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Character essay on the odyssey
Analysis of odysseus character
The Odyssey Heros journey
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According to a study conducted by the University of Massachusetts, 60% of people cannot hold a ten-minute conversation without lying at least once (Benjamin). Whether these lies are crucial to the discussion or not, they can ultimately impact the outcomes people hope for. The Odyssey, written by Homer and translated by Robert Fitzgerald is a timeless tale full of dishonor and lies, many of which positively impact a man’s fate. The epic entails an archetypal hero, who is on the journey of a lifetime, fighting to get back to his home. Through his characters, Homer illustrates that lies and dishonesty is pivotal to many of the desirable outcomes found throughout the story. As a result of Odysseus’ dishonesty, Odysseus is able to save many of his fellow crewmates’ lives throughout Homer’s …show more content…
For seven years, Odysseus is held captive by the goddess Calypso. The young goddess “desired me and detained me in her hall. But in my heart, I never gave consent” (Homer 372). This quote suggests that although Calypso may have believed she was loved by Odysseus, he never really cared for her. If Odysseus would have stayed faithful to his wife, Calypso would have killed him. Thus, he is able to protect himself by lying to her. Another point in the epic where Odysseus' dishonesty impacts his success is with the suitors. After arriving at his homeland, Odysseus disguises himself to protect himself from being harmed: “Odysseus enters his home as a beggar, and the suitors mock and abuse him” (Homer 402). When Odysseus appears to be a beggar, the suitors think nothing of him. They disrespect him, his family, and his home. Had they know Odysseus was back, they would have treated him much differently. Because of the way they acted towards him, it can be suggested that they would be willing to do anything to take control of his kingdom. He is then able to find out more about them and their motives without getting
In The Odyssey, Homer conveys a mixed message about Odysseus’s crew. At times, they seem loyal, whereas other scenes reveal them as disloyal. Homer does this to help center the attention on how Odysseus can fall victim to temptation and stand up to take control of his crew. The critical moments where Odysseus and his crew are in disagreement are significant because they demonstrate how Odysseus is epic, yet still human and flawed.
Calypso offers Odysseus immortality, to live the life of a god for all eternity in paradise with her. Along with the offer Calypso questions Odysseus on how his family could ever compare to her and immortality. Odysseus refuses Calypso because he is loyal to his wife and son and feels that there is nothing greater than to see them again. Odysseus gives up Utopia and divinity for the loyalty to his home and family, Even though he has no idea whether anyone he knows is still alive or whether or not his wife and son have waited for him. Both Penelope and Odysseus demonstrate such trust in each other that they wait ten years for each other not knowing what has happened to the other.
Deception is defined as a crafty procedure or practice meant to deceive or defraud. People tend to view this as a sinister action. No matter how sinister it can be, it can also be utilized to gain information and knowledge. How a person uses deception varies among different people. Generally, the more clever people tend to utilize deception very efficiently. Odysseus masters deception in the Odyssey by disguising himself. Odysseus isn't alone for Athena also uses disguises. With that being said, disguises allow Odysseus to succeed in killing the suitors.
Homer’s Odyssey challenges the common view on deception as employed only maliciously. Both a mortal, Odysseus, and one of the most revered goddesses, Athena, have the common noble goal of bringing Odysseus back home to his family after nearly two decades of absence. To achieve that goal, they mainly use deception and disguise in various forms that their physical and mental powers allow. Odysseus is famous for wittily deceiving others through verbal means, fact noted by Menelaus and Helen of Troy (Book 4). He even doubts Athena, as his own skills have made him doubt other’s honesty. Athena states after realizing Odysseus’s disbelief, “Would not another wandering man, in joy, make haste home to his wife and children? Not you, not yet” (8. 420-422). Odysseus wants to make sure that Athena gives him substantial evidence regarding his family and being back because “empty words are evil” (4. 891). After this exchange, when Odysseus knows him and Athena are on the same team, they use those skills to uncover the truth of matters or people’s character and return home.
Homer's epic tale The Odyssey is a story of the triumphs and downfalls that are in store for one warrior's long pillage home. Odysseus, the hero from the Trojan wars, has led his people of Ithaca and other Achaean soldiers to victory and now wishes to return home to his wife and family of Ithaca. Through his twenty year journey Odysseus is often tested not only of his physical strength, but his wits as well. The many accomplishments he achieved earned him great status and recognition throughout ancient Greece. The mistakes he made caused the deaths of many men. Consequently, we as readers are able to see the many personas that Odysseus carries with him.
