Curiosity In The Odyssey

Odysseus, through the tremendous physical journey that he has embarked on, goes on many mental journeys that greatly develop him as a character: he starts out hotheaded and single-minded, yet grows to be a lot more rational by the end of the book, which ultimately saves his own life and the lives of many others. For example, because of the inadvertent trip he and his crew take to the island of the Cyclops, and their subsequent escape from the Cyclops Polyphemus (which causes the ire of Poseidon, Polyphemus’ father, to be incited), Odysseus learns to not invite the wrath of the gods. He also learns, after taunting Polyphemus multiple times and consequently, almost getting everyone killed because of it, to not act in such a rash manner and to

Heroes, as shown in literature, often undertake the most difficult tasks and place themselves in mortal danger in order to bring back, for themselves and their societies, both knowledge and treasure. Their stories follow “Hero Journey.” The Odyssey, as the epic story of the hero Odysseus, follows closely the complete cycle of a Hero Journey, both as a physical and as a psychological undertaking. The Hero Journey, used as a framework for both Odysseus’ physical and mental journeys, serves to bind the two together. Each of Odysseus’s physical difficulties can be viewed as a metaphor for a psychological hardship that he must overcome, and by overcoming these hardships, Odysseus matures—achieving a more complete understanding of himself and

The narration of this chapter is full of powerful words describing him as the master of craft and battle, which is very similar to the way his legacy would describe him. At one point he calls upon the God Apollo to give him glory. This is very interesting because he is the God of archery, and his arrows are a metaphor for death and misery. Odysseus is brimming with pride, and vengeance, and seems to have forgotten his lessons, because these are the vices that brought him and his men misery during their time at sea. The targets that he speaks of, is of course the suitors he aims to kill, but as well it is the reclaiming of his power, his kingdom, his wife, or in other words his life.

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.

Odysseus only cares about himself and his personal benefits, like a villain. “With great power comes great responsibility” this quote is used by many heros and odysseus obviously shows no responsibilities, so his power is simply bad, or evil . When “trapped” on Calypso’s island he shows no attempt to escape and instead finds pleasure in being their. After 7 years on this island he finally decides to go home to has son which he has never seen and his dog who is nearly dead due to old age (not to mention he barely does anything with his dog and the first thing he says to his son is basically to ask him to risk his life for Odysseus's house). “ Don't waste your time on revenge. Those who hurt you will eventually get their own karma”. This quote shows that good people and heros should not seek revenge and should show mercy to their enemies however Odysseus obviously shows no interest in mercy… After killing many people and not letting a single person out which many heroes would have especially if the people did not directly mistreat him and believed he was dead which would be a logical thought he finally revealed himself to his wife. At first his wife did not recognize him which filled him with rage even though he should be happy that his loyal wife wants to make

Six of Odysseus’ men are eaten because of his foolishness. Again, Odysseus’ arrogance came into play when Odysseus and his men escape from the cyclops, Polyphemus. He taunts the monster, despite the fact that his men tell him stop. He exclaims, “If ever mortal man inquire how you were put to shame and blinded, tell him Odysseus, raider of cities, took your eye: Laertes’ son, whose home is Ithaca” (Fitzgerald 908). If Odysseus did not provoke Polyphemus, the curse laid up on his ship and crew would have never happened. If he did not mock the cyclops, his odyssey would have been non existent. Odysseus always wanted to be remembered as the grandest hero of Greece. This is object when his ship rolls past the Sirens and Odysseus demands that he listens to their song. His overly extensive hubris clouds his mind and wants the fame of being able to survived the Sirens’ song. He never once considers what might have happened if he had

Odysseus’ killing of the suitors is really the purging of his own selfishness and gluttony, showing that to make up for all of the bad he had done he had to restore himself back into power by killing innocent

When they were involved with the Cyclops, Odysseus was a very brave, smart, and caring man (although he did do some bad things as a leader too). He came up with a very clever plan to hurt the Cyclops, which he did do. Then he told the Cyclops his name was “Nobody” so he

In the Odyssey of Homer, Odysseus is displayed as an adventurous character. His curiosity is shown through out the book, on his voyage home as well as when he arrives home to Ithaka. His curiosity itself is not an issue, rather selfish curiosity causes Odysseus to be reckless in his actions. His reckless decisions lead to extremes: many of his companions are killed, sorrow and grief is shown throughout his journey. Even Poseidon, a god remains “relentlessly angry with godlike Odysseus, until his return to his own country” (27. 20), because of his recklessness. Odysseus’ curiosity causes him to be reckless in his actions.

