Similarities Between Oedipus And Odysseus

      Circe and Calypso, while very tricky and sly, are still very strong feminine characters.  Circe takes Odysseus' crew and turns them into swine; when Odysseus is able to resist her spell, due to the Moly he had been given by Hermes, she is dismayed and takes him as her lover. She is mysterious and seductive and is strong even up against Odysseus.  Calypso is a sea nymph who keeps Odysseus captive for nine years, hoping to make him her husband.  She is a strong-willed temptress whose sultry ways are able to reel in even the most determined man.

      Since the beginning of time epic tales have been passed on from generation to generation as a form of entertainment.  Even though each epic is different in its plot, every epic has certain features in common.  The prime example of their similarities is their main character, the hero of the epic.   The hero's behavior changes from the beginning to the end of the tale.  Since the plot revolves around the epic hero, in most cases, they are made to seem God-like, or larger then life, in their capabilities and strengths.  The hero constantly has to conquer major obstacles to achieve their initial and final goal.  Usually the hero is tremendously suspicious of other characters intensions.

Throughout history, art has been a reflection of society, an indication to culture and a way to analyze historical context. Art is a gateway to understanding how people think, feel, and act in the context the art was created in. Athenian theater remains popular in modern times; it is not only timeless in its message but it can be useful in analyzing the way in which people lived during the time. Oedipus and Lysistrata, both Greek dramas, prove an example of this: they provide a reflection on the views of women at the time. The playwrights, Sophocles and Aristophanes, were both highly popularized at the time, deeply culturally ingrained into society and therefore highly reliable when it comes to cultural observation. The role of women in Ancient Athens was that of subservience and limitation. Respectable women held no job, instead bound housework and childcare. While higher class women often had

“Oedipus” written by Sophocles and “Odysseus” written by Homer both are Greek poets. Both stories share the same themes in ways where both of the epic heroes endure a conflict. The characters in these plays are attributed certain characteristics by the author. The characteristics suggested by the authors are intrinsic to the audience. They both have a complete and subjective understanding of work. Their characteristics are displayed through the characters actions, what the writer says about them, and what they portray on themselves. This will be the focus of the essay. Both Oedipus and Odysseus, spoken by others, they describe character traits.

Oedipus and Jocasta seem interesting because how they react to the situations that they are presented upon them. They also share very similar characteristics but yet each are different in the story of Oedipus Rex. Oedipus was going to get to his fate no matter what ways he turned because the curse put upon King Laius. It was the fact that he had been cursed that made it seem more interesting and the circumstances that he would bring upon himself. Jocasta also could’ve been cursed along King Laius and her role to stop the oracle from happening was what brought the plot forward from the start.

In the Shadow of Men In our society today, women are often seen as weaker and not filled with as much potential as men, however, female advocates, also in our lives today, are working towards changing the image of women in order to show that they can be just as strong, powerful, and capable as men. Throughout the story of The Odyssey, Odysseus encounters a variety of female characters who provide insight about troubling situations he endures during his journey. Most, if not, all of these women use their wisdom and power of influence to convince Odysseus to either perform a task beneficial for them or assist him in his own quest. One of these characters is a beautiful goddess named Circe, who uses the influencing abilities of seduction in order

The second woman who was responsible for problems that Odysseus faced was Circe. Firstly she turned all but one of Odysseus’ men into pigs and delayed Odysseus’ progress. “Now they had pig’s heads and bristles and they grunted like pigs; but their minds were as human as they had been before,” (Page 131) this quote depicts Circe’s cruelness towards Odysseus’ men. Secondly Circe again stalls Odysseus from completing his journey back to Ithaca. “You are worn out and dispirited, always brooding on the hardships of your travels. Your sufferings have been so continuous that you have lost all pleasure in living.” (Page 136) This quote shows how Circe convinced Odysseus and his men to spend more time on the island. Thirdly Circe made Odysseus and his men take a different route, via the prophet Teiresias, rather than going straight back to Ithaca. “But Circe has marked out a very different route- to the Halls of Hades and the dreaded Persephone.” (Page 139) This makes the rest of Odysseus’ crew very upset. “When I told them they were heart-broken. They sat down where they were and tore their hair out.” (Page 139)

The islands of Circe and Calypso in Homer’s Odyssey are places where Odysseus’ most challenging problems occur. In contrast to battles with men, Cyclops, or animals, sexual battles with women are sometimes much more difficult to win. These two female characters are especially enticing to Odysseus because they are goddesses. Though it is evident that Odysseus longs to return to Penelope in Ithaka, it sometimes appears that he has lost vision of what life was like with a wife, a son, and with thousands of people who regard him as King. Although his experiences on the islands of these goddesses were similar in that he was retained from Ithaka for the longest periods of his adventure, these goddesses and the

