The Sea
Odysseus spends so much time sailing home that the sea really takes up a good chunk of his life. This is fitting, since the sea and its perils work much the same way the Odyssey argues that life does, it is full of suffering, but it can’t be avoided. The sea can send blessings like sea breezes to blow him home or obstacles like storms, Skylla and Charybdis, and treacherous islands. Because the sea is ruled by Poseidon, it is also a manifestation of the superiority of the gods and nature over man.
Laertes’s Shroud
The shroud is a symbol of female deception. Because she is a woman, Penelope doesn’t have much power to resist the suitors (as seen repeatedly by her son’s commands to go back upstairs to the bedroom, since everything else is a man’s affair). So, since she cannot fight them off or throw them out of her house, all she can do is delay the day she must pick a suitor. So she stretches that out as far as she can by prolonging the time it takes her to complete an honorable feminine task – weaving a death shroud for the despairing father of Odysseus. Though she spends all day weaving, she unravels her work each night. The fact that Penelope does not actually produce the shroud symbolizes her immobility and her helplessness to make any real progress against her enemy suitors.
Odysseus’s Bow
The bow is a symbol of kingship and strength. Whoever strings it is worthy of King Odysseus and can rightfully take the throne. Physical strength was an important quality to the ancient Greeks, not only in warfare, but because psychologically it was tied to political strength and the iron will needed to govern a people who were given to argument and debate.
Not surprisingly, none of the suitors even comes close to succeeding, s...
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...’ pillaging of Odysseus’s provisions. This shows that the supposedly "noble" men do not have the human qualities of restraint and propriety, they are therefore somewhat less than human and worthy of death (or so the Odyssey argues). On the other hand, Nestor, Menelaos, and the Phaiakians serve proper banquets – full of good food, wine, and singing. They are considered not only good hosts, but great human beings.
Odysseus and Penelope’s Bed
It turns out that Odysseus carved his bed from the roots of a live olive tree. As such, the bed is unmovable. It’s also growing, but evidently that’s not a problem for anyone. The point is that the bed can’t be moved, altered, or shaken – it’s steadfast and constant, much like the love between this royal couple. Odysseus's sleeping around seems not to count, but Penelope’s continuous loyalty is represented by the unmovable bed.
Athena disguises him as an old beggar and he meets up with his son, Telemachus. They form a plan to beat the suitors and then Odysseus goes to meet them. Finally, it is decided that whoever can use Odysseus’s bow to shoot an arrow through twelve axes. Odysseus, unsurprisingly, wins and starts fighting the suitors. He kills them all and reveals himself to Penelope. To make sure it’s him, she asks him to move their bed. Knowing it can’t be moved, he tells her that part of the headboard is a tree. Penelope and Odysseus are reunited and they live the rest of their lives together.
Penelope tests Odysseus to make sure that he is really her husband. Penelope asks Odysseus to tell one secret of their marriage. Odysseus is outraged that she doesn’t believe him, but he tells her that their bedroom was made out of part of a tree. Penelope felt the need to test Odysseus because she was not sure it was him. She show this when she says, “Think what difficulty the gods gave: they denied us life
The Odyssey, an epic poem written by Homer and translated by Robert Fitzgerald, is about the war hero Odysseus' ten year adventure to return home after the Trojan War. At one point in the epic poem, Odysseus is retelling his adventure at the land of the Kyklopês, in which he and his crew go to an island filled with these creatures. Through Odysseus, Homer uses contrasting connotation when speaking of the crew and the Kyklopês to convey that mankind is better than the Kyklopês using two different domains domains of society.
The Odyssey is about Odysseus’ journey home after defeating the Trojans in the Trojan War. His voyage home is extended to ten years due to his insolence against the gods. His wife, Penelope, is waiting for his arrival back on Ithaca. If Odysseus does not return, she is to marry when Telemachus becomes a man. She is the definition of a faithful wife for she avoids making a decision to remarry. Her delaying tactics make her sly and artful for she devises creative ways to avoid marriage. One of such is to “weave” her husband’s burial shroud, “Then in the daytime would she weave at the great web, but in the night unravel, after her torch was set. Thus for three years she hid her craft and cheated the Achaeans,” (Homer 14).
