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The Destruction Of Odysseus Free Will In Homer's Odyssey

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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. On a journey, the final destination is everybody's goal, but what about the journey itself? The journey matters more than the destination when you pick up knowledge from all of the experiences and challenges you encounter. When on a journey, one can pick up knowledge about themselves. On a journey, the “hero” may not realize how much knowledge they are gaining about themselves. When Cheryl Strayed was on her journey across the Pacific Crest Trail, she gained an immense amount of knowledge about …show more content…

Homer shows how Odysseus feels the pain of the journey strongly when his men are being devoured by the deadly man eating whirlpool, Charybdis.“She ate them as they shrieked there, in her den, in the dire grapple, reaching still for me- and deathly pity ran through me at that sight- far the worst I have ever suffered…”(Lines 821-825). As his men were being consumed by Charybdis, Odysseus realized that the journey would be more painful than expected. Odysseus also felt the grieving emotional pain of the journey when he watched his men face their inevitable deaths. “ No sooner had I caught the sight of our black hull, than the savory of burnt fat eddied around me; grief took hold of me and I cried aloud…”(895-898). After Odysseus’s men's stupidity, greed, and foolishness gets them killed, he learns that others actions and decisions may cause some terrible, long lasting grief. Odysseus faced a terrible amount of pain, but it only pushed him farther to finish what he had started and make it to his final destination,

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