The Men of The Odyssey: Heroic or Disloyal?
In Homer’s The Iliad, Achilles’ shield is described in great depth. On one portion of the shield, there is fashioned a scene with a golden herd of straight-horn cattle. They are being led along a fruitful riverside by a group of four golden shepherds and nine hounds. Two lions approach the herd, and mutilate a mighty bull. The shepherds can do nothing but watch, as they dare not approach the predators. This scene is crucial in understanding the behavior of Odysseus’ men in the sequel to this epic, (The Iliad, p. 227).
In Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus narrates a portion of the epic concerning his journeys and trials during his long quest home for Ithaca. Throughout these adventures, his men play an important role in determining the fate of the entire crew of his ship. At some points, he portrays them as being heroic, while at others, they seem barbaric in nature and disloyal to their captain.
These qualities of his men, and certainly others, are best exemplified through the episodes involving the Cyclopes and the Cattle of the Sun God.
Before comparing and contrasting the actions of the men during these two mini-stories, a good understanding of the inhabitants of the two lands is necessary. The Island of the Sun God, Helios, is referred to as "the world’s delight," as it provides habitation for this god’s limitless flocks of cattle. Conversely, the Island of the Cyclopes inhabits primitive one-eyed, half-man, and half-bestial beings, (p. 218). While Helios’ island is described as "noble," almost as golden as the sun itself, the land of the Cyclopes is illustrated as a land filled with wild vegetation, and neglected by its undemocratic and uncivilized people. This depiction of these people being poor gardeners coincides with previous evidence from this epic, and others, that this type of lifestyle being lived by the Cyclopes was looked down upon by the author, and by the gods, in particularly. The other land, therefore, is obviously blessed and considered to be holy to the gods.
Soon after landing on the Cyclopes’ Island, Odysseus takes a team of his best men with him to explore the new wilderness. They then discover the cave of Polyphemos, your everyday, average, sheep-herding Cyclopes. Odysseus’ men suggest taking the vision-impaired beast’s cheese and flocks and making a run for it, but the "raider of cities" insists on awaiting his homecoming in an attempt to see the caveman and what he has to offer.
Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez was a bishop from the Catholic Church in the Salvador. He turned out to be the fourth Archbishop of San Salvador after Luis Chavez in February of 1977. Bishop Romero was born in August 15 of 1917 and dies March 24 of 1980 in the Salvador. During his youth, he got accepted into a minor seminary in San Miguel when he was thirteen, then he was also got accepted to the national seminary in San Salvador but he got the opportunity to finish his studies at the Gregorian University in Rome where he became a Licentiate in Theology. Then Romero, stay over in Italy to finish his doctoral degree in Theology. Romero went back to El Salvador and saw the economic and social situation that the Salvadorians were going through. The government during this time was very cruel with the Salvadorians and was Marxism’s government. On his visit to Europe Romero receive an honorary doctorate, he met Pope John Paul II and expressed his feelings of what was happening in his country. Romero argued that it was very problematic to be in favor of the Salvadoran government because there is a lot of terror and assassinations. Romero was a big defendant for the right of the Salvadorans; Romero for the poor people was their voice in which he speaks for them.
Home was a prevalent concept in Ancient Greece. Not only was there a goddess of the hearth and home, Hestia, but hospitality towards others was highly stressed. Home was regarded as a place to escape from chaos in the outside world. Homer and Euripides in The Odyssey and Medea, respectively, use the motif of home to show the difference in an individual’s public manner versus their personal, more natural manner. This difference is caused by the different levels of comfort individuals have in different settings. Specifically, the two works portray the difference through experience of the characters, mistrust developed towards others, and the maintenance of dual identities.
Like Jacob, Odysseus connived, manipulated, and deceived. On his journey home from the Trojan War, Odysseus uses his trickster ways to get himself out of trouble. One famous tail was his encounter with the one-eyed Cyclopes Polyphemous. Odysseus and his crew landed on the land of they Cyclopes. They made themselves at home, eating the cheese and goats of the Cyclopes, fully expecting him to be hospitable. Instead, Cyclops began eating then men as though they were animals themselves. Odysseus and his men were trapped in the cave and Polyphemous rolled a stone over the entrance so no one could exit. Odysseus connived a plan and gave the Cyclopes some wine. When he got drunk and passed out, Odysseus poked out the eye of Polyphemous and completely blinds him. Odysseus and his men escape the cave by clinging to the bellies of sheep (Odyssey, Ch. 9). He also disguised himself as a veteran of a Trojan war to Eumaios, a loyal servant, and as a beggar to his wife and son.
3. Arno, The. "Oscar Wilde - Biography and Works. Search Texts, Read Online. Discuss.." The Literature Network: Online classic literature, poems, and quotes. Essays & Summaries. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2012. .
