The Odyssey By Homer

Robert A. Heinlein once said, “Yield to temptation, it may not pass your way again” which is similar to Odysseus’ motto in The Odyssey. Odysseus is constantly dealing with obstacles that have been set in place by the Gods. Mainly the obstacle involves a woman being a temptress in order to detour Odysseus from his journey home to Ithaca. Eventually, Odysseus resists the seductresses in order to continue his journey home to Ithaca so he can finally see his wife Penelope. In The Odyssey women have a narrow, but significant role similar to their role in ancient Greece. Every time there is temptation present Odysseus yields, especially when the seductress is desirable, showing that he wants to yield to the woman who are tempting him with sex,

In Homer’s The Odyssey, while Odysseus was away from home, there were suitors who lounged around his house and wanted Penelope’s hand in marriage. When Odysseus finally arrived home, he was outraged and eventually killed the suitors and the servants who were disloyal to Odysseus’s family. Some people might believe Odysseus was inhumane for killing the suitors, but Odysseus had a reason for everything he did. Odysseus killed the suitors and most of his servants in order to protect himself and his family, assert his title as King of Ithaka, and to enact his revenge for betrayal. This teaches us that Odysseus knew what he was doing and that he had a reason why he chose to do those actions.

This book allows the reader to be surprise that he shows no emotions where he should. He shows a minimal emotions during his mother’s funeral, love for Marie, excitement for his job promotion, and no regret for murdering the Arab. In the end, Camus show that humans existence is based on living and dying.

The Odyssey is one of the two epic Greek poems attributed to Homer. The Odyssey is the sequel of The Iliad and mainly focuses on Odysseus’s return from the battle of Troy to his home, Ithaca. Odysseus’s travels take him beyond the realm of the known world and he encounters many mythological beings, which he has never met before. Every encounter with these creatures in The Odyssey is full of adventures, twists and most important of all, life lessons. If we assume Odysseus’s long journey as our life and his desire to go home as our goals, the monsters Odysseus meets on his way home can be considered obstacles that would make us diverged from progressing. In fact these monsters in Odysseus’s voyage symbolize the seven deadly sins, the actual monsters lurking inside us. The Odyssey is implying that, in order to reach our ultimate goals in our life, we definitely have to fight these monsters inside our mind. In The Odyssey, every encounter with monsters explains how deadly sins destroy peaceful lives and why we should avoid these inner monsters.

Despite not seeing or hearing from Odysseus in nearly twenty years, and being pressured for years to remarry one of many young suitors, Penelope remains faithful to Odysseus for twenty years. Penelope’s son, Telemachus, explained to Athena, “For now the lords of the islands … are here courting my mother; and they use our house as if it were a house to plunder. Spurn them she dare not, though she hates that marriage, nor can she bring herself to choose among them.” (Book I. 290-298) From this dialogue, Penelope’s loyalty and

One having power and control over fate would be ones most impossible quest. The Odyssey, composed by Homer, shows how mankind is always under the mercy and leniency of fate, which was expressed through Odysseus. One can only make a choice and hope that the consequences are fated to suit one. His struggles were external and internal. One would never plan struggles in their fate if one was able to manage it, yet, fate is full of struggles. Odysseus had no power over his fate and needed a prophecy so he can withstand the struggles and suffering fated for him, therefore, the management of fate is just a myth.

Greek mythology in general, has many impacts on the modern day world, even though it was written over a 10 milleniums ago. Greek mythology, implicitly, introduced the ideas of life lessons, and they can also gives us humans in general basis to our common beliefs. Furthermore, Greek mythology helps us get to know ourselves, and it can aid us in the process of seeing how capable was as humans are.

The Odyssey, by Homer, an epic of Odysseus ' 10 year journey to return home to Ithaca after the Trojan War. While Odysseus combats mythical creatures and has to face the unsupporting gods, his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus have to fend off suitors, attempting to take Penelope 's hand in marriage, and Ithaca 's throne long enough for Odysseus to return. Although all the citizens of Ithaca believe Odysseus died long ago, Penelope and Telemachus vouch to prove otherwise. The Odyssey ends as Odysseus wins a contest to prove his identity, murders the suitors, and reclaims the throne of Ithaca.

