Honor Over Immortality In Homer's Odyssey

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

A hero isn’t shaped by his strengths but by the values he possesses. Homer’s epic, The Odyssey, reveals the moral and ethical constitution of the ancient Greeks. Over time, certain cultures have grown to value a number of human characteristics. Those who acquire such values become respected heroes. After the fall of Troy, the protagonist of the epic, Odysseus, set sail for his home, Ithaca, where his faithful wife and son were waiting for him. Over the course of his journey, Odysseus faced some of the most ferocious opponents known to the Greeks. Even through this formidable journey, Odysseus and his family have stayed true to the diverse aspects of the ancient Greeks. The Odyssey exemplifies the human ideals of hospitality, loyalty and

When people think of a hero, they think of a tall, handsome, loyal, brave, and a type of man that could do no wrong. The “hero” that is portrayed in the Odyssey is a man named Odysseus. This “hero” may be tall and handsome, but he is often arrogant, disrespectful, conceited, and rude. Odysseus consists of positive and negative characteristics that is shown in the text by Homer. These characteristics impact the characters day to day, or in the book’s case, the quests. In the Odyssey, Homer values the characteristics hospitality and cunning, but he objects bad leadership.

The Odyssey is an epic about Ancient Greek culture written by Homer. This is one of the two major Greek poems. Odysseus is on a long journey back to Ithaca after the fall of Troy. The most valued life traits in an Ancient Greek culture is respect. Odysseus helps portray this by worshiping gods through the epic.

Homer’s The Odyssey is not just a tale of a man’s struggle on his journey home from the Trojan War, but of his struggle from the consequences of revenge. The Odyssey weaves in different characters’ tales of revenge from the gods and what impact revenge actually had on those characters. Revenge is an important underlying theme in The Odyssey because, in essence, it explains why Odysseus’ journey was so prolonged and treacherous. A few examples of revenge in the poem include Orestes’ revenge on Aegisthus, Zeus’ revenge on Odysseus and his men, and Poseidon’s revenge on Odysseus. These different examples of revenge in The Odyssey show the importance of the gods’ revenge in the epic journey of Odysseus.

Within The Odyssey the concept of morals is very important, both to the plot of the epic but also to the structure of the Ancient Greek society. When the suitors ask Telemachus to send his mother, Penelope, back to her father he replies with; “It is quite impossible for me to cast out, against her will, the mother who bore me and brought me up”. This illuminates the importance of family within the society, and in turn morals. Whilst Telemachus then goes on to comment upon the monetary cost sending Penelope away, it is important to remember that his first instinct was to keep her in Ithaca due to their mother-son relationship. Furthermore, the importance of morals within The Odyssey’s is illuminated with the concept of xenia. Hospitality was

In Webster’s Dictionary, a hero is defined as a person noted for courageous acts or nobility of purpose, especially if this individual has risked or sacrificed his life. In the Iliad and the Odyssey, the code which administers the conduct of the Homeric heroes is a straightforward idea. The aim of every hero is to achieve honor. Throughout the Iliad and the Odyssey, different characters take on the role of a hero. Honor is essential to the Homeric heroes, so much that life would be meaningless without it. Thus, honor is more important than life itself.

"Be careful to leave your sons well instructed rather than rich, for the hopes of the instructed are better than the wealth of the ignorant." This quote, stated by Epictetus, is an ideal depiction of the importance of father-son relationships in Homer’s ancient Greek epic, The Odyssey. The protagonist of The Odyssey, Odysseus, fights among the other Greek heroes at Troy and struggles to return to his kingdom in Ithaca where his loyal wife, Penelope, and his loving son, Telemachus await. Telemachus is an infant when Odysseus leaves for Troy, leaving him alone with his concerned mother and her arrogant suitors. In father-son relationships, both fathers and sons provide and learn from each other while

In the epics of both Homer and Virgil, the meaning and politics of honour play a significant role in the decisions and actions of the characters. Honour involves arbitrary set of rules, so just what is is and why did people need to maintain these rules at all? In these poems, honour is linked to a hero’s possessions, identity, and deed. All three are important, but one’s deeds seem to matter the most and without performing great deeds, honour cannot be had the other two ways.

Throughout the journey, Odysseus was shown support from Athena, and Poseidon held a grudge against him for blinding his son, the cyclops Polyphemus. In the Epic Poem The Odyssey, Homer provides Odysseus with many valuable personality traits which make his quest to home obtainable, such as persistence, intelligence, strength, and loyalty. Throughout the Epic, Homer shows how persistent Odysseus is by showing the hero’s

In the epic poem The Odyssey, written by Homer, the main character Odysseus has been lost for twenty years. During these twenty years many men had come to try to marry his wife and destroy his home since he was presumed dead. However, when he finally returns home, he is outraged by the dishonor that these suitors have brought upon his family. In order to bring justice to his name, Odysseus kills all the men in a very bloody battle. His search for justice is successful, and it is important to the central message of the story.

The epic poem The Odyssey, written by Homer, centers around the main protagonist Odysseus and his long journey back home. Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, returns home after defeating the Trojans in a ten year war. On his way back, he angers Poseidon, god of the sea, by blinding his son, Polyphemus the Cyclops. Due to Odysseus’ actions, Poseidon refuses to let Odysseus reach home, and Odysseus and his crew are forced to go through a series of obstacles throughout the epic. Through this adversity, Odysseus must show his heroic attributions in order to survive. Homer portrays Odysseus as a hero by giving him characteristics such as: craftiness, loyalty, and bravery.

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.

A work of literature becomes important to us when we feel that it relates to our lives. The Odyssey relates to life today in many ways, courage, trust, discipline, loyalty to family and community, and obeying human or divine laws. In today's society courage, trust, and discipline are very important, this is also true in the Odyssey. Odysseus showed great courage with his plan of blinding Polyphemus the cyclops, with a huge heated spear.

Odyssey a long series of wanderings filled with notable experience and hardships, or in other words the journey of life. Homer's The Odyssey is an epic poem telling of one man's journey. Odysseus, the chosen traveler of this Odyssey, represents the will and perseverance of all humanity. Odysseus' journey symbolizes the true toils of mankind's development through, agility, doubt, and faith.