Odysseus In Homer's The Land Of The Dead

Odysseus travels to the Land of the Cimmerians and later to the Land of the Dead. He performs tasks that Circe asks of him to summon the dead. Homer does not state the reasons that Odysseus has to travel to different lands, but he does say that Odysseus is to meet with people in Book 11 that are vital to him. We are introduced to many characters, some of whom we are already familiar with. Whether the reader is aware of who they are, we form a connection in the insight we’re given. Homer broadens the scope of Odysseus ties to other mythological characters. The most important lesson we learn from reading The Land of the Dead is this idea of kleos, what it entails, and the ramifications of achieving such thing.

In this book, there are many settings. Different things

Odysseus travels greatly leaving behind people that love him. He is trying to speak with Tiresias, the prophet that inhabits the underworld. He is told that Tiresias can instruct him on how to get back to Ithaca and that he could speak to other souls in the underworld. As he is waiting for the prophet, the spirit of his mother Anticlea arrives. She asks him why he is in the underworld alive. He tells her of his obstacle that he faces in “Never yet have I neared Achaea, never once set foot on native ground, always wandering – endless hardship from that day I first set sail with King Agamemnon bound for Troy” and his attempts to get home being futile (The Odyssey 11.188-191). Anticlea tells him that as she was longing for him for so long that death overtook her. Odysseus then shows another obstacle in “and I, my mind in turmoil, how I longed to embrace my mother’s spirit, dead as she was” (11.233-234). Odysseus father, Laertes, also continuously longs for him in poverty. She tells him how sad Penelope is that he is lost. Odysseus