Destiny, Fate and Free Will in Homer's Odyssey - Odysseus’s Fulfills His Destiny

Throughout the Odyssey, Odysseus faces many obstacles. The three obstacles in the story where odyssey was the Lotus Eaters, Cyclops, and the Enchantress Circe. Odysseus face many problems which he never thought of it. He had to go through that to get his home and it was really hard for him. But even though it was hard he never give up. He believed in his strength instead of giving up.

In The Odyssey, the Greek hero Odysseus must make it back to his home in Ithaca after the battle of Troy. Along his journey, he encounters obstacles that require the upmost perseverance and willpower to survive. Some of these obstacles include a giant cyclops who wants to eat him, lotus-eating peoples that drug his crew, violent storms that

One great example to show just how cunning Odysseus is, is the story about the cyclops, who had planned to eat Odysseus and his shipmates. One of the ideas that Odysseus had to get rid of the cyclops was to have him drink so much wine that he wouldn’t be able to focus and so he could be knocked out. Tricking the cyclops gave Odysseus and his shipmates another chance to get away from the cyclops. A piece of evidence from the cyclops story that shows Odysseus’s cunning trait is a quote from the story, it says “My moment was at hand, and I went forward holding an ivy bowl of my dark drink,” this quote shows Odysseus’s idea of giving the cyclops the wine so he would be knocked out and so Odysseus could have a better chance at killing him and getting away.

Throughout the battle and the journey back to Ithaca, Odysseus faces many complications, and he is able to apply his bravery and intelligence to overcome the obstacles. To survive the deadly situations he comes across, he has to devise many solutions for the achievement of his goals and escape death. For instance, he faces a life-threatening obstacle during the Trojan War. The severity of the situation triggers him to come up with a strategy of the Trojan horse that allows him to succeed in the situation: “…they decided to resort to a trick thought of by Odysseus..." (12. 218). Another serious instance where he demonstrates his diligence during the journey was when he was trapped Cyclops' cave together with him men. His intelligence was revealed as he applied his leadership skills to unite the men to fight the common enemy by reminding them of how they had triumphed before by working together as a unit. To plan for a safe escape, he made a strategic more. "Friends, we're hardly strangers at meeting danger and this danger is no worse than what we faced when cyclops penned us up in his vaulted cave with crushing force! But even from there my courage, my presence of mind and tactics saved us all" (12. 226-230). This trick was influential in helping them reach the green island quickly and safely. The ability to plan

Odysseus has many heroic qualities such as cleverness, physical strength,and bravery. First, Odysseus tricked the cyclops, Polyphemus, by telling him his name was “Nobody” ( The Odyssey 1058). This showed cleverness because Odysseus gave the cyclops a bottle of wine to make him drunk, which caused him to fall asleep. Then, Odysseus found some wood and sharpened it to stab Polyphemus in the eye. While Polyphemus was blind, he asked Odysseus what his name was, he said it was Nobody and made the cyclops believed that was his name. Another example of when he showed a heroic quality is when Odysseus tricked the suitors by doing an impossible task he knew no one could do and it was to string

Poseidon hated Odysseus because he showed too much pride into himself and sadly Polyphemus was Poseidon's son. To begin, the way he showed how he was heroic was when Polyphemus was asleep, he made up a plan to get them out of Polyphemus's home because they were trapped. Third, Odysseus showed his heroic acts by blinding Polyphemus because he would open the door and shout for help and during that time Odysseus and his men made a swift escape from beneath him. Finally, Odysseus put his life endangered knowing that he will be blinding a god's

Odysseus’ excessive pride and overconfidence get him into trouble with the gods, Zeus and Poseidon. His impulsive ways get him into trouble with the Cyclops, Polythemus. He humiliates the Cyclops without thinking about the consequences. Odysseus calls from the boat to Polythemus,

Odysseus ship returned to Aiaia,where Circe met them with food and wine.She took Odysseus alone and told him of the dangers that were going to happen.First,they would go through the island of Sirens,who bewitched anyone who listened to there music.Circe told Odysseus to put wax into his men and his ears so that they wouldn’t hear the muic.Next,Odysseus would make the decision on which way he wanted to go.One way would be the Moving Rocks that crished anything that came between them.The other would make Odysseus sail between the two cliffs.The larger cave is where Scylla lived who has been waiting for a ship to pass so she can stick out her six heads out and get six men from the ship.At the base there lived Charybdis.Three times a day,Circe said she sucked in much of the water of the surrounding water,and spat it out.Circe told Odysseus to sail by Scylla’s base because he would only lose six men and not his ship.Circe told him next would be the island of Helios where he kept his cattle and sheep.Which the prophecy stated.Circe

That didn’t let it stop him. Odysseus’ determination is shown when he is faced with the Sirens. The Sirens were creatures who would sing and whoever heard them, they’d die. Circe explained to Odysseus that they ‘warble him to death with the sweetness of their song. There is a great heap of dead men’s bones lying all around, with the flesh still rotting off them.”

