Oedipus through Journey of the Hero

Throughout this part of his journey, Odysseus transformed from an ordinary man into an epic hero. One of the temptresses who causes Odysseus to delay his quest was, “Calypso, loveliest among goddesses,” who confined Odysseus on his way home and keeps him, “in her smooth caves, to be her heart's delight” (31). Even though Calypso is a temptress, Odysseus does not abandon his initial quest to get back home. However, Calypso does create a huge delay for Odysseus on his journey. Odysseus also meets with the goddess during his initiation. For example, when Odysseus went to the underworld he saw “the soul of Anticlea, dead, / [his] mother” (615). In Greek mythology, the mother is considered a goddess and although Odysseus loves his mother, but he can't grieve over her because he has to complete his journey back home to Ithaca. The Ultimate Boon is the achievement of the goal or quest. This can be found in The Odyssey when Odysseus states “Twenty years gone, and I am back again / on my own island” (1051). He attains his objective and has gained a new experience and understanding of life following all the previous steps. After Odysseus completes his strenuous and grueling 20 year-long journey, he arrives back home to Ithaca to reunite with his family and his

Odysseus arrives on Calypso’s island alone, after the loss of his men and ship. Calypso rescues him and loves and cares for him in her cave. At first, it seems like Odysseus doesn’t seem much to mind her taking care of him, but over time it is plainly evident that he is unhappy with her. When Hermes arrives on Calypso’s island to give her the message from Zeus to release Odysseus, he is bawling on the beach a day-long activity for him. Calypso is holding him with her by force; she has no companions to help him back to Ithaka, nor has she a ship to send him in. Athena pleads with Zeus to give Odysseus good fortune, saying that "he lies away on an island suffering strong pains in the palace of the nymph Kalypso, and she detains him by constraint, and he cannot make his way to his country, for he has not any ships by him, nor any companions who can convey him back

Calypso lusts for Odysseus so much that she holds him captive for many years. Odysseus, however, does not feel this lust for her. At this point in the epic, he wants nothing more than to reach his home and his wife, whom he loves very much. Finally, the gods tell Calypso that is time to release Odysseus, and she obeys.

Discuss whether or not a hero who is tragic by trait and definition can exist within the structure of the monomyth.

Women play an influential role in The Odyssey. Women appear throughout the story, as goddesses, wives, princesses, or servants. The nymph Calypso enslaves Odysseus for many years. Odysseus desires to reach home and his wife Penelope. It is the goddess Athena who sets the action of The Odyssey rolling; she also guides and orchestrates everything to Odysseus’ good. Women in The Odyssey are divided into two classes: seductresses and helpmeets. By doing so, Homer demonstrates that women have the power to either hinder of help men. Only one woman is able to successfully combine elements of both classes: Penelope. She serves as a role model of virtue and craftiness. All the other women are compared to and contrasted with Penelope.

Because of Athena, Odysseus shall sail “home to his native country unharmed” (Book V, line 30). At this, Zeus sends Hermes to tell Calypso she is to let Odysseus go, and allow him to return home.

The character that hindered Odysseus specifically in book five is, Calypso, a goddess. Homer explained the way Calypso hindered Odysseus is by, capturing Odysseus and keeping him on her island for seven years and not wanting to let him go. Homer says “For seven of ten years Odysseus...has been held captive by the goddess Calypso…” (Homer italics 1206). Zeus sends Hermes, messenger of the gods, to make Calypso release Odysseus from her island. She then, obeys Hermes and starts to give Odysseus advice on how to get home from her island. Another piece of evidence that made Odysseus journey extremely difficult is Odysseus missing home. Odysseus started to cry since he has been on that island for so long, he thought he would never return home. “The Odyssey” quotes, “Odysseus who sat apart…and racked his own heart groaning, with eyes wet scanning the bare horizon..” (Homer Line 39-42, 1208). The days of Odysseus’s life was running out, while he was captured by Calypso.

Sheryl Sandberg once said, “We need women at all levels, including the top, to change the dynamic, reshape the conversation, to make sure women's voices are heard and heeded, not overlooked and ignored.” The Odyssey incorporates an epic adventure with family drama. The book is staged in ancient Greece 20 years after the trojan war. The Odyssey is narrated by Homer, the first person to write down the adventures of Odysseus. The epic poem focuses on Odysseus’s journey home and what is happening to his family in Ithaca. Overall The Odyssey is a journey about gender stereotypes and how some women defy those gender stereotypes. Homer uses many traits of characters to address this everyday life topic. He specifically Athena’s wisdom, Circe’s strength, and Penelope’s cleverness to convey the theme though gender stereotypes often elevate men, women have prized traits as well.