Now comes the part where he puts Penelope to the test. By sharing this information with her about her husband he comes to understand her feelings for him. Penelope has not only been loyal to Odysseus as her husband, but also as the authority figure. She has demonstrated her loyalty by being true to him for twenty years in his absence and has not remarried.
Firstly, Penelope who plays Odysseus’s wife is alone tending to her city Ithica until her husband returns. Meanwhile Odysseus is out fighting in the Trojan War and against many of the Greek God’s who are trying to make his trip back home as eventful and hard as possible; “…work out his journey home so Odysseus can return” (Homer 276). While King Odysseus is away Penelope is to deal with a bunch of suitors who are eating and trashing out Ithica, “…if those suitors have truly paid in blood for all their reckless outrage” (559). In order for Penelope to keep peace until Odysseus returns she has to come up with a clever plan to keep the suitors from completely taking over. For almost 2 years Penelope was able to keep the suitors from getting out of hand by saying she will find someone to marry and replace Odysseus after she is d...
...imes, the gods provide necessary tools. And most importantly, the Gods support Odysseus by helping him when he is stuck in a difficult situation.
Throughout the Odyssey there are many themes that Homer uses to portray different people and events. To name a few, there are the themes of Betrayal and Revenge,Greed and Glutony, Hospitality, Role of the Gods and Wealth (the amount of money one had determined the status he held in the greek society, and this explains Odysseus's love for plunder).
In Homer’s Odyssey Odysseus shows his yearning for adventure and that challenging himself brings him happiness through his actions not his thoughts. Even in the clutches of a raging cyclopes Odysseus’ accepts the challenge at hand and persevere through the loss of some of his men. “My name is Nohbdy,” he tells Polyphemus who is drunk from the liquor Odysseus had given him before. The giant “reeled and tumbled backward,”. He son fell asleep and the next stages of his plan fell into place. When the sharpened log was hot enough for his liking he and a few other men “bored that great eye socket,”(380). Instead of letting his men die while he cracked under the pressure Odysseus remained calm and allowed himself to think. Having achieved his goal of defeating the mighty cyclopes he rejoiced in his valiancy. Odysseus exuded happiness when most of his men got out alive. Odysseus’ habits of getting his men into seemingly inescapable predicaments continues on the island of Cersei. At the gate of the witch’s island his need for adventure takes the best of his judgement. Against the advice of Eurylochus Odysseus “rushes to save his men from the enchantress,” (387). Odysseus’ need for thrill and excitement draws him onto the island. He knows that he will suffer the same fate but makes a decision in the heat of the moment that could've made him unable to return home, but he wasn’t thinking of home, he purely wanted to get his men back. Throughout his journey Odysseus perfectly represents the bond between a man’s adventures and the challenges they bring to
The Odyssey is a tale that has changed literature and storytelling. In this tale Odysseus is a Soldier from the battle of Troy trying to get home to his island of Ithaca, where he is king. His wife and son must wait ten years while he is trying to make his way home. In Odysseus’s absence wooer’s, or better known as suitors, learn of his absence and travel to Ithaca to win his wife’s hand in marriage. These men come every day feasting on Odysseus’s food and wine, and give his servant’s orders. His son Telemachus, does his best to keep the suitors from ruining his fathers house but he is only a boy, and doesn’t receive the respect of an adult. Telemachus then has a visit from the god Athena, whom Odysseus is friends with, who advises him to travel to find out about his father. In his travels he hears that Odysseus may still be alive. Meanwhile Odysseus goes through a series of adventures and hardships that prove his wisdom. It is interesting in contrast of the Iliad, even though Achilles was much stronger and a better warrior, Odysseus was portrayed as a greater hero due to his wisdom. He uses this wisdom to escape from the Cyclops.
