Derek Walcott's Omeros

Motivated by anger and suffering, Achilleus goes on a killing rampage, toying with the nature of life and death, simply because it becomes to be of no importance to him--only destruction does. His anger begins to display his selfish character and his denial to deal with his personal pain and suffering. Throughout the Iliad, Achilleus has difficulty responding to certain situations in battle, because he has trouble controlling his irrational feelings. He particularly has trouble responding to the death of Patroklos as he allows his temper to guide him through events and fails to use logical approaches. It is important to understand Achilleus’ actions in response to death, because it reveals the nature of mortality and how humans, at times, fail to think logically about their actions and let their emotions take control.

The three exiles from the Exeter book peoms are similar to eachother in many ways. All three people find themselves in a life of solitude, and lonliness. They each dream of the way their lives used to be in comparison to what their life has become. Each perrson also shares a strong resolve to survive, if it is their fate to do so. The differences among the three people are apparent by the way in which they became exiled from their land and families, and the amount of pain they feel from their deployment. Each person uses a different coping technique in order to continue on their newfound path.

Often through great literature, there is an epic hero. In the Odyssey, Homer tells the journey of one man’s journey home from the Trojan War. The protagonist of the epic poem Odysseus is often regarded as a great hero. However, Odysseus is not quite the glorious soldier that people often see him as. Odysseus shows that he is an antihero through his pride, disloyalty, and bloodthirstiness.

Both the ‘Odyssey’ and ‘1001 Nights’ feature male protagonists who traverse the seas, and the concepts and themes of men seafaring is common throughout most canonical texts. For example, the allusion of Odysseus’ difficult journey is made when a minor male character in Apuleius’ ‘The Golden Ass’ describes his seafaring adventures as being ‘positively Ulyssian’ (‘Ulyssian’ thus being a reference the Roman naming of Odysseus) (pg 29). Furthermore, both texts share themes, such as: seafaring, the supernatural, trials and tribulations, tradition, belief systems, and the geographical setting and pride in the protagonist’s home city play a key role to the overarching plots of the texts in the sense of the protagonist’s endurance and motivation to both leave and return home. Likewise, the supernatural is used to further the plot of both texts.

    Most people think of a hero as a strong, superior, good-looking person that could never make a mistake. However, in a story called The Odyssey, a connection to real life reveals imperfections to be common in heroes. Each person has their low points and highlights, regardless of their “rank”. The author and epic poet, Homer, exemplifies our main character, Odysseus, to take on this idea of a hero throughout his writing. The time period took place in Ancient Greece, allowing Greek culture to relate to the poem. Different aspects of such culture and history may have influenced the works and creativity of Homer as well. A major point includes The Trojan War because it focuses in on Odysseus’ journey to bring Helen back home by devising a plan to destroy warriors in the city. Acknowledge this factor when reading The Odyssey, for not only evidence of heroism, but also other major points of archetypes, in which the device reflects the insights of readers in modern time and what is seen from Ancient Greek culture.

In The Odyssey Homer develops three themes throughout his second epic. He shows that Odysseus acts uncivilized because of the war, wreaks vengeance against those who have taken over his home, and eventually enjoys his homecoming. Throughout his epic, Homer shows the themes of uncivilized men, vengeance, and homecoming through Odysseus’s experiences with Polyphemus the Cyclops, the suitors who invade his home, and his wife Penelope.

The Odyssey is the epic that has been read time and time again, by varying ages, digging its way into our hearts, becoming an instant classic. Odysseus and the adventures of his homecoming create a much different tale than Homer’s other work, the Iliad, provided. The epic is not about bloodthirsty men trying to get their hands on kleos anymore; it is about the homecoming of a man who uses his wits, not his weapon. In the Odyssey, the characters balance – Homer provides contrasting characters to show the readers the traits that Odysseus holds and how it builds his character development and even those who are foils to him. Odysseus’ own son, Trojan War

The comitatus “stressed the loyalty of a thane to his chieftain and treated exile and outlawry as the most tragic lots that could befall one. This secular sense of loss is keen in The Wanderer.”6 Not only is the loss of a lord evident in “The Wanderer,” but in “The Seafarer” and “The Wife’s Lament” as well.

Philoctetes, the bowman, is a most haunting and ambiguous character of Sophocles. He represents the pain which the world subjects all creative people to. Keeping his simplicity and innocence in a world of confusion and lies ends up being his greatest challenge. Through intense character portrayal, Sophocles presents the story of Philoctetes in a way so that the reader can empathizes and truly understand the pain of Philoctetes.

Homer’s The Odyssey, is an epic poem. It includes many of the typical elements of an epic poem, such as a hero of legendary proportions, supernatural involvement, and superhuman qualities. A fair amount of the epic is driven by violent fights and in fact, the story starts and ends with intense fights. Homer’s

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’s easy to tell that the ocean is a mysterious and isolating place from all of the tragic tales we hear from sailors both real and fictional. Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and an anonymous author’s “The Seafarer” are quite similar in that they both revolve around said tragic tales told by sailors. However, there seem to be more commonalities between their themes, tones, and messages rather than their seaward-bound settings. But before we can discuss these similar settings and deeper themes, we have to tackle their origins.

With the Greeks obtaining the upper hand in the battle, the Trojans’ fear for the outcome of the battle heightens. After Hector’s fight with Ajax, the Trojans gathered as Antenor suggested, “give Argive Helen and all her treasures/ back to Atreus’ sons to take away at last./ We broke our sworn truce. We fight as outlaws” (VII. 401-403). As the fear of defeat, there is also an underlying sense of justice to abide by their agreement with the Greeks. Yet, with Paris’ stubborn opposition, they are forced disregard his proposal, but call for permitting the burial rites for fallen; thus, allowing the proper burial for their dead, as well as much needed rest for their living. Moreover, their fear for losing the war is much more extreme than it is

about Achilleus, a great warrior that fought hard and attained much glory in doing so.

“Omeros” (Chapter XXVIII) written by Derek Walcott is packed full of both modernism and cultural identifications. In a short summary, “Omeros” (Chapter XXVIII) starts out by having a character, Achille, hearing a poet singing songs about their captivity that would indicate they were in the past. Next, it states how the tribes successfully crosses but were broken apart, every man is their own tribe now. Later on, the Middle Passage is described in greater detail and what they do on their way to the New World. The excerpt of this poem ends with the captives grieving for their lives they left behind, they communicate with their gods but quickly find out that pieces of their tribal language is escaping them. In relation to modernism, this poem shares many of the same characteristics. Modernism in literature is defined as being brought into existence in the late ninetieth and early twentieth centuries in Europe and North America, with a very articulate break from traditional ways of literature. This poem is under the genre of modernism because it encompasses many cultural and social changes of the time period.