Examples Of Odysseus's Physical Journey

In the latter, however, some of his more ignoble traits are revealed: he is a braggart, he almost dishonorably uses poisoned arrows, and he shows conceit in his victory over the Cyclops. It is sometimes difficult to reconcile this man with the one who willingly gives up eternal life for the moral condition and the chance to return to his wife. Largely, the problems with understanding the moral position of Odysseus stem from his immense experience and cleverness, which make him at once mortal and fantastic.

Resulting in angering Polyphemus’ father, Poseidon, who has curse Odysseus to never return home with years of bad luck. Indicating that Odysseus cockiness has lead Odysseus to try too hard to be heroic in unnecessary situation. Though, a point could be made that the Polyphemus does do bad things to people on the island, but nobody really ask for help from Odysseus. He kind of just take self liberty to bring justice to the people by defeating the Polyphemus. Not to mention, that the Polyphemus offer him a chance to forget all about the incident and be friend, but instead of accepting that offer, Odysseus provoke him even more by saying, “If I could take your life I would and take your time away, and hurl you down to hell!” (line 480, pg. 997). To put in simpler term, Odysseus indicate that he will never befriend the Cyclops for he is horrible creature that should be annihilated. Showing the reader how rashly Odysseus made his decision, as he could have make friend with Polyphemus, and continue on to his voyage home instead of putting himself in a bad position by insulting the Cyclop. Lastly, another quality that is bad about Odysseus is that he is selfish. For once, when he has come across an island on his way from Troy, he had decided to raid the village and take women as hostages for sexual pleasure. Showing how he is only doing this for his own need and not caring about the people that live in that village. He

In the Odyssey, Odysseus exemplified strong leadership and outstanding noble qualities. Like Achilles, Odysseus carried some flaws at the beginning of the story. A strong case can be made that his biggest flaw as a character was pride as it caused him unnecessary risks that only delayed his journey and possibly endangered his men. This is evidently shown when Odysseus and his crew wander around in Polyphemos ' cave. After the confrontation with the Polyphemos, Odysseus and his men escaped by stabbing Polyphemos’ in the eye while he was asleep. Once Odysseus and his men were safe on board on their ship, Odysseus took it upon himself to reveal his true identity and proceeded to taunt Polyphemos. At

The Odyssey is a story telling about the long journey of Odysseus, and his adventures with his crew. It tells about his dangerous encounters with a Cyclops, sea monsters and Sirens, and eventually making it home safe to his wife, Penelope. Although modern literary scholars of The Odyssey have argued that Odysseus is a hero, closer examination shows that Odysseus is not a hero. He is selfish to his crew by making decisions to put them in danger, he is unfaithful to his wife on the journey and does unjust actions by killing the Cyclops without a good explanation, and going out of his way to a sea monster. These actions put his crew in jeopardy. While a good leader and a hero do selfless acts, Odysseus did selfish acts.

Odysseus is described as a god-like man. He is cunning, sly, suave, strong, confident and self-possessed. He accomplishes many great events like that of defeating the Trojans, slaying the suitors and travelling to and back from Hades. When on the beach in Phaeacia he confidently “stalked as a mountain lion exultant in his power strides through wind and rain and his eyes blaze and he charges sheep or oxen or chases wild deer” , and when he sees Nausicaa “He launched in at once, endearing, sly and suave” . Athena found him to be “so winning, so worldly wise, so self possessed!” . Neither does he lack in ingenuity, King Nestor said that “No one...could hope to rival Odysseus, not for sheer cunning–at every twist of strategy he excelled us all” . Odysseus has a large and gallant reputation to fulfil, but when he first makes an appearance in the book he is crying on Calypso’s island. Crying is often seen as a weakness in a man, but this makes Odysseus more endearing as it reveals the labour of his love.

Odysseus thinks that his reasoning are final and his activities are constantly just and right, although he frequently allows his ego control his rational thinking, resulting harm to his group and messing with the gods’s plans. His men could have went back home Securely for it is the desire of Athena and the other heavenly gods who surround to her in Mount Olympus, however Odysseus takes it to himself to outrage and blind Polyphemus, the monstrous son of Poseidon, adored by his dad yet abhorred by the people, In this way distrusting their whole arrangement . Subsequent to being blinded by the heroine, Polyphemus tosses huge pieces of rocks at Odysseus's ship, nearly obliterating them at the same time. But instead of retreating for safety, Odysseus keeps on provoking Polyphemus and “[calls] out to the cyclopes again, with [his] men hanging all over [him] begging him not to”(Book 9, 491-492). His feeling of pride and presumption influences to disregard the requests of his people even in these critical circumstances . He will fulfill his own feeling of interest and pleasure without thinking of the result it would have on his crew. Despite the fact that he is bound to get away from all passings and assaults, his group isn’t so blessed. Their lives are in mortal peril since Odysseus considers them as child sheeps who should forfeit their lives for him when the circumstances comes, much the same as how mortals make conciliatory offerings of sheeps for the heavenly gods. He is willing to fulfill his own feeling of interest without thinking of his groups lives or their suppositions and is regularly infuriated when they negate his request. If they hurt his sense of pride and self-importance and pomposity , Odysseus will be overcome with outrage and

