Analysis Of Homer 's ' The Odyssey '

In the Epic, “The Odyssey", spoken by Homer, conveys a heroic tale of an epic hero named, Odysseus, who faces many challenges as he sails to get home. One of the tasks Odysseus faces is, "The Sirens", who challenge Odysseus 's will power. Another challenge Odysseus encounters is, “The Cyclops", who torments and slaughters some of Odysseus 's men due to his curiosity. One of the hardest threats he had to confront was, “The Land of Dead" which tested his self-restraint, and revealed his human weaknesses of sorrow. The Epic Hero, Odysseus, struggles with many challenges such as, the taunting Sirens, the brutish and cruel Cyclops, and one of the arduous territories Odysseus has ever crossed, The Land of the Dead.

   Throughout literature characters have relied upon entities greater then themselves to furnish them with aid as they meet the many challenges they must face. The Odyssey is a tale of Odysseus’ epic journey and the many obstacles that bar his return home. But Odysseus is not alone in this struggle and receives aid from many gods, especially the clear-eyed goddess Athena. There are times when Odysseus beseeches the gods for aid, but other times he is too foolhardy to receive aid from even the immortal gods. In Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus’ journey revolves around the cyclical phases of his dependence, independence and his return to reliance upon the gods’ aid.

When he is almost home, Poseidon sees him and sends a storm that destroys and sinks his raft. Ino helps Odysseus by giving him her veil, which protects him from the water. After two days of swimming, Odysseus reaches the Phaeacians and their kind king, Alcinous. The king’s daughter, Nausicaa, finds Odysseus and takes him to the king. Odysseus expalins how he and his crew first saw the Lotus-Eaters, then they docked in front of a cave to search for food. There was wine, food, and pens full of

After the war, his plan is to return home, however fate and the gods had different plans for Odysseus. As soon as he leaves for Ithaca, his unknown journey begins. Throughout this journey, he conquers obstacles, meanwhile discovering that he is less dependent of people, being away from his wife and servants for so long. In “The Journey”, by Mary Oliver, the author describes the

In the “Odyssey”, Odysseus goes through obstacles throughout the book that a normal man couldn’t subside. One example is in book 9, his main obstacle that he is trying to face is to escape from being held hostage in a cave by a Cyclops better known as Polyphemus. Odysseus is a archetypal hero, he is also a role model, with an ambition to get to his homeland Ithaca. He goes through resisting temptation and using his intellect and physical strength to get him there, no matter the obstacle nor the negative flaws that he faces. Odysseus put himself and his men in that situation by being curious and wanting to know what kind of land his ship and the winds led him to. This was selfish of him because it cost him some of his men, but a leader and hero has to play that role and some lives will be dealt with on the way. Odysseus says, “The rest of you will stay here while I go with my ship and crew on reconnaissance. I want to find out what those men are like, Wild savages with no sense of right or wrong Or hospitable folk who fear the gods” (Homer 429). Saying this quote alone makes Odysseus a humble man due to the fact that not even a piece of land is going to slow him down on his journey back home.

As he is sailing he is greeted by a goddess, Athena, and she becomes his guardian. He then sails to an island and is trapped by the goddess Calypso for seven years until Hermes comes to the island and tells her to let him go. He ends up going to another island and is trapped in a Cyclop’s cave. He pokes the Cyclop’s eye out and escapes the island. He ends up sailing away with his men and ends up on the island of Circe, a powerful witch, she turns all of his men into animals. Odysseus is given a flower so that he cannot be turned into an animal. He is told that he must go to the land of the dead and offer many things. He does what he is told then he is left to set sail again. They get back into the open sea and are attacked by Sirens, and murdered by the Scylla and Charybdis. He finally makes it home to Ithaca and he sees his son, his son helps him get into the castle. They suitors for Penelope are given a task to shoot an arrow through 12 ax holes. He then reveals himself as Odysseus and eliminates all of the suitors. He then goes to Penelope and reveals himself to her.As we go through life we are determined and always want to go back home to people we love. No matter how long it takes you, you will always want to go back to your loved

Once they leave they go to an island with lastrogonians or cannibals.After realizing the Lastrogoninas eat people Odysseus sails to Circe's island or aeaea,where they get new to go to the underworld after Odysseus demands she turn the men back to men instead of pigs.He then passes through the sirens which leads him to Scylla and chanrib . After escaping reaches Helios's island where he is warned do not eat the cattle,Odysseus warns his men of the danger....they don't listen so Zeus decides to strike them with lightning except Odysseus who didn't eat the cattle. After this journey he stays with calypso for several years until he is released and goes to king Alcinous's island where he retells all of these events.

