Comparative Essay On The Odyssey

Gilgamesh, the famous hero of The Epic of Gilgamesh and Odysseus from The Odyssey are found to be similar. Some say that The Epic of Gilgamesh was a forerunner of The Odyssey. They possessed similar traits and qualities, however they still displayed differences. Gilgamesh, the haughty and powerful king of Uruk, advanced on a quest for immortality after the loss of his greatest friend, Enkidu. Odysseus, the king of Ithaca and a brave warrior in the Trojan War, faced many obstacles in his attempt to return home from Troy. These journeys show the ways that the characters are linked.

In the meantime, Telemachus got a ship and set out to find information on his father. He had gone to Sparta, where he was told that his father was indeed dead. So, Telemachus returns home.

The monsters of Homer’s The Odyssey as written by Robert Fitzgerald all share traits in common, but there is always the small differences which make each close encounter more gripping than the last. When the not-so-glorious Odysseus, son of Laertes just manages to elude the cannibalistic clutches of the blinded Kyklops (IX) and takes to the high seas, he becomes arrogant and taunts his nemesis. He does not realize this, but the very words he uttered then sets the holy executioner upon the necks of his crew. Every island he passes or makes port at, his men become feasts for native monsters; however upon the beautiful island of Aiolia his men are not eaten, nor do they die at the hands of any mortal or immortal foe. What is so significant

Focus on the descriptions of the palaces of Nestor and Menelaus. Find quotations that describe their virtues:

Ancient Greece, as found in the books of the Iliad and the Odyssey, is a place entranced in mystical beings, powerful gods and goddess, and heroic men. The role of women in society is greatly concentrated on their body with little regard to their soul and mind. However, in the Odyssey, it is Penelope’s soul and mind that are vital to the success of her husband’s nostos and the imperishable fame she will receive. Due to her husband’s long absence, Penelope is placed in a predicament in which she must maintain a household and raise a son all on her own. It is Penelope’s loyalty to her husband, and strength and cunningness of her mind that allow her to survive. Without anyone one of these traits found in few woman at the time, Odysseus could have returned to a dismantled home or even worse, death like that of Clytemnestra’s husband. Clytemnestra is a quintessential woman of her time who falls for another man and plots her own husband’s demise. Penelope is a woman unlike many in Greek times such as Clytemnestra, whose faith, strength, and wit similar to Circe and Athena uphold the nostos of Agamemnon and gain her lasting fame.

While a multitude of factors creates of the human condition, there is none as certain as our mortality. In fact, the aspect of mortality is so essential to the human condition that without it, we could not be deemed truly human – man is not perfect, and his imperfections are conceived in the form of our vulnerabilities to suffering and death. Both Homer’s The Odyssey and Sophocles’s Oedipus the King place emphasis on the prevalence of mortality and human vulnerabilities throughout each narrative, creating a profound discussion concerning the inevitability of death and the manner in which we must make meaning of our own oblivion.

Within Homers’ The Iliad and The Odyssey, a recurring theme is the relationship between the will of the gods, and the will of the mortals. The Greek gods, who support and infuse mortals with strength, are shown to have many thoughts about what the future holds. To what extent are these ideas proof of the future? If mortals are fated to do something by the gods, do they have any choice, or free will, in the matter? The gods are involved in the lives of their favorite mortals, and through that, many prophecies and fates surface. Fate is a suggestion from the gods which mortals interpret selfishly.

in both The odyssey and in greek myth, mortals end up crossing the gods a lot more than once. in the epic, many people are seen crossing the gods. often times, it ends badly.

Lord Odysseus prayed to the gods that he would find love and mercy among the people he was about to encounter. Athena heard his prayer and came to him in the form of a young girl so she could lead Odysseus to the house of king Alkinoos after she surrounded him with a protective mist. The young girl warned Odysseus that he must not stare or be curious because they do not care for strangers in this place. Athena also told Odysseus to win Queen Arete’s condolences because she held great influence in the kingdom. As Odysseus lays eyes on the kingdom he is astounded by its beauty and greatness. When Odysseus enters the great palace the leaders of Phaiakia are drinking and dining and down the hall Odysseus went unseen until he reached Arete.