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’ hubris played a negative role when Odysseus revealed his identity to Polyphemus. Odysseus and his crew had just managed to escape from the Cyclops, Polyphemus, after driving a stake into his eye. But then, Odysseus told the blinded Cyclops his identity by shouting, “Cyclops – if any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shamed you so- say Odysseus, raider of cities, he gouged out you eye, Laertes’ son who makes his home in Ithaca” (9, 558-562). Odysseus managed to tell Polyphemus his name, father, and home. Polyphemus then prayed to Poseidon, his father, to get revenge on Odysseus. Poseidon ended up killing Odysseus’ entire crew and delaying Odysseus for 10 years. None of those terrible consequences would have happened if Odysseus had suppressed his enormous pride. Odysseus’ hubris resulted in a lot of suffering for many people. Odysseus’ hubris prevents Odysseus and his crew from getting back to Ithaca again when Odysseus did

In the beginning, he had to leave behind his wife, newborn son, and his hometown, which even then had useless suitors. Throughout the journey, Odysseus’ actions of temerity only bring him down in a series of ways: first, after blinding the Cyclops Polyphemus, Poseidon’s son, Odysseus cannot suppress his joy. He yells off of the ship to Polyphemus, stating both his name, and his hometown. Because of this careless act, he causes not only Poseidon to hate him, but it also brings the Phaecians a bad omen, later causing their ship to turn to stone. Secondly, after visiting Tiresias in the Underworld, and being told not to eat Helios’s cattle, they negligently do so. Odysseus foolishley lets his men go onto the island, and is clueless while they are killing cattle. This later results in everyone but him getting killed by a thunderbolt. Although both Telemachus and Odysseus have made frivolous mistakes, in the end they both come out as stronger

During his journey Odysseus used what he has learned from is mistakes to return home and kill the suitors of his wife. On the island of Cicones,and with his encounter with Polyphemus, Odysseus learned that bragging can bring great misfortune. On Ithaca Odysseus never brags to the suitors and is able to enter his house with the Antinous and the other suitors knowing his real identity. He takes the punishment of Antinous and the other suitors without saying a word and is able to see those who have invaded his house. Odysseus is able to see who is loyal and who is not and take his revenge with the suitors never knowing who

One of Odysseus biggest virtues is that he is cunning. Throughout the Odyssey, Odysseus and his crew are always in trouble and Odysseus is able to show that not only can he can trick even the smartest of persons but, he is a brilliant strategist, proof of his cunning nature is the Trojan Horse from The Iliad. In The Odyssey the audience gets a lot of examples of Odysseus cunning nature. In the events of Book Nine of The Odyssey, Odysseus shows the reader his cunning nature. During book nine Odysseus and his crew are strangled in the island of the Cyclops.

Odysseus’ lack of modesty assists his hubristic personality and the exasperated personality of Poseidon. Odysseus indirectly brought his own wrath upon himself by telling Polyphemus that when he (Polyphemus) is asked who blinded him, to say it was “Odysseus, raider of cities, he gouged your eye, Laertes son who makes his home in Ithaca” (Homer 99). Had he been more humble, gracious winner, he may have avoided his quarrel with Poseidon. Poseidon would have no reason to have a grudge against Odysseus, in fact Poseidon would not have had a name to lay his vengeance on. Without a name there is no face for counterpart, and there would be no need for Poseidon's anger to reside on Odysseus. However, Odysseus let his pride swoon by taunting the cyclops leading to the eventual ten year trek towards home. Odysseus’ self-centered values create a built up ignorance towards others values and needs. As mentioned before he made the mistake of calling out the cyclops and even taunting him, Odysseus also ignored his peers wishes in which they exclaimed “ Do not be mad enough to provoke this savage creature further” even after his crews pleading he “would not listen to them and shouted out to [Polyphemus] in rage” (Homer 100). Furthermore, his ignorance also reaches to his men when they reach Circe’s island where she turned his men “into pigs by the stroke her wand and shut them up in her pig styes” (107).

Throughout the Odyssey, the struggles of Odysseus are revealed to the reader through the well written epic. His journey is very difficult and he is haunted with the loss of his entire crew and seemingly impossible task of getting home to his family. While journeying homewards, Odysseus makes the mistake of harming the Cyclops, who happens to be Poseidon's son. Poseidon is so angry at Odysseus for the harm he inflicted on the Cyclops, that through the influence of all powerful Zeus, he punishes Odysseus along with his other children, the Phaeacians, who can be seen to parallel as well as contrast with the Cyclops.

In Homer’s notable epic, The Odyssey, Odysseus, gifted with incredible physical strength and power, is traveling back home to the island of Ithaca. Over the course of his decade long journey across boundless and precarious waters, he learns that though, physically strong, he must use his mind and not rely solely on his physical attributes. He opposes many obstacles that he must overcome, the most important obstacle being temptation. His journey back to Ithaca is riddled with temptation that will test his physical, emotional, and mental capabilities. Through this journey he learns to overcome these weaknesses and temptations to make it home.

            Odysseus is no god.  He is man, and with that comes the mistakes and errors in all of us.  In many situations Odysseus' mortal side is seen.  An example of the power of Odysseus coinciding with his human flaws is his battle with Polyphemous the Cyclops (son of Poseidon).  After escaping the lure of the lotus-eaters and their island, Odysseus and his men find themselves on another island, rich with food and shelter.  After feasting, the men grab a large container of potent wine and go off exploring the new island.  Later in their search they stumble across a large cave filled with food.  Curious where the owner's whereabouts are the men encourage Odysseus to steal the food.  Odysseus (showing his hospitable and genuine character) decides to instead wait for the