Homer 's The Odyssey, By Homer

Odysseus has no reason to save his men’s lives but for his own convenience. Finally, Odysseus is home and after a long journey in which he shows no heroic actions and yet proves to be nothing but a villain, he once again proves throughout his actions that he is a villain. Odysseus is finally home, on Ithaca, and is then helped by Athena and disguises himself as an old beggar. He proves then to be a villain by seeking his revenge for the suitors and maidservants that once betray him (696, summary). Another way in which Odysseus shows he is a villain is when he finally reunites with his wife Penelope and reacts with rage when she tests him. This reveals Odysseus is a villain because he reacts as if he was innocent and some way being betrayed by his own wife. Of course, though, he never tells his loyal wife Penelope about his love affairs with Calypso and Circe. In conclusion, Odysseus throughout his actions proves to be not only veil but a villain. He leads his men into trouble, kills the suitors and maidservants without mercy, and betrays loyal wife. This allows readers to truly see Odysseus other side. He was a villain and there is no doubt about it. However, think about his so called heroic actions and the way he made everything work out for his own benefits. He knew he was a villain and somehow still got away with

Near the end of this chapter when he has finished off all of the suitors, (mostly with the aid of Athena), Odysseus feels he has prevailed as the winner, righted the wrong. At one point he exclaims "these men the doom of the gods has brought low, and their own indecent acts. They'd no regard for any man who chanced come their way. And so thanks to their reckless work, they met their shameful fate."(435-438). The irony of this quote is the fact that he is

Odysseus was justified in the killing of the suitors because they were devouring the resources of his household, attempted to wed his wife, and concocted a plan to kill his son. In addition, he thought he was justified in the killing of the maids because they had slept with his enemies, were rude to guests, and they were his property.

What kind of human kills for their own good? In the bloody journey of the Odyssey many men were killed by the hands of Odysseus himself. A lot of the men that died were killed by Odysseus but there was a good number of them that were killed by the actions Odysseus made. When it comes down to it Odysseus was wrong for killing the suitors. Odysseus killed the suitors out of his own insecurity, selfishness, and of course out of rage for what was done to him. But what was Odysseus expecting after being gone for 10 years? For everyone to just hold off on their lives just to wait to see if he will be coming back? Odysseus’ actions were not justified.

Odysseus’ journey home was a long difficult venture which resulted in the loss of some of his crew, due to various monsters. Once Odysseus finally returned to his kingdom, he was disguised as a beggar and said that he was a friend of Odysseus. After a few days of witnessing his house be trashed by suitors, he revealed himself to his son, Telemachus, who the suitors planned to kill. Odysseus and Telemachus came up with a plan to kill all of the suitors while at the feast they were planning to hold. Penelope was also planning on holding a competition to figure out which one of the suitors she should marry.

When Odysseus returned home to his wife and son, he took a very brutal approach to rid his home of the suitors who had invaded his household.  This revenge was also taken out upon the servants and maids who had been unfaithful to Penelope and had slept with the suitors.  Some may say this punishment was too harsh, and made Odysseus less than an honorable man.  However, Odysseus’s actions were justifiable.

2. During Odysseus’ journey back to Ithaca, Odysseus had seen wooers that consumed, killed, and wooed when he was on Calypso’s island. When Odysseus arrived at Calypso’s island, he was wooed by Calypso to stay on her island and be her husband. She offered a life of ease with an abundance of resources and a beautiful wife. On her island, there was an abundance of food and wine that they could consume and all of the things that were necessary to live a life of luxury and ease. This life of ease would lead to Odysseus’ “death”, because he would be forgotten by his friends and family. As a result, some of Calypso’s actions were similar to those of the suitors.

Returning to Ithaca he finds that wooers are trying to take his wife. First off, his action was justified because after 20 long years away he comes to a house full of men trying to steal his wife. He was hoping to go home and see his wife after 20 long years. The men keep going and going after her. They don’t know Odysseus is alive so when he learns of their persistent he gets madder and madder. So at the end when he does finally reveal himself he kills all of the men due to the shear fact of him taking out all of his angry on them. Also, when Penelope was talking and the men found out they trapped her inside of his house.