One of the main ideas running throughout the Odyssey is the importance of water. It has the power of giving life and quick, safe travel, but it also has the potential to drown you. Water can be considered a paradox in and of itself. While it is good and usually life giving, it also demonstrates how too much of a good thing can bring harm. It brings much harm to Odysseus as he is traveling to Phaeacia, "At Zeus' command the whole sky is heavy with clouds, the sea is seething, squalls from every corner hurtle together. There is nothing now for me but certain death." Everything needs water to live, however Odysseus speaks of water as an agent of death. Water that brings death by excess represents Odysseus, for he is the one that has to suffer all these years, and he is the one that nearly drowns. Odysseus also learns how too much of a good thing, such as wealth or gold, can seriously harm a man. He especially experiences this when he sacks Troy, and gets carried away, angering the gods. Henceforth, it is fitting that the excessive side of water represent Odysseus. Life that is brought by water, the water that satisfies souls is the type that represents Telemachus. He is not excessive, and has been in fact humbled by the suitors in their years there. Further, Telemachus has never seen any trouble with the water or the sea, "...sent a following wind through the clear sky to speed them from astern, so that their ship might most speedily complete their journey across the salt sea." The water never hurts Telemachus and always helps him. Telemachus does not get the chance, as his father did, to Perish from his own excesses. Telemachus also has a pure mind and body which is what water embodies.
Atwood is playing with two levels of myth here: the Homeric myth of ‘faithful Penelope’ and cultural myths about women as either submissive or domestic (Howell 9). After marriage Penelope spends most of her time alone in boredom and Eurycelia, former nurse of Odysseus, often reminds her duties as wife by saying, “So you can have a nice big son for Odysseus. That’s your job” (63). Furthermore, Atwood recounts the vulnerability of alone woman in the male dominated world. To grab opportunity of being king, a number of suitors assemble at Ithaca, to marry Penelope, and she thinks, “They all were vultures when they spot the dead cow: one drops, then another, until finally every vulture for miles around is tearing up the carcass” (103). Moreover, Atwood argues about the partiality of sexual of freedom along with the vexed relationship between man and woman, as the former can do sex with any other woman such as Odysseus’s affairs with the goddess and whores, but the woman is restricted to marriage like Penelope. The foremost fatuous allegation makes on Penelope is about her faithfulness and loyalty for her husband Odysseus, and she defends herself from any sexual conduct in the chapter, “slanderous gossip”. The death of Amphinomus, the politest suitor among all, leaves the question of marital infidelity among the genders.
Returning to the quotation “… the great leveler, Death: not even the gods/ can defend a man, not even one they love, that day/ when fate takes hold and lays him out at last’” (Homer 3.269-271). Death is a power that surpasses the gods. In The Odyssey we are introduced to gods who control the water, the wind, and the decisions of men. They can bring peace and war, but the one thing they cannot do is prevent a mortal’s fated death. This alone shows how central death is to The Odyssey. The power that death holds rivals no others in this story, there is “… no escape from death” (Homer 12.483). Death is a constant threat for Odysseus throughout this story, and the future foretold for Odysseus by Tiresias is not one of his life being a good one but of “…your own death will steal upon you…/ a gentle, painless death, far from the sea it comes to take you down…” (Homer 11.153-154). His fortune ends not with his happy life, but with his eventual death. This scene is crucial because it draws the reader back not to the life that Odysseus will have once he has successfully returned home and killed the suitors but the death that he will experience. It draws it back to when and where Odysseus will die and take his place among the
While the relationship between Odysseus and Telemakhos is a blind love, the relationship between Odysseus and Penelope is a love between two people who just want to be together. Odysseus shows his love towards Penelope throughout the Odyssey. In spite of the fact that Odysseus has been gone for twenty years, he never forgets his wife back in Ithaca. One example of how much he wanted to go home was when he went to the island of the Lotus-Eaters. He could have stayed on the island of the Lotus-Eaters where everything he ever wanted was there, but the thing he wanted the most was to be with his wife. Penelope likewise displays this kind of love towards Odysseus.
The major symbol in book 23 is the wedding bed of Odysseus and Penelope. The bed itself represents the foundation of their love. The symbolism is heightened when Penelope suggests moving it elsewhere as a sort of test. These words hurt and shock Odysseus. He immediately replies by saying how the bed was built from a trunk of an olive tree and that it cannot be moved. This representing that their love is everlasting and cannot be changed no matter what.