The Punishment Of Odysseus In Homer's The Odyssey

The author of the heart-wrenching Series of Unfortunate Events, Lemony Snicket once wrote “Just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean it isn’t so,” ( "A Quote from The Blank Book.") in his work Blank Book. Authors from 750 B.C and those closer to today all use Snicket's notion as a reason for writing about a journey; every quest and exploration holds understandings that are not known yet. Homer, the author of the epic poem Odyssey, (Homer) chronicles the voyage of Odysseus through the Adriatic sea and all of its hidden traps. In the second piece, the poem, “Ithaca” by C.P Cavafy, ("C.P. Cavafy - Poems - The Canon.") the narrator tries to persuade Odysseus to lengthen his trip home to Ithaca. In Odyssey, Odysseus, on his route home encounters

113, no. 4, 1992, pp. 489–518. JSTOR, JSTOR. Accessed on 10 January 2018. According to Segal, though the gods hold different reasons for their contempt, it is above all else Odysseus’ hubris that prevents his voyage home. Though intelligent, Odysseus lacks the wisdom to control his nature. “He comes to grief because he cannot resist the temptation to gloat over his victory and make sure that his enemy knows the identity of his vanquisher” (494). Over the course of his journey for self knowledge, Odysseus slowly becomes more and more aware of his fault in character. He finds himself allowed to return to his native Ithaca after remaining on Calypso’s island for years. In a sense, his imprisonment there had served as penance. Following his service of time, Odysseus finds himself able to reach home and seize it from the hands of the wretched men who have attempted to claim his power. “ […] he succeeds because he identifies his purposes with the gods’ ways of justice and vengeance”

Although Odysseus claims he wants to get home to his beloved wife, Penelope, he continues to contradict himself throughout the story both through his actions by sleeping around, through taking unnecessary trips that stalled his journey back home even more and flirting with other women along with leading them on.

But again we see Odysseus not in avery heroic way. His pride as well as his selfishness got him even more obstacles than he already had. When Odysseus killed the Kyklope, son of Poseidon, he angered the God greatly, which created terrible sailing catastrophes. But even then he never thought once about apologizing, and that way saving time and lives. Throughout the Odyssey Homer emphasises a lot on the theme of temptation, specifically on Odysseus’s inability to resist it. Multiple times the protagonist is unable to resist his temptations towards women and is reminded of home only after no further interest in his lovers. This also shows his disloyalty not only to his crew but towards his wife. By his enemy- god’s will, he is held on Kalypso’s island. It takes Zeus’s messenger, Hermes, to convince her to let Odysseus go. But in the beginning of the book, he is not as sad when all the beautiful women on the island were surrounding him, as when Hermes arrived to rescue him. “ Tear on tear brimming his eyes. The sweet days of his life time were running out in anguish over his exile, for long ago the nymph had ceased to please.” (p. 85) This tells us that Odysseus is no longer interested in his mistress. A similar situation happens later in the poem as well, when he accidentally meets Circe. Odysseus did not stay faithful to Penelope in this case either, and stayed on her island for a year! Although Homer clarifies that his close

Throughout homer’s epic poem, the Odyssey, the main character, Odysseus, goes through many physical and mental challenges and hardships. One of the greatest challenges that Odysseus overcame to get home was the wrath of Poseidon. Throughout the whole epic poem, most problems Odysseus faced can be traced back to Poseidon. There are many examples to prove that Poseidon was Odysseus biggest change.

Honor is like a crown, which is only worn by those who are worthy enough to take it. Failure to wear such an exquisite accessory with dignity reveals one’s lack of honor and worth. In Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, honor is displayed through a leader’s courage as tested through deeds and battles. Although Odysseus exposes cracks in his honor, he is ultimately represented as an honorable leader when his violent actions and authoritative decision-making show how he has acquired honor.

