris did not expect was for him to die on his journey, but rather have it help him grow and gain new experiences. I believe it’s safe to say that Chris hated his family, his whole purpose of leaving was to divorce himself from his parents. "McCandless was thrilled to be on his way north, and he was relieved as well—relieved that he had again evaded the impending threat of human intimacy, of friendship, and all the messy emotional baggage that comes with it. He had fled the claustrophobic confines of his family.”(pg.55) This quote shows how Chris wanted to prevent himself from committing the same mistakes his father did. He feared that by staying he would be distracted and never again have the chance to travel.
He is called into his adventure when someone speaks to Oedipus that he is not he real son of Polybus. One man that Oedipus has met at a feast prompts him into an adventure for truth. Oedipus is a notable tragic hero. Tragic hero comes from a noble family, very limited in thinking that leads the hero to mistake, and the fate is determined and chosen by the gods because tragic hero is an individual who could endure the misfortunes in his or her fate. Oedipus also did not choose his fate, but he managed to accept his fate.
Achilles says “If I hold out here and lay siege to Troy, my journey home is gone, but my glory never dies. If I voyage back to the fatherland I love, my pride, my glory dies…true, but the life that’s left me will be long, the stroke of death will not come on me quickly.”(IX, 500-506) Also young Beowulf faces battle with formidable enemies and risks his life. In order to cease his citizens suffering from the vile enemy, Grendel, Beowulf determines to execute him. "I resolved to fulfill the desire of your people, or suffer the pangs of death, caught fast in Grendel's clutches. Here, in Heorot, I shall either work a deed of great daring, or lay down my life," (ll.