Odysseus Value Of Wit In Homer's Odyssey

Broderick Caragher Mrs. Brzycky Sophomore English Honors, P.8 11 March 2024 Tales of a Man and his Arrogance Selfishness corrodes trust, and leaves behind a trail of crumbled relationships with it. In the great story The Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus shows how arrogance and selfishness affects the entirety of those around him. The Odyssey tells the tale of a brilliant man named Odysseus, who shares the story of his travels back to his home island. On this journey, he encounters many obstacles, some of which consist of the consequences of his own actions.

Tony Nguyen 3/19/24 Throughout 'The Odyssey', Odysseus's emotional intelligence is seen to be versatile, which ultimately suggests that universal traits like resilience and adaptability are key to going through adversities in life. Where Odysseus is ineffably empowering his men with words of wisdom and motivation. While underscoring the importance of empathy, making this is also a life lesson, as we see how Odysseus is guiding his men like sheep. Odysseus being the leader, had gone through many trials with his men including failures, but they soon managed to overcome and succeed with the help of the power of words. We see Odysseus demonstrating this quite well in book nine, where Odysseus is using his words as fuel for his men.

This mistake of curiosity added over 7 years to Odysseus’s voyage and caused many of his men to lose their life because of Poseidon’s animosity toward him. On Odysseus’s arrival to Ithaca, his resurrection immediately begins. Having found that his estate had been overrun by suitors, lusting for the hand of his wife, Odysseus devises a plan to reclaim his possession with the help of Athena. After completing Penelope’s challenge successfully, Odysseus taunts the men in his home saying, “There will be killing till the score is paid… I doubt one man of you skins by” (Homer 872). This prideful challenge causes Odysseus to massacre the men of Ithaca at his home while showing mercy to none. His deadly pride inflames the people of Ithaca to try to rally against him, but Athena stops the conflict before it escalates to

This novel is a world of mythology filled with numerous characters having different adventures throughout the story. However, Odysseus stands out the most out of the others with some unique tragedies occurring in his life. Despite having to abandon his loved ones, Odysseus is courageous with the potential of having strength, cleverness, and the ability to be patient while understanding the consequences

In this quote, Odysseus is fighting all the suitors, and taking them down as they try to advance on

The Odyssey, in essence, is a tale of Journeying. After Odysseus has endured countless near death experiences, he lands in the land of the Phoenicians. We follow Odysseus and his crew as he recounts his laborious journey from war and violence, to home; his wife and son. We are forced to understand the importance of each of Odysseus’s trials, from the battle with the Ciconians, to the underworld, to his seven year stay with the witch-goddess, Circe, and finally to match his own wife’s suitors at his home in Ithaca. Odysseus’ wanderings are equally as important as the stops between. The relevance and importance of Odysseus’ courage and cunning in each of his trials and journeys

Homer’s epic poem, “The Odyssey” explores the different types of traits Odysseus uses when trying to survive a journey. Odysseus is called to fight in the battle of Troy and forced to leave Ithaca the day his son was born. After the battle of Troy, Odysseus sends his men back to the sea. As he and his men are stuck in a cave with Cyclops, they

Odysseus goes through many troubles because he puts an immense amount of confidence in his strength. Bravery is not exhibited by constantly diving into battle; rather, it is the courage to fight in the necessary battles. Odysseus is unable to see when he should back down and instead views everything as a challenge. Whenever there is a possible battle on the horizon, Odysseus marches ahead and fights, whether it is necessary or not. He says, “Much have I suffered, labored long and hard by now / in the waves and wars. Add this to the total--bring the trial on!” (5.245-247). He is proclaiming that he has fought and suffered for a prolonged amount of time; nevertheless, he asks for more trials and hardships. Now, he is no longer being brave and is simply being foolish. For example, he puts himself in harm’s way again as he chooses to explore a cave belonging to a Cyclops named Polyphemus. Once more Odysseus’s bravery and courage do him wrong as he says, “But I would not give way-- / and how much better it would have been-- / not till I saw him, saw the gifts he’d give” (9.256-258). He reiterates that his actions and thirst for adventure may be harmful to him; yet, he reveals that he must see the treasures that the Cyclops has to offer. Knowing the catastrophic nature of this journey, Odysseus bravely goes into the cave. Although Odysseus emerges relatively unscathed, he loses six men to the Cyclops and the remainder of his crew is frightened. Odysseus’s brave and courageous nature save his life numerable times; nonetheless, his need to put himself in dangerous situations is the reason he must face so many life and death situations in the first

