Cultural Values In The Odyssey

Homer's great literary classic, The Odyssey, represents and illustrates many emotional and mental values. All of these values can be classified under three different main themes that are constant throughout the epic tale. These themes are: A boy's struggle to be a man, a king's struggle to reclaim his kingdom, and a man's struggle to return home. As one reads this book it will become more and more evident to them that a man's struggle to get home is the most important theme throughout Homer's adventure.

The Odyssey by Homer is an epic from Ancient Greece telling the tale of the great warrior Odysseus. It tells of Odysseus going to war and going through many trials to get back to his homeland, Ithaca. On Ithaca are his wife, Penelope, and his son, Telemachus. Throughout the epic, Odysseus faces many challenges and trials in order to get home to his family, and even after he finally does arrive. Through all of the trials, each being extremely difficult, he pushes on to reach his family. This shows there are definitely bonds in the families. Of these, one that is apparent upon multiple occasions is the bond between father and son. Of course, the only father and son relationship isn’t just between Odysseus and Telemachus. There are many other examples of this family relationship, such as Poseidon and Polyphemus. But not only does the father and son relationship play a large role in the Odyssey. All family relations in general play a surprisingly large part in the Odyssey. Throughout the entirety of the story, family appears to be a great stimulus to persevere through the problem, no matter how challenging or fearful. One extreme example is of course is Odysseus. He traveled for 20 years fighting to return to his family, through unimaginable danger and the loss of roughly three crews. Family also appears to cause extreme retaliation and revenge. A superb example is how Poseidon reacts after Odysseus and his crew blind his son, Polyphemus. Another grand example is when Odysseus

The Odyssey is an epic about Ancient Greek culture written by Homer. This is one of the two major Greek poems. Odysseus is on a long journey back to Ithaca after the fall of Troy. The most valued life traits in an Ancient Greek culture is respect. Odysseus helps portray this by worshiping gods through the epic.

The Odyssey is an epic poem attributed to the now-famous Greek poet, Homer, written approximately in the early sixth century B.C.E. The poem shares the tale of the wily adventuring solider, Odysseus', return from the Trojan war to his wife and home in Ithaca. The poem details his misadventures, the efforts of his son, Telemachus, to find him, and revenge on his wife's suitors. While many themes run through this poem, the most prevalent is that of hospitality. The Host-Guest relationship is significant in the Odyssey as it acts as one of the main thematic devices used by Homer and examples of good hospitality versus bad hospitality and their results serve as the main plot elements throughout the tale.

“The world is full of wonders, but nothing is more wonderful than man.” This quote shows that the Greeks valued themselves, but also their intellect in which they know that the world about them is great. The Greeks valued beauty, art, intellect, honor, and truth; the list is long. Some of these values are shown through the story of the Odyssey, which tells of the adventures of Odysseus and his family. In order to understand Greek values and how they are portrayed in Greek society, one must examine how some values are portrayed in the Odyssey: hospitality, intellect, and beauty.

Homer’s epic poem, “The Odyssey” reveals many aspects of ancient Greek life and culture through character and plot. Through each of the tales circling the life of Odysseus and the Greek people, Homer depicts the history, legends, values, and merits of the ancient Greeks. Greek culture is known to be one of the most flavored and thorough in history, and each facet of it—from religion to ideology to mentalities and beliefs.

Within The Odyssey the concept of morals is very important, both to the plot of the epic but also to the structure of the Ancient Greek society. When the suitors ask Telemachus to send his mother, Penelope, back to her father he replies with; “It is quite impossible for me to cast out, against her will, the mother who bore me and brought me up”. This illuminates the importance of family within the society, and in turn morals. Whilst Telemachus then goes on to comment upon the monetary cost sending Penelope away, it is important to remember that his first instinct was to keep her in Ithaca due to their mother-son relationship. Furthermore, the importance of morals within The Odyssey’s is illuminated with the concept of xenia. Hospitality was

For centuries in literature, philosophers studied the idea of virtue to demonstrate the uphold of moral excellence and righteousness within characters. Eventually becoming a staple in Western literature, virtue can be described as the balance and imbalance of qualities specified by the philosopher Plato. He thought much of virtue, and eventually defined it according to the four criteria: courage, prudence, temperance, and justice. Plato portrayed courage as the showing of bravery in the midst of danger, prudence is one’s ability to show good judgment and to put other’s needs before their own; temperance is a person’s knowledge of when to show restraint and justice is when one gives to others what is owed to them. These characteristics not

The way that their ship was destroyed by Zeus shows how they were punished for actively disrespecting Helios, which conveys how important reverence of the gods was to the Homer and the Ancient Greeks. Lastly, in what is perhaps the epitome of Poseidon’s wrath, Homer conveys the importance of respect for the deities. This value is portrayed in book 13 when Poseidon attacks the Phaeacian ship after they bring Odysseus home, “[striking] her to stone,” and, “[rooting] her to the ocean floor,” (291). This act of violence by Poseidon illustrates just one example of how mortals are punished for disrespect throughout The Odyssey. Because the Phaeacians chose to help Odysseus, thereby contradicting Poseidon and in a sense disrespecting him, they were punished which again, illustrates how disrespecting the gods, however unintentionally, can have disastrous and even deadly consequences. Homer’s use of violence by the gods in these three instances helps to convey the cultural norm of reverence of the gods in Ancient Greece.

Traditions and customs make a group of people different from others. For example many families have different traditions when it comes to holidays, like fireworks for the 4th of July or making turkey for thanksgiving. All these types of traditions are important in daily life. In The Odyssey by Homer, many examples of Greece customs and

There are 7.442 billion people in the world and each individual person has their own unique personality and effect on the world around them. In Homer’s The Odyssey multiple characters are introduced that change the story in their own way. How each character acts is determined by the character traits that drive who they are and what they want the outcome of Odysseus’ journey to be. Circe, a goddess who lives on an island alone, influences the plot more than most of the other characters in the novel, altering the way one views the other characters and changing the way they feel. Circe’s character traits and the overall revolutionary idea that Circe is a women changes the way readers view the novel and thus, changing the overall reaction readers have to The Odyssey.

Archetypes of the Odyssey Ancient Greece was full of mystery. They told of mystical, almost supernatural, heroes and monsters. One such story told of a warrior named Odysseus. A king who ruled over the kingdom of Ithaca, but sadly left for war, leaving his family. Fighting for almost a decade, Odysseus set off on a long journey towards home. Through thick and thin, and through all of the bloodshed and fighting, he finally has a happy ending at home. What will he lose as a result? Odysseus is in the category of a hero, one of the many archetypes modern readers use to identify main characters and all other concepts in literature. Therefore, all heroes experience the fright and thrill of adventure in most of their tales.

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

Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey follows Odysseus on his long journey home. The Epic also includes the stories of Odysseus’ family left behind: the travels of his son, Telemachus, and how plenty, of what we would now call “home wreckers”, suitors pressured his wife, Penelope, into marrying one of them. The characters are beautifully crafted and the story is truly epic. All the elements presented can bring in any reader from any century, the Cyclops, the Gods, the trickery of Penelope, and the disguises of Odysseus, are all legendary literary hooks . There are many things to learn—about writing, about the world around us, the world ahead of us, and the past behind us—from The Odyssey. (26) It is undeniably evident that this ancient text has

It is important to keep reading, “The Odyssey.” Even though it is 2800, years old, students still need to learn about it. It is important to continue studying “The Odyssey” because is it a moral story, the historical significance is important, and it is essential to study other culture’s mythology.