An example of Odysseus’s cleverness in The Odyssey occurs when the crew and Odysseus are trapped in the cave with Polyphemus. Polyphemus asks Odysseus what his name is and Odysseus tells him, “Nobody-that's my name” (12.410). This is clever of Odysseus because when he stabs him in the eye, Polyphemus screams that nobody is killing him and the other cyclops don’t come to help. Odysseus also puts his cleverness on display when he tells the crew only he was to hear the sirens. He tells the crew, “I alone was to hear the voices” (12.174) even though Circe never singled him out. By deceiving the crew, Odysseus avoids potential uproars from the members of his crew about wanting to hear the sirens as well. The cleverness is Odysseus’s personality is again shown in Ithaca when he is disguised as an old man to find out who is loyal to him. Odysseus’s body was covered, “top to toe with the wrinkled hide of an old man” (P. 300, L. 494-495). By doing this Odysseus can tell which members of his staff are loyal or disloyal to him without much effort. The traits that make Odysseus a hero can also be found in many of the people we believe are heroes

Another way Odysseus is also a hero is he always finds a way to survive whether he is in conflict or out on the sea. One of the many situations Odysseus survives is his encounter with Skylla. Six of his crew members do perish but through his hard work and dedication he survives. He makes another smart decision in choosing to go through Skylla instead of Kharybdis because only six of his crew members die instead of the whole crew. Another decision Odysseus makes to survive is not eating the cattle of Helios while on Thrinikia, his crew members choice in eating the hallowed cows results in their death, but Odysseus knew the consequences and did not touch a cow. Another way Odysseus' quick-decision skills helps him is when he chooses to leave the island of the Lotous-eaters, because he realized his whole crew would have fell under the curse if he had stayed there. Odysseus is also a master tactician whose complex plans save his crew and help him regain his crown. One of these plans was his ingenious idea to trick Polyphemos, which shows he is a hero by saving countless lives. Another plan he implemented was to kill the suitors which is also a success because Odysseus and Telemakos themselves kill over a hundred men without an injury to themselves .Odysseus is a quick-thinker whose resourceful ideas save many lives.

One way that Odysseus was being cunning is when he put beeswax’s into his crew member ears. He did that because he didn’t want his men to go off track while they were on the boat. He never did put beewax into his own ears because he wanted to know what it sounded like so he could say he heard it. He had made his men wrap a rope around him. He said “If he starts getting of track pull him harder so he can remember where he was.

Throughout Odysseus’ journey he is able to persevere against the overwhelming odds he is faced with. The driving force behind Odysseus’ perseverance is his hunger to get home; his crew however does not share this passion and therefore lacks the strength of character to fight on. Odysseus looks back on his life or death struggle as his ship is lost in Poseidon’s storm, " out of the ship my comrades fell and then like sea-fowl were borne by the side of the black ship along the waves; god cut them off from coming home. I myself paced the ship until the surge tore her ribs off the keel, which the waves then carried along dismantled. The mast broke at the keel; but to it clung the backstay, made of oxhide. With this I bound the two together keel and mast and getting a seat on these, I drifted before the deadly

I strongly agree that Odysseus was an intelligent and clever man because he tricked Polyphemus, Circe, and Calypso. In the epic Odysseus found a way to trick Polyphemus so that he could elude in a cunning way. The epic says “Bilinded, and sick with pain from his head wound, the master stroked each ram, then let it pass, but my men riding on the pectoral fleece the giant’s blind hand never found.” (Cyclops. 437) In this episode the brilliance of Odysseus portrayed by outhinking Polyphemus rather than trying to overpower him because that would end in the intimate annihilation of Odysseus and his crew. The way he tricked Circe into letting his crew go was bold. In the epic it says “The god Hermes stops him to give him a plant that will weaken

In the Odyssey Book 10, Odysseus’s journey was mostly controlled by fate. One of the examples that show fate controlled Odysseus’s journey was when he ran in the God Hermes. Hermes gave Odysseus’s this potion that would make him prone to turning into a pig when he drank the spell binding soup. If Odysseus’s never ran into Hermes he would have turned into a pig and would never have made it back home to Ithaca.