In that regard, it was no wonder Odysseus’s is such an atrocious leader. A great example of Odysseus being disloyal is on Calypso’s Island. “…He lay with her each night, for she compelled him.” (892) This quote shows how Odysseus is disloyal to his grieving wife, and sleeps with a goddess daily. A leader cannot expect loyalty when the leader is notorious for being unloyal. “Now Circe, ‘loveliest of all immortals,’ persuades Odysseus to stay with her.” (903) This is another quote that shows Odysseus cheating on his wife, while his wife is at home is at home distraught over her missing husband. A great leader leads by example. By that philosophy, it should not be expected of Odysseus’s men to be loyal to him, when Odysseus cannot stay faithful to his own wife. Consequently, Odysseus is also extremely selfish, on top of being incredibly
After the incident with the bag of winds it is reasonable for Odysseus to have trust issues, but when it is a matter of life and death, Odysseus is witless. After being punished by Zeus because some of his crew ate Helios’ cattle Odysseus drifts in the ocean until he lands on Calypso’s island. 7 years pass and Odysseus can finally leave after he crafts a ship, after he leaves and sails for a bit, Poseidon sees it as a time to get revenge for his son Polyphemus. Poseidon completely wrecks Odysseus’ ship when he is close to the land of the Phaeacians. A goddess named Ino sees this and offers Odysseus help.
Before letting him leave the island, Circe tells Odysseus that he must face Scylla, a sea monster, and Charybdis, a whirlpool. Circe says, “Better by far to lose six men and keep you ship” (274). Odysseus is told beforehand that no ship could pass unscathed, but he chooses to not to tell his crew. He knowingly sacrifices his crewmembers’ lives and has no qualms about it, which shows his inner selfishness. He makes sure to protect his own life, but he sees his crew as disposable. Homer characterizes Odysseus this way in order to convey his views about humanity: humans are instinctively selfish. Odysseus also carelessley kills his remaining crew when he taunts the Cyclops. After hearing Odysseus’s name, Polyphemus prays to Poseidon and asks that Odysseus “never reaches home” but if he is destined to return, make sure he returns “a broken man—all shipmates lost, alone in a strangers ship” (228). If Odysseus had never told Polyphemus his name, he and his crew might have made it home more quickly and safely. Instead, his hubris causes an inescapable curse. Odysseus cannot bear the thought of forfeiting his fame, which leads to even more hardship on his quest to return home. Homer uses Odysseus to demonstrate the danger of egotistical
Odysseus In Homer's Odyssey, the main character Odysseus is a person who only tries to help himself. Although he earns the trust of his men while in Troy, he loses it on his perilous journey home. Many times in the epic he manipulates others, commits foolish acts and is full of hubris. He tries to take shortcuts and as a result of this, his men are killed and his boats destroyed.
... to lose her sense of control, power, and order. There were many mistakes she made that caused Athena and Zeus to upset her utopia. Gods and goddesses were not meant to fall in love, let alone have children. To offer immortality to a mortal is against everything Odysseus was ever taught. Humans are born to die and the gods were not supposed to alter this. Odysseus had come to realize loving a goddess was wrong for many reasons and he had never really stopped loving his first wife and children. Calypso took this as an insult and lost control and imprisoned an innocent man. Athena and Zeus had to punish her by allowing Odysseus to be set free, because it was the right thing to do. Ultimately, Calypso’s temporary loss of power, control, and order taught her a valuable lesson: That a mortal’s sense of purpose and loving is centered around the fact that no man is immortal.
Odysseus ' recently developed skepticism causes him to hide his true identity every time he approaches someone for the first time. When he approaches the Phaiakian princess for the first time, Odysseus tells her a half truth about his journey, but not who he really is (6.180). The same is true for when he first meets the rest of the Phaiakian royal family. He does not give away his identity until Alkinnos begs him to, and even then Odysseus is does this only when he feels as though he has, or soon will, get their trust (9.1). Odysseus is suspicious even of his swineherd who has remained loyal to Odysseus the entire time he was away (14.230). Odysseus concocts a story of a whim to the swine herd when he asks Odysseus who he is. Odysseus ' apprehension towards everyone is apart of what makes him “the great tactician” (7.256). This apprehension protects Odysseus from ever being betrayed. He is able to get everyone he speaks to to say exactly what they think about Odysseus. He is then able to use this knowledge to plan his strategies and protect himself from traitors. This suspicion allows Odysseus to gauge where everyone stands in terms of his
Odysseus didn’t really value his crew members very much. He used them to scout places out and didn’t really care if they died. Odysseus was greedy to receive a guest gift from the cyclops, Polyphemus, the son of the god, Poseidon, even after they had taken some of the Polyphemus's goods. When Odysseus is telling the Phaeacians of his journey he tells them, “From the start my comrades pressed me, pleading hard, ‘Let’s make away with the cheeses, then come back—”(Homer 9.252-253). If Odysseus would have done what his crew members told him to do then none of the crew members would have died. Odysseus didn’t care that they were invaded the house of a Polyphemus, all he cared about was receiving housewarming gifts from him. He put his greed before the safety of his crewmembers which is a careless act.
