Family Relationships In The Odyssey And The Coen Brothers

One of the most important values in The Odyssey is loyalty as it appears multiple times throughout the epic poem. One of those multiple times where it happened Calypso wants Odysseus to stay with her after he has been trying to get back to his wife and she even offers him immortality. “My lady goddess, here is no cause for anger. My quiet Penelope - how well I know - would seem a shade before your majesty.” (p# 893) That quote is important

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

As aforementioned Penelope is the main reason for Odysseus's return to Ithaca, as well as wanting to be united with his son Telemakos.  He is driven throughout his entire journey to go back and see his wife.  Odyssey even goes as far to turn down the gift immortality with the beautiful Calypso in order to continue with journey home:

Father and son relationships in The Odyssey are very important. This novel tells us the story of the hero Odysseus and his journey back home after the Trojan War. His complications start after the fight when he is on his way back. On his journey home, he encounters multiple challenging obstacles. However, Odysseus and the gods are determined to get him back home to his son. In The Odyssey by Homer, we see the importance of father and son relationships between Poseidon and his son Polyphemus and Odysseus and his son Telemachus and we can see which aspects of the relationship that the Greeks valued.

In The Odyssey, the theme of loyalty relates to Odysseus’s physical journey back to Ithaca. Many characters in the epic are loyal and faithful, like Penelope, Telemachus, Eumaeus, and even Odysseus himself. Penelope remains loyal to her husband, by not choosing a suitor during the 20 years he’s gone. “And there she [Penelope] sat down with the case on her knees and burst into sobs as she drew out her husband’s bow,” (Homer 317). Just carrying out Odysseus’s bow with such sorrow shows how in love she was with Odysseus and how the thought of choosing a new husband moved her to tears. As Penelope remained loyal to Odysseus and

During Odysseus’ journey in ‘The Odyssey’, Odysseus runs into a couple problems. He leaves home ready to fight in the Trojan War. Although he had plans on coming home, he never made it home. His wife Penelope and his son Telemachus assumed that Odysseus was dead. It was not until Athena came to Telemachus and gave him everything he needed to make it to his dad. What Telemachus did not know was that Odysseus wanted to come home, but he could not because he was being held prisoner on an island named Ogygia. Odysseus wants nothing more to return home and see his lovely wife Penelope.

In Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey, a mother and her child had an absence of a husband and father for 20 years due to the Trojan war and many incidents after. Being the king of Ithaca, Odysseus had lots of responsibilities to handle. One including protecting his home city from violence. Due to being king, Odysseus had to leave for war leaving his

Loyalty: Loyalty is most apparent in Penelope's resisting of the suitors, but it is a trait essential to all the characters in Odysseus' family. For twenty years Odysseus never stops wanting to return home. Telemakhos will not send his mother back to her father and force her to choose another husband. Instead, he sets out to find news of his father. The servants Eurykleia and Eumaios are also important exemplars of loyalty. Athena's devotion to Odysseus is another.

In Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus is away from his home, Ithaca, for twenty years. Despite the low odds of Odysseus ever returning home after such a time, those in Ithaca were expected to remain loyal to Odysseus as they awaited his return. While this was a daunting task, those who accomplished it were heavily rewarded, while those who didn’t were met with death. Upon his return, Odysseus promised Eumaeus, the loyal swineherd, that he would find him a wife, grant him property next to his own, and that he would become one of the “comrades to Telemachus, brothers from then on” (21.243). His own wife Penelope remained loyal for all of the twenty years of Odysseus’ absence, never once giving in to the many suitors who invited themselves into her home and spent years vying for her hand. While she probably would have been killed by Odysseus if she had been unfaithful to him, perhaps her greatest reward was just being able to be with her husband again and being able to live. The suitors, however, were not so lucky. Odysseus, along with the help of the goddess Athena, carefully plotted and executed the death of every suitor that entered his home and gone after his wife. With the help of his son, the swineherd, and the goddess, Odysseus took down every suitor, until “the suitors lay in heaps, corpse covering corpse” (22.414). The resulting death of every disloyal character in the epic

The Coen Brothers’ “Oh Brother Where Art Thou?”, loosely based on Homer’s classic adventure The Odyssey, is a film amusingly filled with themes of symbolism similar to those found in Homer’s epic, while still maintaining a sense of originality and style that they have become so renowned for. An exciting and entertaining blend of high adventure, humour, and heartfelt emotion, at first glance, the film barely resembles Homer’s poem: only certain elements are obvious, such as the main character’s name and the three sirens by the river. However, a deeper and more intense analysis of the film and text exposes numerous, if not more subtle references.

Throughout the last few books of the Odyssey, Homer explains to the reader how Odysseus reestablishes his relationships with his family and friends of Ithaka. It’s possible the restoration of his relationship with his son, Telemachus, is the most significant event of all. This reconnection carries out three main purposes. First, it serves to characterize Telemachus' likeness to his father in the virtues of wisdom, humility, patience, and organization. Secondly, it enables Odysseus a chance to coach Telemachus on how to be a powerful ruler like he is. Lastly, Homer uses the reconnection to highlight the importance of a healthy family structure to a society. To be able to understand

To begin, Penelope thinks of Odysseus and immediately lets her emotions out: “Odysseus—if he could return to tend my life / the renown I had would only grow in glory. / Now my life is torment … / look at the griefs some god has loosed against me!” (The Odyssey, 18.285-288). Furthermore, Homer expresses Penelope’s sadness by making her sink “on her well-built chamber’s floor” and through her “sobbing uncontrollably” (The Odyssey, 4.810-813). Clearly in Penelope’s mind, Odysseus’ absence is not something she can easily forget. Homer introduces Penelope as a very caring and devoted wife.

A family is one of the greatest things to have. Family brings laughter, happiness, and love. In Homer’s, The Odyssey, there are three main steps Odysseus takes in order to be reunited with his family. Odysseus uses wisdom as one step to bring himself home.

As Odysseus travels from one Greek city to the next, the native citizens inquire about his identity and family. Although Odysseus has not seen his native land in twenty years, he defines himself as the product of family: either the son of Laertes or the father of Telemachus. Odysseus is treated like family in the foreign lands he visits. Telemachus embarks on an adventure of his own and is accepted by Nestor and Menelaus, especially because his father suffered through the Trojan War along with the two kings. Family is at the heart of decisions, central in society, creates a frame of reference for individual members of society, and is a source of learning. Family, the central theme in The Odyssey, connects individuals, cities, and gods to one another and is a driving force in decisions and emotional reactions.

1) I was intrigued by the map because I myself have a biological father, and a man that I actually look up to as a father. I have been reading the Odyssey and the Iliad over the past couple months focusing on the story telling of the books and never paying much attention to the father aspect. I do remember many times when I was reading, I would start thinking that this sounded somewhat like the bible in terms of is speaking to family lineage so often, but I never really just focused on fathers in this book. I remember in book 9 of the Iliad, Phoenix is speaking to Achilles and says to Achilles “I have made you my son, I tried, so someday you might fight disaster back”. He goes on to try to speak words of wisdom to Achilles. This still lingers in my mind because I am trying to guide my 17-year-old step son to graduation and hopefully he will have a good life. That conversation reminded me of several conversations that I have with him. When I found this map, I figured I would dive in because fathers and father figures are huge issues in todays society, and I thought it would be fun to dive into fatherhood from an ancient standpoint.