The Murder Of Odysseus In Homer's Odyssey

In my eyes a hero is a person who shows courage, is humble, does not give up, and is someone everybody can relate to. The protagonist in “The Odyssey” by Homer, Odysseus is a hero because although he is emotional throughout the book and lets his emotions take over his actions, he displays immense courage and perseveres through his journey and hardships.

Odysseus, now home, must keep his true identity under wraps until he gets rid of the suitors. He also wants to find out for himself how faithful Penelope has been to him. He enters his old palace under the disguise of a beggar; in fact, he gets help from Athena to help him change his physical appearance. Once in the palace, he sees how the suitors have totally overrun his home. He also finds that Penelope has been faithful to him, even using trickery to hold off the suitors for all this time. Odysseus gets his revenge near the end of the story by killing the suitors with his great bow. He also kills every maidservant who has gone to bed with a suitor. This is also a great example of how Zeus puts doom on someone (or in this case a whole group) who abuses the host-guest relationship. With this deed now

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

I think that Odysseus' actions were justified because of the actions of the wooers. Without any conformation of him being dead, they first tried to woo his wife. That is very disrespectful and angered Odysseus greatly. Also, the suitors show no respect for his house and belongings. They overtake his house without even thinking about the man of the house, which is disrespectful.

In The Odyssey- Part II, Odysseus with the help of his son and loyal servants. They slaughtered all the suitors and maids for the following: they tried to take advantage of his goods, they tried to marry his wife continuously, and destroyed his house. The slaughter of many of the suitors may have been brutal, but it was necessary.

Although Odysseus is the captain of a fleet, he initially takes no responsibility for the welfare of his crew. When exploring unknown lands, he often “sent out two picked men and a runner to learn what race of men that land sustained.” *(147) The king delegates the task solely to fulfill his own curiosity, without consideration of any dangers his men might face, such as intoxication in the land of the Lotus Eaters and cannibalism in the land of the Laistrygonians. Due to his indiscretion, Odysseus puts his men in unnecessary peril.

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.

Odysseus only cares about himself and his personal benefits, like a villain. “With great power comes great responsibility” this quote is used by many heros and odysseus obviously shows no responsibilities, so his power is simply bad, or evil . When “trapped” on Calypso’s island he shows no attempt to escape and instead finds pleasure in being their. After 7 years on this island he finally decides to go home to has son which he has never seen and his dog who is nearly dead due to old age (not to mention he barely does anything with his dog and the first thing he says to his son is basically to ask him to risk his life for Odysseus's house). “ Don't waste your time on revenge. Those who hurt you will eventually get their own karma”. This quote shows that good people and heros should not seek revenge and should show mercy to their enemies however Odysseus obviously shows no interest in mercy… After killing many people and not letting a single person out which many heroes would have especially if the people did not directly mistreat him and believed he was dead which would be a logical thought he finally revealed himself to his wife. At first his wife did not recognize him which filled him with rage even though he should be happy that his loyal wife wants to make

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.

Once Odysseus returned home, he wanted to rid of all of the suitors. They offered him gold and riches in exchange for his forgiveness. Odysseus responded with “There will be killing till the score is paid”(22.64). Odysseus was infuriated and killed over 100 suitors which was unnecessary. He could have settled the argument peacefully or banished the suitors, but he wanted to prove himself. He endangered the townspeople but he got rid of the suitors which may have grown into a bigger threat. The community of Ithaca was upsetted because of this battle, but thankfully Athena calmed

            Odysseus was a man of honor, a man who had fought in a war and won.  For such a courageous man to return home to find it full, idly standing by would not be considered virtuous.  In order to prove that his status of King remained a strong title, Odysseus had to purge his home of rogues, and fancy women who had dishonored his lady.  Such was acceptable at his time, and therefore considered common.  Odysseus’s sense of honor was vital in his role as an adventurer and a monarch of Ithaka. 

First of all, all of the suitors deserved to die because they were all trying to win over another man’s wife without any hard evidence that he wasn't coming back. This scenario is very similar to scenes from television shows, where a man will try to make a pass at a girl then the girl’s partner will go to her and usually punch the other guy in the face. This guy usually does not know the girl is involved with someone else so he doesn't really deserve to get punched. But the wooers deserved to die because there was still a good chance Odysseus would come back and they were trying to marry her not take her out for dinner. Also, it had only been three years since Odysseus had left she was still grieving over him and so none of them actually cared about her because they didn't give her time to get back on her feet.

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.

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