The three topics that will be discussed about Odysseus’ revenge against the suitors are his, motivations, strategies, success, and my opinion on whether justice was carried out or not. First, it is critical to understand the reasons for odysseus to attacked the suitors. There are total of three motives; all of them involved with ownership. While Odysseus was gone the suitor had laid eyes on Penelope.( Odysseus’s wife) This obviously upsets Odysseus when he returns home, and his wife doesn’t even belong to him any more. So, if he wants his wife back he will have to destroy the one that is trying to take her away from him. The second motivation for Odysseus to revenge against the suitor is to save his son Telemachus. Because the suitors hungered for the death of Telemachus, for he was prohibiting them from marrying his mom. The last motivation is to get what rightfully belonged to him. After 10 years of absence from home his possessions was slowly taken away. Therefore, he had to fight for his possessions.

Homer gives Odysseus series of conflicts even to the point of Odysseus returning home after 20 years. When Odysseus is given a chance to compete for Penelope, he does not hesitate in killing the ringleader of the suitors. As a result of Odysseus's determination, he tells them that will not “escape death”(1286). This act proves that he will not let anyone try to get with his women. This sense of courage and determination get him what he wants. In spite of Odysseus conquering this task he still has a more important one ahead. Penelope still has doubts and believe he could just be a trick from the gods. As a result, Telemachus tries to convince his mother that he is the real Odysseus and she does not need to question him. As a

In The Suitors Odysseus comes back from his journey to find an abundance of suitors in his home trying to take his wife who has been continuously loyal through the 10 years he was away. Shortly after Odysseus returns, Penelope retrieves his bow out of the storeroom and reports that she will wed the suitor who can string it and afterward shoot an arrow through a line of twelve axes. All of the suitors fail to do and then Odysseus with ease, strings the bow and sends an arrow and completes the task , shooting the arrow through all twelve axes. Odysseus then grabs another arrow and proceeds to shoot a second arrow through the throat of Antinous, and the killing of the suitors commenced. Odysseus actions were justified because all of the suitors got what they deserved trying to take his women and all else that belonged to him, the severity of the punishment was rather high but was what seemed fit to an man seeing others trying to take what is his.

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

When Odysseus arrives at Ithaca he finds that his home has been invaded by suitors. Each suitor's plan is to get Penelope's hand in marriage so they can be king of Ithaca. The only way Odysseus can stop this is by killing every single suitor in his residence. So after he was disguised as a beggar and successfully completed Penelope's trial he started a battle with all the suitors. After the battle in book 22 Odysseus decides that everyone that was participating in the suitor's plot should be severely punished.

Although Odysseus kills all the suitors in order to be with his family he doesn’t think about the relatives of them who would want revenge. He only acts upon what he wants to do to the suitors even if it might end up badly for him. They were not happy to hear that Odysseus killed a member of their family and as a matter of fact wanted to kill him because of what he did. “Quick, after him...or we’ll hang our heads forever, all disgraced, evenly generation down the years, if we don’t punish the murder of our brothers and our sons!” (24.476-480) Dolius is so aggravated at Odysseus that he wants to end Odysseus’ life right that second. The two families have a fight, but luckily no one dies; there are just some minor injuries and broken stools.

Many years ago in ancient Greece, Plato initiated a debate about the usefulness of literature by declaring that poetry had no place in the ideal society, mainly because it was full of lies and because it evoked undesirable emotions. His pupil Aristotle, however, took the opposing side of this dispute and argued that literature was, in fact, useful. Aristotle agreed with Plato that literature induces undesirable emotions, but he stated that it only does so in an attempt to purge us of these harmful sentiments, a process which he termed “catharsis”. The events in Homer’s Iliad, while used by both Plato and Aristotle to defend their theories about literature, lend themselves to the defense of Aristotle’s ideas more so than Plato’s.