During his ventures to the underworld, he had encountered Tiresias, a Theban prophet. Tiresias foretold that he would eventually do so, however, he warned him that “the god would make it hard for him…But even so, he still might come back, after much suffering, if he could contain his own desire.” (171) After being gone for 20 years and facing much misfortune, Odysseus successfully returns to Ithaka. The perseverance that he had throughout his journey allowed him to face obstacles and keep going until he reached his goal. However, now that he has reached it, instead of being satisfied with returning, he continues this persistence, pushing on to reach his final goal. Taking Tiresias’ advice, he does whatever it takes in order to demolish the suitors. He enters the palace disguised as a beggar, the lowest form of human life. As angry as he is with them, he maintains the strength to keep his composure and disguise himself until the time is right. He must do what it takes to outsmart them, even if this means losing his dignity. Upon entering the palace and encountering the suitors, one of them becomes angry and “kicks Odysseus on the hip..Odysseus and his men successfully do so as they engage in battle, ridding the palace of all suitors because they “were destroyed by the doom of the gods and their own hard actions…So by their own recklessness they have found a shameful death.” (332) Bringing this recklessness upon themselves, they went against the will of the gods. Odysseus felt it necessary to kill all of them in order to bring justice to show that this is not an acceptable action while taking

Although Odysseus is known as a wise, brave,and strong mortal man his thick headed mind should have known better than to anger a god, his impossible journey could’ve been prevented if Odysseus had only kept his revealing words. Athena, the daughter of Zeus,the bright eyed, beautiful, strong warrior stands by Odysseus’s side throughout his adventures. “Here among mortal men you are by far the best at tactics, spinning yarns, and I am famous among the gods for wisdom, cunning wiles, too. Ah but you never recognized me, did you Pallas Athena, daughter of Zeus-who always stands beside you, shields you in every exploit” ( Homer 296) Here Athena confesses to aiding, guiding, and caring for Odysseus. Although Athena was in favor of Odysseus she only stood by and protected him knowing she could not determine his destiny, only he could. Although Athena watched over odysseus she gave him wisdom, but knew that Odysseus must make decisions for himself. In battle Athena watched over Odysseus and protected him if needed, but she let him

As prophets are the messengers of the gods, contesting with Tiresias is tantamount to defying the gods themselves. As king, he feels that he has the power to determine truth, and that he has supreme power over the city. He accuses Creon of conspiring with Tiresias, and threatens to exile or even kill him. Before Oedipus was the accused, his status as king gave him confidence and leadership, which are attributes that were productive in solving the mystery. After he was accused of murdering the former king, this status became a negative and caused him to be too overwhelmed with his power to identify the truth. This is also the point at which he stops trusting the divine ability of prophets. His mother Jocasta seems to stop trusting prophets at this point as well. She began to tell Oedipus not to listen to Tiresias, even though she proved at various points earlier in the story that she believed in prophecies. She pretentiously conveys a disbelief in prophecies as she speaks to her son and husband: "Fear? What should a man fear? It's all chance, chance rules our lives. Not a man on earth can see a day ahead, groping through the dark." She realizes that she failed in preventing the predetermined fate, but attempts to maintain the stability and reputation of the royal family by hiding the truth. The family would inevitably be destroyed, however, as was the will of the god Apollo. The inferiority of the family's political power compared with the divine power of

Odysseus develops throughout his journey in many ways both spiritually and physically. These developments help him adapt to his surroundings and transform him into a better person. Throughout the epic poem, Odysseus’ entire person is reconstructed from that of a soldier in the Trojan War to a versatile hero, whose development of mental, spiritual, emotional, and intellectual aptitude is higher than his contemporaries’.

In the Ancient Greek epic poem, “The Odyssey” written by Homer, there are loads of characters that play important roles. For example, Odysseus is an extremely significant to the poem. With his characteristics, Odysseus has quite a few exemplary qualities that shine through throughout the poem. However, Odysseus also value admirable qualities and characteristics that he also shows throughout the poem. These qualities create a unique character, though they have their ups and downs.

In Epic Poem “The Odyssey” Odysseus is the protagonist. Odysseus’ over-the-top ego caused him to lose his men and his son’s childhood, but taught him a valuable lesson about humility. The Odyssey, written by Homer, tells the story of Odysseus and how he faced misfortune in his attempts to return home after the Trojan War. Odysseus is not famous for his great strength or bravery, but for his ability to deceive and trick. To his friends, he was a brilliant strategist. To his enemies, he was a deceiver and a manipulator of the worst kind.

According to both Greek and Homeric values humans should have reason, but very often they express passion, which leads to contradictory emotions and obstacles in life. Odysseus, a man with a complex life, struggles with many internal, personal contradictions that have a collective impact on his decisions throughout his existence. The most important contradictions Odysseus faces are loyalty and betrayal; humility and hubris; and wisdom and folly,