Margaret Atwood writes in her novel The Penelopiad “I’ve chosen to give the telling of the story to Penelope and the twelve hanged maids...which focus on two questions that must pose themselves after any close reading of The Odyssey: what led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to?” The Odyssey tells the story of the long journey of Odysseus’s return home to Ithaca after fighting in Troy for ten years, in which he overcomes the Cyclops, enthralling enchantresses, alluring Sirens, the despondent Underworld, and dangerous monsters. When he returns home he slaughters the Suitors courting his

As we sift through the pages of Sunjata, we understand him to be a humble mediocre man who knows it 's his right to be king, but who has to deal with adversity in order to get there. However, compared to Odysseus in The Odyssey, who is strong, but untrusting, we will soon see that Sunjata is not only a man but a hero. In both texts we see each man adored by many and even compared to Gods like Odysseus in The Odyssey. However, when we break down the words of each epic we are faced to confront the truths of what a hero really is. This claim explains why The Odyssey expresses a false sense of heroism whereas Sunjata gives the audience and example of a real hero.

A modern adaptation of Homer 's Odyssey – one of the most widely read ancient literary works in the world – Margaret Atwood 's novella, The Penelopiad, retells this classic story, this time from the perspective of Penelope, Odysseus ' wife, who spent ten long years waiting faithfully for him to return form the Trojan war, and is now lameting her life from the greek underworld, Hades. The Penelopiad deconstructs the portrayal of penelope in the Odyssey, showing that instead of waiting and wasting away, she instead employed her wits, feminine charm and strength of character to build a strong empire and achieve her own ends, or at least, that 's what she would like us to believe. Chapter 26 is a courtroom scene, where Odysseus is on trial for the hanging of the 12 maids, which he justifies by convincing the judge of their supposed indescretions. Atwood employs various literary devices, such as the exploitation of genre and dark humour, to convey the double standard between genders, the failures of the justice system, and the lack of consequences awarded to those in power.

Greek historians saw themselves as a part of a long tradition that went back to Homer and Hesiod, and became fully defined by the time of Herodotus and Thucydides. To the Greeks themselves, the concept of their history came down from the epics, and this would shape the tradition from which later Greek historians would draw. Homer’s Trojan War, and the heroes that populated the narrative were considered to be true events and historical figures. The Iliad and The Odyssey, recorded long after the events supposedly occurred, also gave rise to the perception that the past was divided into two parts: a heroic age of the gods and heroes and a post-heroic age of men. Because the age of heroes was defined by the writers of epic and thus considered fixed, in the very early stages of Greek historiography, attempts were made to bridge the gap between the two ages with genealogies, linking Greek families with the heroes of the epics. In a similar fashion, the Myth of the Races in Hesiod’s Works and Days is considered by some scholars to be a proto-historical account, similar to the myth of Prometheus and Pandora, because it is an attempt to create an origin for the human race, whether or not it was believed to be true by the author.

Ulysses and his men were sailing once again through the seas without any coordinates as to where they were heading too. Staring over the ships and his men he saw them rowing without motivation as if they were giving up on returning home to their families or loved ones. It surprised him because for ten years that was the only thing they wanted to leave Troy and return to their homes in the Greek Islands but they all looked wretched and starved; lifeless. He started walking in between his men going through the rows they were sitted in, looking at them gaze down at him not making any contact until he he got to the last row. One of his men stood up from the bench he was sitting on looked

Odysseus and Gilgamesh are both heroes from two different time eras that were in search for the meaning of life. The epic Gilgamesh was settled from early Mesopotamia, and the Odyssey was developed from early Greece. Gilgamesh was very popular and it was also extremely valuable to the historians of the Mesopotamian culture because it reveals much about the religious world, such as their attitudes towards gods, how hero was defined and regarded, views about death and friendship. The Odyssey was very prevalent in its time also. It was set in ancient Greece where its culture; mythology was the heart of everyday life. The Greek culture turned to mythology to explain different phenomena for which they had no scientific explanation and that was prominent in the epic of Odysseus. The two heroes of these different stories have many differences and similarities.