When he was trapped on the island with Calypso he gave into temptation and slept with her. Being unfaithful to his wife who was at home and stayed faithful to him for over twenty years while he was gone, was a incredibly selfish move on his behalf and not a heroic act in the least. Odysseus was not only unfaithful to his wife, but expected she be faithful to him the twenty years her was gone. When he returned, part of the reason he waited to attack was to see if his wife had been faithful. He continued this behavior along his journey in many situations like when he blinded the cyclops and he was too full of himself to let the act go uncredited, so he told the cyclops his name and ended up being cursed for the rest of his journey. He not only told him his name, but even a little life synopsis, “Cyclops, if ever mortal man inquire how you were put to shame and blinded, tell him Odysseus, raider of cities, took your eye: Laertes's son, whose home is on Ithaca” (Book 9). A hero would not be so arrogant and selfish just to get credit for something. After Helios follows Xenia and helps out Odysseus and his men, disobey his orders and eat all of his cattle. This not only was disloyal to Helios, but also Odysseus allowing his men to do this put them in danger because Helios called upon the gods and said, “O Father Zeus and gods in bliss forever, punish Odysseus and his men” (Book 12). He did manage to squeeze some heroic acts into his journey like saving his family and friends from the suitors, but his wrongdoings still trumped his good deeds. He not only gave into those temptations, but he also was an incredibly narcissistic man. In The Alchemist, Santiago lost his sheep and money and still managed to get over it and continue on his journey without any misdeeds. However Odysseus, was too conceited to see past the urges and do the right
In order to discover who was loyal to the king, Athena disguised Odysseus as a beggar. “She shriveled the supple skin on his lithe limbs, stripped the russet curls from his head, covered his body top to toe with the wrinkled hide of an old man and dimmed the fire in his eyes, so shining once. She turned his shirt and cloak into squalid rags, ripped and filthy, smeared with grime and soot. She flung over this the long pelt of a bounding deer, rubbed bare, and gave him a staff and beggar's sack, torn and tattered, slung from a fraying rope.” The disguise also allowed Odysseus to survey the situation in the castle. These observations provided him with the small details of his plan. Being inside the castle also allowed Odysseus to know the correct time to reveal himself and start the fight. “Now stripping back his rags Odysseus master of craft and battle vaulted onto the great threshold, gripping his bow and quiver bristling arrows, and poured his flashing shafts before him, loose at his feet, and thundered out to all the suitors: "Look — your crucial test is finished, now, at last!”” Because he knew the exact circumstances occurring in the castle, Odysseus was able to make good decisions and effectively kill all the suitors who mocked him and ravaged his house.
The challenges that Homer give the protagonist is all a test of character. Odysseus continues to pass the obstacles with flying colors, but his arrogance is the one flaw that is in dire need of correction. Some of the many challenges Odysseus overcomes on his voyage home is defeating the Cicones, surviving the Island of the Lotus Eaters, outsmarting the Giant Cyclops, saving his men from Circe, Traveling to Hades, passing between Scylla and Charybdis, escaping Calypsos’ Island and many more. Odysseus survives these obstacles and uses his smarts to escape near disaster. Often times he was the only one to survive these things and his crew often lost their lives due to their own stupidity. “‘We left the island and resumed our journey in a state of gloom; and the heart was taken out of my men by the wearisome rowing. But was our own stupidity that had deprived us of the wind.’”(P127 L75-79) Odysseus shows how he is an extraordinary man by being much smarter than his crew and the men that follow him. As a part of this stripping of Odysseus, Homer shows that Odysseus is a collective symbol of Everyman. On the one hand Odysseus is a great warrior, who is extremely intelligent, noble, and a great man. Although he has many god- like qualities he is still human. He shows that he is human and like every man, because of the fact that he still has major flaws. The