The first woman on the voyage that Odysseus has a serious fling with is the sorceress Circe. Circe’s island Aeaea is a land where women rule above their counterparts, turning men into what they see as their true form: unsightly pigs. Aeaea serves as symbolism for femininity along with feminine trickery, fitting for a land where women see themselves as superiors. Because Aeaea is the symbol of femininity the ruler of Aeaea, Circe, is the metaphorical head of femininity. She is one of the antagonists of the story because she tricks the crew of Odysseus’s ship and turns them into pigs. A common theme in myths, most notably Greek mythology, is that women are

After the encounters with the Sirens, Odysseus had to face a terrifying creature that he feared of. Circe warned Odysseus about the dangers of Scylla. He is informed that she will snag six of his men and tells him that it is much better than loosing everyone. “Nobody would feel good seeing her, not even a god who crossed her path. She has a dozen feet all deformed, six enormously long necks, with a horrible head on each of them and three rows of teeth packed closed together, full of murky death” (Steele and Alwa, 489). Odysseus knew that in order for his survival and to be able to get to the island, he had to sacrifice his men and escape this monster. “Monsters such as the Sphinx are often represented as female, as if to imply that women are on the borderline between human and “other” than human”(Steele and Alwa, 41). Odysseus also had to deal with his love affair with the witch goddess, Circe. She lived with nymphs on a mythical island. She changed all of Odysseus’s men into animals when he showed up to see her. Hermes helped Odysseus remove the men from the spell. “Many men appear to have felt that they could truly not love women who were not educated well enough to read, write, or engage in informed dialogue with their husbands”(Steele and Alwa, 43). The love between Odysseus and Circe failed due to her lack of ability to engage with men, by

Throughout William Shakespeare’s classic play, Hamlet, it is very clear that the Prince of Denmark suffers from severe parental problems. These problems bear a stark resemblance to those borne by Oedipus, the classic staple of Greek mythology. The similarities, however, end and begin with an unhealthy obsession towards the mothers of each character and a distinct distaste towards the father that would border on hatred. Oedipus is, due to childhood experiences that were uncontrollable to him, largely unaware of these issues and even takes steps to disprove them. Hamlet, on the other hand, finds himself in this situation due to circumstances that he encounters later in life. While both Hamlet and Oedipus have very unnatural and unusual

Circe has set up a matriarchal system where a woman is in charge, this is only achieved by trickery and magic. This is a relfection of Greek society being a patriarchly society, that on this island far from home a woman is not only in charge of men, but earned it through deciet and magic and is a disapproval of matriarchy. It also shows the dominance of the male position over the female in classical Greek soceity. That Odysseus through guile and male martial prowess (along with divine guidance in the myth) is what bests Matriarchy. Another attitude that is possibly implied about Matriarchy in this depection is that for men to become subsurvent to the female

First we meet Penelope spouse of Odysseus she shows us loyalty, she waits 20 years for her husband to return from travel. Penelope has other men that want to marry her but she stays loyal to her husband, she never question her husband return she just trusts him. Then we run into Athena who show us power, and a helping heart. Athena helps Odysseus, Telemachus, and Penelope, she helps them during their hard times. Athena is a warrior and a goddess, she does not back down from a fight. Lastly we meet Eurydice a wood nymph, and spouse of Orpheus, but their married did not last long before she was bite

To begin with, although the theoretical text covers several aspects of the poem, including the two roles and characteristics that both women and men embody; symbolized through Circe and her passiveness as the mud woman and her strength and power over man, and Odysseus who is active and strong yet also willing to submit to Circe and is methodically passive yet capable of resisting Circe’s charms and magic. Although Circe is often overcome with Odysseus, she is simultaneously functioning as an independent and empowered woman who gives him, Odysseus, two prerogatives, to be “feared or to be despised”, leading to the ultimatum that either she will have more power than him or he will make her his subordinate. However, the theoretical text, in light of the primary poem, fails to touch upon the aspect of the self awareness that Circe experiences and the ruthlessness of the story that is depicted and portrayed in greater detail and allegorical dialect in the primary source. Specifically, in light of the theoretical text that depicts and explains the “two islands” that represent both the writer’s methodological narrative displacement and the two types of love that are being symbolized, the islands can also

There are similarities and differences between the “The Tale of Sohrab” from the Shahnameh and the Oedipus Tyrannus; nevertheless, both stories were written to send a message to its audience. The authors left out very important details that would have averted their tragedies; nonetheless, thanks to these, the stories were successful at the time and are still referenced today in literature. It can be perceived the authors wrote with the passion and feelings the civilization was facing such as irony, fate, curse, and betrayal. Therefore, the readings exposed the audience to the cruelness reality and the possible consequences of what greed and power can bring to its society.