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Odysseus Rash Decisions In Homer's Odyssey

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When people get lost without a way home, they will usually sacrifice everything to get home. Being on the way home for ten years already caused Odysseus to make the brash decision of sailing past Scylla, even after Circe had warned, “No mariners yet can boast they've raced their ship past Scylla’s lair without some mortal blow”(9.108-109). This brash decision lead to death of some of his crew, he sacrificed his men for himself. Odysseus also decided that in order to get home he and his men we to go, “to the House of Death”, which is extremely dangerous. So many things could have gone wrong, they may have never even made it out to get out. Throughout the Odyssey people make brash decisions in terms of getting home, their desperation clouds their vision of staying safe. …show more content…

After Odysseus blinded Polyphemus, then revealed himself, Polyphemus screamed out, “Odysseus, raider of cities, Laertes’ son who makes his home in Ithaca, never reaches home”(9. 588-590), to Poseidon. He acted like an arrogant monster without thought, and then the monster unleashed the most monstrous revenge on him. By revealing himself he indirectly turned himself into even more of a monster. Then when his crew eats the cattle Zeuss rings out, “I’ll hit their racing ship with a white-hot bolt, I’ll tear it into splinters.”(12. 417-418), for the cattle was sacred. When a mortal does the inhuman, monstrous act of killing another's own, revenge will come. So when Odysseus didn’t stop his men, or warn them enough, they ate the cattle and payed the price of death. Odysseus is not a leader to be trusted with his dumb decisions. Humans and monsters alike are dumb, arrogant, and make careless

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