During the sixties, American people saw the rise of the counterculture. Counterculture was a group of movements focused on achieving personal and cultural liberation, mainly embraced by the decade’s young adults. Because many Americans were members of the different movements in the counterculture, the counterculture influenced American society as a whole. As a result of the achievements the counterculture movements had made, the United States in the 1960s became a more open, more tolerant, and a more freer country. In 1969, close to half a million self-described hippies,peace makers, and Aquarians made an expedition from mainly San Francisco to Woodstock in upstate New York. The Woodstock Music and Arts Festival was called an Aquarian Exposition and hailed as three days of peace and music, over 400,000 people attended; it was peaceful. However, life outside of the woodstock festival was not. America seemed to be dividing as a country. The war in Vietnam went on for roughly another 15 years. American boys were still being sent to Southeast Asia by the newly elected President, Nixon. The increasingly unpopular war intensified a campus protest movement. Burning draft cards and peace marches became daily fare on the evening news. And not all of the demonstrations were peaceful. The summer after Martin Luther King was assassinated, riots broke out in 125 cities including, Chicago, Baltimore, NYC, Kansas City, and Cincinnati. Meanwhile, at the Democratic convention in Chicago, the anti-war movement tore the Democratic Party in two. Both critics and fans agree that Woodstock has become part of the mythology of the 1960s, even if the actual event didn't necessarily represent the musical or political taste of most of the young Americans adults at this time. Some say it symbolized the freedom and idealism of the 1960s. Some argue that Woodstock represented much of everything that was wrong with the sixties: a glorification of drugs, a loosening of sexual morality and a socially corrosive disrespect for authority.

When you type drugs into Google, you get first, a website that tells about all the different types of drugs someone could want. Second, you get articles about how drugs are messing with everyday life. Today’s culture, people like to joke about the topic of drugs like it’s no big deal, but in reality, drugs continuously keep being a problem for Americans and keep growing into a bigger one. It is disgusting to see how many drugs are ruining so many people’s lives and making America gross while doing it. It makes one wonder, what would America be like with fewer drugs? If there were fewer drugs in America, the crime rate would decrease, there would be fewer deaths and people would live happier healthier lives. With better education on drugs, the crime rate would decrease making America better.

     Throught Oedipus Rex, Oedipus displays his heroism many times. From the Prologue of the play to the moment in which he leaves Thebes, Oedipus' heroics are extremely apparent; however, at the same time, the decisions which make Oedipus a hero ultimately become the decisions which bring him to shame and exile.

The Odyssey includes many women characters, differing from strong, powerful women to women that don’t have a meaningful role in the story. Some women in the story include Penelope, Athena, and Leucothea. These women play a role in Odysseus’s journey and life.

Divine intervention is often an integral part of ancient epic poetry as seen in Homer's The Odyssey. The role of the goddess Athena was an essential part of Odysseus's journey back to Ithaka. Athena also played a vital part in Telemakhos's life before the return of his father. Even Penelope is impacted by the help of the "grey-eyed" goddess, often inspiring Penelope to hold off the suitors as well as putting her to sleep when a situation became too difficult. Athena demonstrates that she is a critical component of development within the father Odysseus and his son Telemakhos as well as guiding Penelope as a beautiful mother waiting for the return of her husband.

Afraid for Nothing: "A narrow Fellow in the Grass" Analysis "A narrow Fellow in the Grass" by Emily Dickinson is a poem about a snake. In this short tale, Dickinson tells the reader about an experience in the speakers past, where he attempted to pick up a snake, but it escaped him (Dickinson lines 15-16). This short poem shows the reader how past experiences can change ones feelings on just about anything. The boy in the poem is quite familiar with most things nature, but snakes are one thing he fears. Why is this?

Aristotle’s tragic hero is one of the most recognizable types of heroes among literature. A tragic hero combines five major points all of which have to do with the hero’s stature in society, his faults, how these faults effect him, the punishment his faults gets him, and how he reacts to this punishment. Aristotle explained that the story of Oedipus the King, written by Sophocles, is a perfect example of a tragic hero. In the play, Oedipus is given a prophecy in which he is told that he will kill his father then marry his mother. As in many Greek plays, Oedipus tries to run from his prophecy and ends up fulfilling exactly what it is foretold. Through the play we see that Oedipus posses many of the characteristics