Oscar (Fingal O'Flahertie Wills) Wilde was a witty, eccentric, and “dandy” man who was born in Dublin on October 16, 1954. The names Oscar and Fingal originate from Irish folklore. His main calling in life was to diverge from the strict Victorian tradition and society. Wilde was raised in a busy upper class Victorian household where artists, writers, and professionals often visited. His father, Sir William Wilde, was a distinguished surgeon who was Queen Victoria’s oculist and was later knighted for founding a hospital. Wilde’s mother, Jane Francesca Elgee, was a famous a writer and novelist advocating Irish independence.
Although some could possibly call Odysseus, the protagonist of Homer’s The Odyssey, a great leader, the fact that he fails to earn his men’s respect, endangers his men’s lives repeatedly and allows them to die due to his own selfishness states otherwise.
In the movie Romero, Archbishop Romero changes very much in his understanding of love and in his understanding of true conscience. At first Romero is just a priest who isn’t really concerned about the poor and how they are being oppressed, but when Romero is chosen to be the new Archbishop his friend, who is assassinated, I think has a slight impact on him. But I think when his friend is assassinated is when he really starts to realize what is happening to the country of El Salvador and how the government doesn’t want anyone to speak out about this. So, now Romero is starting to action against the government and tries to speak out against them. Here we see Archbishop Romero’s true conscience and love grow for the people around him because we see him taking more action against the government. I think that Archbishop Romero defines love as helping others who are in need and others who need his help whatever it may be. We see Romero do this when he starts to lead the revolt in trying to tell the El Salvadoran Government to stop oppressing the poor and treat everyone as human beings. I think Romero has to make a very big decision considering, the gorillas were sending out flyers that said “Be a Patriot, Kill a Priest”. The decision that Romero had to make was whether or not to help the poor or just be a puppet for the cardinals that selected him to be a puppet in the beginning. I think the thing that made Romero choose to help out the poor was the love he had for them. I also be...
experienced trouble as fighting unique creatures such as Polyphemus. When Odysseus and his sailors arrived in Cyclopes Land, they encountered Poseidon’s son. Within hours, the sailors and Odysseus caught themselves in a sticky situation as Polyphemus fooled them. With creativity and humor, Odysseus managed to get out of it and escaped as grabbed into sheep cloth. Sailors were deeply thankful for this and admired him as this considered to be one of the biggest achievements. It goes without saying that without his help, they would’ve been into Polyphemus’s
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray; For Love of the King. London: Routledge/Thoemmes Press, 1993.
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.
...journey is less cyclical than Achilles' but similarly ends with his regret for the ravages of war. Odysseus is a flawed character, much like man himself, and his actions can only be fully accounted for by attributing them to the gradual progression of his soul. He is gifted, yet possesses shortcomings; insightful, yet blind; driven, yet lost. Achilles is divine, yet mortal; rational, yet contradictory; kind, yet vicious. Still, together they represent the ideals of Greek mythology and the weaknesses of mankind. They are in control of their own actions, but subject to fate. Through both heroes, Homer manages to convey some of the most fundamental features of human existence.
Pearson, Hesketh. Oscar Wilde: His Life and Wit. 3rd ed. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1946.
Oscar Wilde was born in 1854 and led a normal childhood. After high school, Wilde attended Oxford College and received a B.A. in 1878. During this time, he wrote Vera and The Importance of Being Earnest. In addition, "for two years Wilde had dressed in outlandish outfits, courted famous people and built his public image" (Stayley 317). Doing so earned Wilde a job with Rich...
the Gods in the affairs of humanity is much greater in the Iliad then in the
Oscar Wilde was born in October 16, 1854, in the mid era of the Victorian period—which was when Queen Victoria ruled. Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901.While she ruined Britain, the nation rise than never before, and no one thought that she was capable of doing that. “The Victorian era was both good and bad due to the rise and fall of the empires and many pointless wars were fought. During that time, culture and technology improved greatly” (Anne Shepherd, “Overview of the Victorian Era”). During this time period of English, England was facing countless major changes, in the way people lived and thought during this era. Today, Victorian society is mostly known as practicing strict religious or moral behavior, authoritarian, preoccupied with the way they look and being respectable. They were extremely harsh in discipline and order at all times. Determination became a usual Victorian quality, and was part of Victorian lifestyle such as religion, literature and human behavior. However, Victorian has its perks, for example they were biased, contradictory, pretense, they cared a lot of about what economic or social rank a person is, and people were not allowed to express their sexuality. Oscar Wilde was seen as an icon of the Victorian age. In his plays and writings, he uses wit, intelligence and humor. Because of his sexuality he suffered substantially the humiliation and embarrassment of imprisonment. He was married and had an affair with a man, which back then was an act of vulgarity and grossness. But, that was not what Oscar Wilde was only known for; he is remembered for criticizing the social life of the Victorian era, his wit and his amazing skills of writing. Oscar Wilde poem “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” typifies the Vi...