In The Odyssey, the character Odysseus can be considered a hero because he demonstrates many characteristics that are attributable to most heroes. After the battle at Troy, Odysseus strives to sail back to his homeland (Ithaca); however, he encounters some issues along the way and Poseidon attempts to make it impossible for Odysseus to return home. At the beginning of this journey, Odysseus wants to make it back to Ithaca with all of his crew alive. This selfless goal displays Odysseus acting for the greater good because he knows that these men have families that depend on them and would like for them to come home. Along the journey home, Odysseus and his crew come across a cyclops and become trapped in the cyclops’ cave. Odysseus’ over eagerness

Odysseus’s long and difficult journey back to his homeland after his time in the Trojan War was surely one filled with hardship and adversity. The great leader was forced to deal with intimidating enemies, rough travels, and even alluring deities. While he does his best to manage all of these struggles during his voyage, Odysseus is also unaware of the other conflicts taking place back in Ithaca, his home and where his family has been awaiting his return for several years. Much to Odysseus’s obliviousness, a group of suitors have essentially taken over his palace, hoping to marry Penelope, his wife, and claim his throne. Homer’s The Odyssey describes all that the protagonist does in his power just to come back to his family and kingdom throughout

The journey of Odysseus began at the end of the Trojan war, when he tried to make it to Penelope in his home, Ithica. But the gods were not happy with Odysseus, due to his arrogant ways and his lack of faith in the gods. Because of this, his journey home would become a 20 year one. He was moved, of course, a number of times by the gods or by weather, He faced many trials and was stopped at many places. Each place he was brought to ended up being another trial. One such trial was a place of temptation known as the island of the Lotus Eaters. Whoever ate the lotus would never want to leave and would lose hope of home. Due to Odysseus curious and arrogant way, he lost some of his men on the island of the cyclops. On the island, Odysseus was curious and wanted to see a cyclops for

A hero is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements or noble qualities. In the movie, Odysseus shows that he is a hero by showing off his bravery and courage to defeat several monsters. He showed courage when he faced the Cyclops, when he met Lotus Eaters, and when he went back to Ithaca to see his wife.

The main character Odysseus in the Odyssey written by Homer is generally thought to be a great hero; however, he shows more traits of a quite flawed character on closer inspection. Around the beginning of Odysseus’ journey home after the war, Odysseus decides to take a detour to the home of a cyclops deciding to not listen to his men’s suggestions to leave while they still could; consequently, it does not end well: “Ah, how sound that was, Yet I refused. I wished to see the caveman, what he had to offer no pretty sight it turned out, for my friend” (9.130-132). This thought by Odysseus shows that he realized his decision to go to the mysterious island wasn’t the most rational one and that his men’s pleas to leave were the better option, but he decides to be stubborn and place his curiosity before his men’s safety resulting in a non-heroic

There are many lessons Odysseus and is men learn on their journey home in the Odyssey. Unfortunately, only Odysseus makes it home and the rest of men are dead because of their foolish actions. In the Thrinacia and The Cattle of the Sun episode of the Odyssey Odysseus’s men once again disobey him and cost them their lives. The men and Odysseus learn valuable lessons throughout their epic journey, but in the episode the most important lessons they learn are; temptation can lead to death, being obedient can save your life, and trust your instincts. If Odysseus’s men would have been more obedient to their leader Odysseus perhaps all of them would have made it back home alive.

Yes, Penelope struggles greatly with a very important decision throughout the course of the story.

From the onset of the book, death is a recurring event, persistent throughout the entire poem. In many ways, the Odyssey is the story of the death of all of Odysseus’ friends and fellow fighters during their return home from conquering Troy. These deaths are particularly heartbreaking to Odysseus because, normally, one would expect that all dying would conclude with the end of the war against Troy. In this case, however, the anticipation of his return to his family at home became a series of tragedies. This sequence of events changes his view and molds Odysseus’ character in regard to his surviving friends and family. For example, Odysseus taunted Polyphemus and incited the wrath of Polyphemus and Poseidon, which led to the deaths of all his crewmembers. That was incredibly unwise, and not worthy of a leader who is responsible for the protection protect of his men. However, Odysseus learns his lesson, and realizes that he needed to grow through his horrifying experience of the earlier deaths. By the time Odysseus finally returns to his home, he not only has a burning desire to avenge his family by killing the suitors, but he also attained a greater understanding for the suffering of others. Even after Odysseus had satisfied his desire for revenge by killing the suitors, he refuses to gloat, and made sure

It is often wondered how words are formed or created. Many of our words are derived from different older cultures, like the civilization of Ancient Greece. An example of this is the word museum which comes from the word muse. The Muses were greek goddesses of the fine arts who were prayed to by philosophers, musicians, and artists who seeked inspiration. The Greek poet and author of the famous stories The Iliad and The Odyssey was one of them. In the epic, The Odyssey, Homer displays Ancient Greek values and virtues through his character/hero, Odysseus. Odysseus is a true hero in the eyes of the Ancient Greek Civilization because he was intelligent, loyal, and extremely religious.