In the cyclopes island Odysseus and his men wander into the cyclopes cave, once the cyclopes enters his cave he shut the only way out of his cave and spots odysseus and his men. The cyclops asks odysseus why he is here, odysseus responds him trying to convey the cyclopes to treat them like guests but odysseus insults poseidon the cyclops father the cyclopes get mad and eating too of odysseus men. The cyclops passes out and odysseus think of a way to get out. Odysseus blinded the cyclops and escaped by holding on to the sheep that the cyclops let out. Odysseus was the most heroic here because he was able to free the rest of his men and he stood claim while coming up with the plan to escape.

On that level the lotus eaters were trying to rob the men of their memories. What do you have left without memories? Are you still a human being without your memories? Memories are what shapes a person and without them you're just a shell, a shadow of what you were. Odysseus responds to these tests as he knows best, with brute force, dragging his men back to the ship and lashing them down. They immediately depart the island so no others can be tempted by the lotus eaters. If by some chance fate he had gone first and tried the lotus flower, our hero's voyage would have been over before it started and he would have not even put up a fight. However, he does learn to be more wary of the people he encounters along his journey.

Odysseus now goes to the island of Polyphemus, the Cyclops. This is a very important part to the story, as it is here that he finally starts to become a better leader and uses clever tricks on Polyphemus. This starts with several of his crew dying to the blistering mouth of the Cyclops, making Odysseus realize he must act swiftly

The two issues that will be discussed will be whether Odysseus’s downfall was himself or the gods. When Odysseus and his men leave to return home after the Trojan War, the ocean currents and wind throw them off course constantly. When they land they find themselves on an island with Cyclops roaming everywhere. Odysseus and his handpicked men head into a cave where he helps himself to the food. After sometime the Cyclops that resides in that cave returns and traps them. Being hungry the Cyclops eats two of the men. Odysseus then devises a plan to escape; he gets the Cyclops drunk on the wine he receive from a priest he saved, next Odysseus says his name is nobody, then he takes a sharpened olive branch and blinds the Cyclops. The Cyclops goes outside and yells “nobody is hurting me!” so the other Cyclops on the island ignore him. Odysseus and his men escape back to the

Hermes helps him out and gives him a plan to help save his men. So our hero is saved by the god Hermes from a horrible fate. Still Odysseus is not content to sail on and leave the goddess behind (Odyssey 10:269-532). Here Odysseus lost sight of his goal, thinking he was in full control of the situation. Only after a full year has past does he even ask Circe to help them on their way and only at the urging of his crew. He forgets that it was only by the gods help that he was able to triumph over Circe. There was no other way he could have survived her magic. In a sense he is beat by her because he forgets his voyage home and wastes a year in tarring there. By forgetting the voyage he denies himself, a hero, and forgets his family and subjects in Ithaca. Exactly the same threat that the lotus eaters posed to Odysseus and his men. The temptation that Circe offers is a life of pleasure. Anything you desire: food, sport, beautiful women, anything at all. For a time Odysseus is taken in my her offer but thanks to his men he is able to break free of it and remember his home and family.

One might argue that Odysseus is fortunate to have gods and goddesses involved in his life. Aeolus gives Odysseus the bag of winds to help him get home (231-232). Calypso rescues him after his men have died and restores him to health (171). Most importantly, Athena asks Zeus to help him (94) and protects him by changing his appearance (355). This is evidence that suggests Odysseus is fortunate to have gods’ and goddesses’ help.

Odysseus relates how, following the Trojan War, his men suffered more losses at the hands of the Kikones, then were nearly tempted to stay on the island of the drug- addled Lotus Eaters. Next, the

When Odysseus is in trouble he always shows that he is depending on the gods by praying to them. The fact that the gods usually listen to him shows that he is well liked by the gods. In order to be a Greek hero you had to be liked by the gods since religion was such a big part in their lives. Odysseus, with the help of the gods, can survive adventures that kill most other men. Odysseus travels to the island of the Cyclopians. The Cyclopians are giants that have one eye, they don't fear the gods because they believe that they are better than the gods and they eat people. They represent the opposite of what Greek men should be. Odysseus and his men meet Polyphemus the Cyclops. Polyphemus being a Cyclops eats some of Odysseus' men. Odysseus with the help of the gods figures out a plan to escape and he does. Scylla is a ferocious monster with six heads that kills most men that pass by her island. She kills six of Odysseus' men. Odysseus prevents her from killing himself and more men. There is another ferocious monster named Charybdis. Charybdis sucks in water from the sea and creates a whirlpool that kills any ship that passes by. Odysseus passes by her. His crew is killed and his ship is destroyed in the whirlpool but Odysseus alone survives. There is an island that Odysseus passes by with monsters called Sirens on it. The Sirens sing beautiful songs that lure ships toward them. The ships then crash into the island and the people are killed.