Christian tradition states that there are seven cardinal sins that are present in everyone to some degree. These seven vices include greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, sloth, and pride. Human weakness is the innate nature of humanity that causes one to fall into the temptation of these immoralities. In The Odyssey, the characters of the poem are not exempt from the temptations of human weakness. The great hero Odysseus is even subject to these vices, his main flaw being pride. Homer makes a point of portraying Odysseus’ pride throughout the story, and how pride brings mortal men to ruin. After Odysseus and his men escape from the cave of Polyphemos, Odysseus yells, “Cyclops, if any other mortal man asks about the disgraceful blinding of your eye, you can say that Odysseus, sacker of cities, did it, son of Laertes, whose home is in Ithaca.” (Book 9 Lines 484-488). Poseidon is made …show more content…
Before leaving the island of Ithaca, Odysseus is the overly self confident king of his homeland. As he goes on his journey, Odysseus changes throughout the whole process, however his most prominent transformation occurs when during his homecoming disguised as an old beggar. While Odysseus is present at the suitor’s feast, Antinoos, “spoke, and picking up the footstool he threw it hitting Odysseus at the base of his right shoulder, where it joins the back. But Odysseus stood firm like a rock, Antinoos’ cowardly blow did not stagger him. Odysseus shook his head in silence, pondering evil deep in his heart.” (Book 17 Lines 424-428). The cruelty of the Antinoos causes Odysseus to learn humility and restraint. Odysseus has truly changed. Before his journey he would have fought back both physically and verbally, but now he says and does nothing when he is insulted and abused in his own home. This transformation and overcoming of Odysseus’ pride would not have been possible without the
In his part of the story Odysseus is trying to get him and his men free of the cyclops so they can go home. The cyclops is Poseidon's son and Odysseus offended Poseidon when he harms the cyclops, which is very disrespectful. These are two huge examples that show why Odysseus is a bad
Homer uses literary elements to develop Odysseus’ character throughout the Odyssey through the use. In Sailing from Troy, due to the Greek rule of hospitality, King Alcinous welcomes Odysseus into his kingdom asking him to recount his adventures. Odysseus introduces himself saying, “ ‘..this fame has gone abroad to the sky’s rim…’ ( Stanza 1, Lines 18-20)”. Through Homer’s use of hyperbole, Odysseus sets an atmosphere around himself of boastfulness and pride when he says that his fame is renowned even to the gods in the heavens. In the same story, Odysseus describes his kingdom and home, Ithaca saying,” ...I shall not see on Earth a place more dear...” Again through the use of hyperbole , Homer shatters the image portrayed of Odysseus as a master of the land and seas, and more of a man who deeply loves his home and family.
Odysseus’ character is challenged in many ways throughout books 5 through 12. In some instances he holds strong, and in others he fails. His sense of adventure sometimes overwhelms him. The length of time Odysseus spends away from Ithaka also dilutes his desire to return, and possibly dilutes his desire to live. Under certain circumstances, any man can succumb to the evils to which he despises. A perfect example is Akhilleus in the Iliad. He started out an honorable man. With the death of his friend, he turns into a maniac who wants nothing but death for the enemy. Odysseus starts out wanting nothing but to return to his family and his homeland. Over the course of the many years away, this feeling dwindles and he is left with nothing but adventure to prolong his reason for living.
For example, Odysseus has to leave the beautiful nymph Calypso and return home in order to re-establish his identity as king, father, son, and husband. Odysseus’ journey from the island is one of the many steps Odysseus has to take in order to maintain his identity. According to the scholar Thomas Schmidt, “The identity of the Homeric hero is agonistic-that is, based on competition. In the motionless torpor of a life on Ogygia, where he cannot strive to be best, the hero is not alive.” In addition, Odysseus can face the potential of losing the memory of his origin and identity. Furthermore, Schmidt describes how the act of Odysseus leaving the island frees him from existing without identity (41-42). The last step of Odysseus’ journey is for Odysseus to re-establish his identity. After returning home to Ithaca after twenty years, Odysseus has the goal of reclaiming the identity he has tried so hard to maintain. Odysseus constantly has to prove himself to his family members in order for them to believe he is truly Odysseus. He does this by revealing his scar, stringing and shooting his bow, and expressing his knowledge of the marriage
With the Odyssey, Odysseus learned a big lesson in humility. The greatest example of this is in the last five books or so within the story. He has to dress, act, and live like a beggar in order to regain everything he had lost. While he was a beggar, the suitors treated him horribly. Antinous, leader of the suitors, was the worst of them all. He was the first to mistreat Odysseus and planned to kill Telemachus. He was also the one that would abuse him physically and verbally for some time to come. Also, if that weren’t enough, he planned a boxing match for Odysseus to be in to watch him get beat up. All this was happening and the other suitors were most likely following their leader in whatever he was doing. Odysseus had to control himself the whole time this was happening. If he had lost his temper, the suitors would have killed him, his son, and most likely taken over the kingdom. That didn’t happen though. Odysseus learned self-control and humility. He may not be perfect at it, but going through all the humility made him a better man. Along the same topic, he was a king going through this humility. It would be one thing for a peasant to go through it, but a king? This made it even harder for Odysseus. He had rank above all the suitors and could rightly kick them out of his kingdom. Instead he waits for the right time and kills them all. The “pre-journey” Odysseus would of thought of himself invincible and probably would have died trying to get his kingdom back.
