Odyssey And Dante's Inferno Research Paper

The common thing seen in heroic cycle narratives since the dawn of the literary revolution is that a bar was set when they first emerged and everything after that followed the same path. They all begun with heroes or anti-heroes that were exposed to some life changing event that placed on a journey either literally or metaphorically to achieve one universal goal. The odyssey and Dante’s Inferno are not excluded. The odyssey was the original literary narrative that set the standard that later inspire all other writing that preceded it. But one thing the odyssey and Dante’s inferno share a similarity, their journey was the focus of the story. They each spoke of one protagonist on a spiritual and physical journey each bent on achieving a personal goal.
Both narratives begin with the protagonist being lost in

Odysseus in his great tour did not only use brute force to fight through his troubles but also managed to use his intellect and words to win his battles. Dante did not make any speeches during his journey through hell since his was an internal fight. Dante was constantly in a state of struggling to achieve equilibrium between what is good and what is evil within himself. One other difference between these two epic tales is the religious aspect presented in both stories. The heroes both share differing beliefs when it comes to religious views. During the period which Odysseus was written the world was majorly polytheistic and the worship of many Gods was encouraged. The differing gods in this time served different purposes and were worshipped by different people. The inferno on the other hand was written during the rise of the Christian age, the belief of a polytheistic system was regarded as sinful and was blatantly shown by having past figures such as Virgil and Odysseus in hell for their non-Christian