The Odyssey by Homer and the Old Testaments: King James Version are two of the most read and most sophisticated pieces of literature that have transcended through generations. While they share similar qualities; both greatly differ as well, especially when it comes to the women characters. Classical historian and professor of classical studies at Wellesley College, Mary Lefkowitz, makes a significant contrast between these two famous writings. She believes that a major difference between the women of each story differ dramatically when it comes to their personality and actions. “[Although] the notion... that a man should be active and aggressive, a women passive and subjected to the control of the men in her family, are expressed in virtually every Greek myth, even the ones in which the women seek to gain control over their own live.…[so] that it is possible to show that the Greeks at least attributed to women a capacity for understanding that we do not alway find in the other great mythological tradition that has influenced Western thought, namely, the Old and New Testaments." (Women in Greek Myth, Mary Lefkowitz). I completely agree with Lefkowitz statement on these characters, it’s very clear that most of the women in the Old Testament are very flat while the Odyssey is full of well rounded characters especially when it comes to Jacob’s wife Rachel and Odysseus 's wife Penelope.

I didn’t go into The Iliad thinking I would like it very much, since I felt lukewarm about The Odyssey, but after finishing it, I can say it’s one of my favorite novels. The characters, plot, prose, and meanings of it are amazing.

In fact, her decision to remarry is to fulfill the instructions that Odysseus had left her that when their son, Telemachos reaches maturity, she will consider remarrying. In Book Eighteen, Penelope states, “Watch over my father and mother in the palace,/ just as now, or perhaps a little more,/ when I am far from home./ But once you see the beard on the boy’s cheek,/you wed the man you like, and leave your house behind” (18.269-273.) Penelope is being very strategic, which gives her the power to control her palace. It is this literal act of weaving that is keeping the peace in Penelope’s household. Penelope is refusing to conform to the pressures of society, which reinstates that she is not like every other woman of her time. These skills are what make Penelope a powerful woman in a patriarchal society, and not one who gives their fate to the men.

Once the Odyssey had entered an orbit around Earth, Chief Steward Pars stood at the front of the cabin and announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, we will begin our tour. Please follow me.”

In the famous epics, The Iliad and The Odyssey, written by Homer; the main character, Odysseus, is the King of Ithaca and is called to serve and lead the Greeks in the Trojan War. Odysseus receives help from Athena and is told that he must serve in the Trojan War for he is destined to bring them victory, in which he does. After winning the war Odysseus is cursed to never go home, thankfully he makes amends with the gods and returns home in ten years. Correlating to Greek literature a famous tragedy, is the play “Oedipus the King” by Sophocles, where the main character, Oedipus, is destined to lay with his mother and murder his father. Oedipus runs away from his fate and ends up turning full circle, completing the prophecy which he was blind to as the truth unraveled right in front of him. Since Oedipus was chosen to lead Thebes and find the murderer of his dad, King Laius, when he finds out that he is the murderer he gouges out his eyes and is banished from Thebes. In both stories the main characters are put into a position of power, both being king, and the way they lead changes over time from the challenges they face. A leader should be humble, respectful and be able to claim responsibility for their actions which both Oedipus and Odysseus do not do in the beginning but towards the end they emerge as better and stronger leaders. Looking over Oedipus and Odysseus, both do not show the ideal qualities of a leader and instead were hubristic and selfish until the end when

In Homer's epic Iliad, the poet emphasizes the control of the gods in the war he describes. He creates literary devices around these well-known deities to illustrate their role in the action, conveying to his audience that this war was not just a petty conflict between two men over a woman, but a turbulent, fiery altercation amongst the gods. To an audience which had likely lost their fathers, brothers, or husbands to the Trojan War, it would be a welcome relief to hear that the whole affair was orchestrated by the gods, and that the deaths of their loved ones were inevitable and honorable.

Many great tales of brave men have always been told throughout history. Most famous stories that are known of brave men took place when wars were fought with swords, and bows, and halberds, and not with guns, and missiles. Although the best of stories of brave men didn’t always happen in real life but only in the thought of man. Even some great have been made into plays, movies and shows. In the book writing Homer has always been a great author, and story teller. Homer has always made stories feel so real, and one of homers best stories “The Iliad” has always been always been told because of it love aspect, its fighting as well as the involvement of the gods.