He wants to kill them on the spot for their disgrace, but the goddess Athena advises him to be patient, and that the suitors will be punished (930). Odysseus obeys and waits patiently, until the goddess gives him the chance to extract his revenge upon all the suitors, finally bringing justice to his house. By listening to the goddess, he is rewarded with the taking back of his home and is reunited with his wife. As you can see from these examples, when Odysseus obeyed and respected the gods in this epic, they rewarded him and helped him to complete his long journey

The Odyssey by Homer consists of many things, like Odysseus being very clever, but because of his curiosity and pride he had told Cyclops his name. That caused Cyclops to beg his father Poseidon to never let Odysseus return home. One of his countless flaws of Odysseus. His character influences many of his men and family. He has caused himself to lose many of his comrades . For example, when they entered Cyclops´s cave . It has drove him to many different lands plenty of his men dying, also from them being curious. For instance Aeolus gave Odysseus a gift of wind. His crew thought he had something like treasures hidden in the sack . Their stupidity led them unleashing the winds creating a storm called for chaos.

Curiosity gets the best of them, Odysseus and one ship sail over to the Island of the Cyclops. Once again there curiosity gets them in danger, they wander into a cyclops cave and end up get trapped inside. The cyclops was seen as a big intimidating figure who was typically seen as a scary beast to many humans. “ We felt a pressure on our hearts, dread of that deep rumble and that mighty man.” This shows that even The Odysseus raider of cities was afraid of the one eyed beast. Odysseus and his men knew their fate if they ended up getting trapped in the cave with the hungry cyclops. Odysseus and his men then disguised themselves after they stabbed the cyclops in the eye impairing his vision. This is a push for Odysseus but of course he has to prove his superiority and tricks the cyclops into thinking his name is

As a result, Polyphemos takes two of Odysseus’ men and “...dismembered them and made his meal, gaping and crunching like a mountain lion”(378). Odysseus and his soldiers are angered by the loss of two of their men. So Odysseus hatches a plan to kill the Cyclops in his sleep only for him to realize that “...if I killed him we perished there as well, for we could never move his ponderous doorway slab aside”(378). Once the morning comes and Polyphemos leaves to herd sheep, Odysseus conducts his men to carve a huge wooden pole and sharpen its ends with fire. When the Cyclops returns, Odysseus feeds him wine to get drunk and pass out.

Odysseus lets his arrogance cloud his judgement, putting both his life and his crew men’s lives at risk. His arrogance becomes apparent during his stay at the city of the Cicons where “[he] sacked the town and put the people to the sword” and later he and his men were attacked by the Cicons (92). He goes as far as to accuse his crew, he diverts the blame because he “said that we had better make off at once, but my men very foolishly would not obey me” implying that if they had listened to him they wouldn't have had to fight with the Cicons (92). Doing this he speaks to his men in a cruel manner, redirecting the responsibility towards his men. He blames the entirety of his crew, except himself, for the deaths of the other crew members. In this predicament Odysseus is self centered, self righteous and nothing short of obnoxious. Not only is he disrespecting his crew men, he's depreciating them. Seemingly implying that everything he and his men have been through on their journey home was meaningless compared to his importance. While Odysseus strives to be of higher importance than his men, he also shares their weakness of overindulgence. Odysseus scorns his crew for not listening to him at the city of Cicons ostensibly to raise his own power as a better man than his crew; however, Odysseus and his crew have commonalities that provide as setbacks in their

Homer's epic tale The Odyssey is a story of the triumphs and downfalls that are in store for one warrior's long pillage home.  Odysseus, the hero from the Trojan wars, has led his people of Ithaca and other Achaean soldiers to victory and now wishes to return home to his wife and family of Ithaca.  Through his twenty year journey Odysseus is often tested not only of his physical strength, but his wits as well.  The many accomplishments he achieved earned him great status and recognition throughout ancient Greece.  The mistakes he made caused the deaths of many men.  Consequently, we as readers are able to see the many personas that Odysseus carries with him.