Hubris is defined as excessive, personal pride. As Oedipus is about to learn the devastating truth of his origin and destiny, the chorus observes “Audacity sires the tyrant…” Creon accuses Oedipus of being irrational, and for allowing his pride to lead him into a journey that will affect his life forever. The greeks held reason to be the greatest gift of man, therefore a tyrant’s actions should be governed by reason. Hubris was not the essential cause of Oedipus downfall because of Oedipus’ prophecy, and Religious Incest. Hubris was not the essential cause of Oedipus downfall because of Oedipus’ prophecy.
In Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, Odysseus fails as a leader by prioritizing his reputation over his crew’s safety after defeating the cyclops Polyphemus. In the story, Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, travels to Troy to fight against the Trojans. On his journey back to Ithaca, a string of damaging incidents lead him to a mysterious island, which he later discovers is inhabited by the murderous cyclops Polyphemus. His crew manages to escape the cyclops, but not before Polyphemus kills several of Odysseus’s crew. Odysseus escapes and could have sailed away peacefully, but he calls out to Polyphemus to suggest that “if anyone, any mortal man, asks you how you got your eye put out, tell him that Odysseus the marauder did it,” (IX, 500-502). This prompts Polyphemus to lob a rock, nearly destroying Odysseus's ship. It is odd that this was
In The Odyssey, Homer, or more so, the characters, often referred to Odysseus as the ‘Great Odysseus’. In the text, it is obvious to see that Odysseus demonstrates arrogance, charisma, over-confidence, and pride. Odysseus and his m...
...let his pride consume him and would have went on a raging rampage. Contradictingly, the growed Odysseus knew how to temper his pride with patience. Instead of Odysseus pleading guilty to Antinous murder for striking him with the chair, Odysseus kept it "silent". So he wouldn't blow his cover and could succeed in killing the suitors once and for all. Now since Odysseus knew how to temper his pride with patience, he was able to successfully murder all the suitors. All in all, Odysseus used the mistakes he made on his journey to his advantage and evolved into a better, wiser man.
Odysseus’ has hubris and excessive pride in himself, the gods he believes in, and his accomplishments, which hold him back and do not allow him to reach hero potential. The pride that Odysseus has in his name is visible throughout his entire tale he is telling to the Phaiakians and King Alkinoos. Starting the story of his journey, Odysseus already begins to display his hubris when he explains to his hosts who he is and where he hails from. After stating that he is the son of King Laertes of Ithaka, Odysseus shares that, “Men hold me formidable for guile in peace and war: this fame has gone abroad to the sky’s rim” (IX, 21-23). He believes that he is so well known that the Phaiakians should know him from t...
What causes Odysseus’ men to open the bag of winds Aeolus has given Odysseus, and what is the consequence?
The epic poem The Odyssey, written by Homer, centers around the main protagonist Odysseus and his long journey back home. Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, returns home after defeating the Trojans in a ten year war. On his way back, he angers Poseidon, god of the sea, by blinding his son, Polyphemus the Cyclops. Due to Odysseus’ actions, Poseidon refuses to let Odysseus reach home, and Odysseus and his crew are forced to go through a series of obstacles throughout the epic. Through this adversity, Odysseus must show his heroic attributions in order to survive. Homer portrays Odysseus as a hero by giving him characteristics such as: craftiness, loyalty, and bravery.
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
Odysseus angered Poseidon. He angered him when Odysseus blinded Poseidon’s son Polyphemus, the Cyclops. Then the Cyclops prays to Poseidon and asks him to destroy Odysseus’s ship. He also said that if Poseidon cannot do that, make sure Odysseus returns home late, but returns a broken man. Therefore, Poseidon then slows down Odysseus’s journey making him go through many obstacles, torments him, and does not allow him to go home. (Dorthonion, No date)
Would you feast on my companions? Puny, am I, in a Caveman’s hands? How do you like the beating that we gave you, you damned cannibal? Eater of guests under your roof! Zeus and the gods have paid you!” (The Odyssey) The Odyssey is an epic poem. Throughout the book, Homer uses epic simile to continue the story. “Then he dismembered them and made his meal, / gaping and crunching like a mountain lion- / everything; innards, flesh, and marrow bones. (The Odyssey) Odysseus fought in the Trojan War and it had took him 10 years to get back to Ithaca. He has fought Cyclopes, listen to the Sirens, and have encounter nymphs. Odysseus seems like the least qualified person to be similar to a person in real life with his unnatural qualities. Believe it or not, Odysseus couldn’t be more similar to us. Odysseus has strong pride with what he does. “You are free to make any decision you wish. But you are not free from the consequences of that decision.” Odysseus was trapped inside of Polyphemus’ cave and needed a way to escape. While staying there for a few days, him and his men had decided to hit the cyclop in the eye with a spike and clinging to the belly of a ram. Successful as this was, Odysseus took much pride in what he did and had to pay the price. Poseidon, Polyphemus’ father, roared the seas and it crashed onto Odysseus’ ships. This is related to real life because pridefulness is a trait that many can have. Karma pays the price to those who cannot control