Free Essays on Homer's Odyssey: Odysseus and Medea "Let me hear no smooth talk of death from you, Odysseus, light of councils. Better, I say, to break sod as a farm hand for some poor country man, on iron rations, than lord it over all the exhausted dead." Right before restless Odysseus leaves Circe, she tells him that he must go down into Hades to visit the shade of Teiresias, the blind prophet who advises Odysseus of his homecoming (the Wanderings). He then goes on to meet the shades of the queens and lovers of dead heroes and finally the heroes themselves. In the quotation cited, Odysseus is talking with Achilles, the greatest hero of the Trojan War. Achilles, while alive, was fully cognizant of his choice between a long life spent in obscurity or a short life, filled with glory. He chose the latter. I suppose Achilles quickly realized after he died that fame has no meaning for you after you're dead. In retrospect, he understood that death gives meaning, and fills one up with the passion for life. Every action, however mundane, is filled with the miracle of life and completes itself when one interacts with others. This is what Achilles meant when he asks Odysseus about his son and his former kingdom--never mind the dead, what are the living doing? Achilles yearns to be back among the living. This theme of death giving meaning to life is prevalent throughout the Odyssey. Hell is death, heaven is now, in life, in the field of time and action. Odysseus nearly died of homesickness (or boredom) when Kalypso detained him on her island, hoping to make him her immortal husband. Odysseus knew if he drank that ambrosia, life would be eternal, you'd have a beautiful house and a babe for a wife, but things would get terribly vapid after a certain point. Immortality is death, in this sense. Finally, it is Athena (thought, action) who convinces the gods (who are, I think, jealous of us mortals) to let Odysseus off the island and back into his life. It is interesting to note that even Hermes couldn't wait to get off Kalypso's island--"who would willingly come here? There is no city of men nearby. . . . . Ultimately, Odysseus' journey to Ithaka is about embracing one's life, accepting the challenges, the dangers, pitfalls, and joys, with courage, tenacity and a keen sense of what it takes to maintain balance in one's life.
The myths of David and Goliath and Odysseus and Polyphemos from the Hebrew bible and the Odyssey, respectively, are examples of the classic little hero versus large enemy story. From both the Hebrews and the Greeks we receive iterations of the same myth of how the gigantic antagonist belittles the seemingly frail young man simply because of his short stature compared to that of the antagonist’s, but in the end he is subdued by the young man with an uncommon method. Warrior Odysseus and shepherd boy David both encounter their own menacing giant, a Cyclops and the champion of Gath, who they bravely defeat which results in the increase of morale
The Odyssey, written by Homer, is an epic of the great adventures of Odysseus. It tells of the challenging travels form leaving his home to serve in the Trojan War, to his well-deserved return to Ithaca. Odysseus known as “the man of many wiles” endured many challenging tasks as he traveled in search of his once home. Leaving behind his wife Penelope and son Telemachus, he was forced to leave. Around the sixteenth year Odysseus was gone, many believed that their once great leader was left for dead on an unknown country or was never to return to the land of Ithaca once again. Soon the suitors of over a hundred filled the halls of Odysseus’s palace, trying to marry his beautiful wife Penelope. When the suitors arrived in Odysseus’s home, hectic times became twice or even triple times worse. The suitors walked over everyone as if they had now ruled the town of Ithaca. They did not care who they hurt, as long as they got what they wanted when they wanted it. They broke almost every law of the gods; soon they realized they would have to may for dearly. As Odysseus desperately tried to fight his way back to his homeland. However, every time he got close it seems that the power of the gods was holding him back. The gods affected almost every aspect of Odysseus return and travels. They pushed him away, gave him heartache, destroyed his crew, and demolished his ship, they almost got him killed on several occasions and saved him from death. The actions that Odysseus once faced shaped his return home, because of his own choices he was able to return home but it is also what caused him to remain lost for ten years.
Going to his journey home, he no longer needed to reach the olive fields with stones that warm in the sun as his child plays, and his wife helps with the harvest. His journey has changed to get his vengeance and in the end die so he can reunite with his family. I bring this up because dieing is a change as is the change Odysseus goes through by essentially becoming no one, a regular Joe so to say. This is what I believe...
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
Analyze all parts of the situation to figure out what is stopping a team member(s) from getting what the team need to solve the problem.
Odysseus alters the way one can embody the warrior ethic by fighting a metaphorical battle opposed to a literal battle. Unlike Gilgamesh, who fought only to create a legacy for himself, or Achilles who was motivated solely by rage, Odysseus is fighting for a notion of home and is motivated by his need to return to his family. His devotion to returning his homeland and his family adds a new level of intimacy to the values of kingship, and displays the importance of kingship to those who are ruled over.
Whipple, William L. “TCP/IP For Internet Administrators.” A Searchable Technical Reference Document. Western Logic Works: 1997 (http://www.pku.edu.cn/academic/research/computer-center/tc/html/TC0310.html)
Effective decision-making. Effectiveness can be linked to planning ahead, to tying decisions to business objectives, and to providing authoritative control (Barnard, 1938; Bennis & Goldsmith, 1997). Bennis and Goldsmith (1997) expanded upon Barnard’s research stating that not only is decision-making an essential function for executives when managing a business, but that leaders use their experiences to make effective decisions. The executive leader’s role in the organization has the highest impact on organizational performance. The business environment is in a constant state of change and is ever evolving (O’Keefe & Wright, 2010). Today, leaders are required to make business decisions under difficult conditions, such as limited time, uncertainty, high stakes, vague goals, and unstable conditions
The process of making a decision for many is a disconcerting responsibility. While for others, making a decision is second nature. According to Browne et al., "Decisions are streams of choices. These streams contain bits of information, events, and choices (1998, p. 50)." The authors go on to state:
Plotinus challenges Plato 's theory that art imitates nature and the world of appearances and is therefore twice removed from reality. He gives art a higher position and develops the Platonic distinction between the world of appearance and true reality and takes art as an emanation from the ultimately unknowable "One". Throughout history, writers and philosophers have expressed their views about how the life of man is ultimately defined in their works. The Greeks have played their part in this quest as well. One of the great plays of the ancient Greek world that paved the way for others was Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex”. In this play, Sophocles shows us a chapter from the life of man. Throughout the book, he hints at the idea that life poses a riddle for man to solve thus being a
Life is full of decisions. Some decisions are trivial. Should I choose paper or plastic at the grocery store? Which of the 31 flavors of ice cream should I pick? Other decisions are vital. Should I get married to her or should I take this new job? Your decisions may affect many people or only yourself. In this paper I will present a decision-making model. I will describe a decision that I made at work using this model and how critical thinking impacted that decision.
People are put in situations everyday where they are required to make a decision whether they are aware of it or not; it is understandable how one can make a decision and not even think twice about it seeing how most decisions made almost seem like second nature such as eating or going to sleep. Depending on how complex the decision being made it dictates the length of the decision making process. Some of the more complex choices people are faced with may require more thought than others, and depending on the severity of it the decision made can have long lasting effects whether it be positive or negative. Those requiring little thought do not have as much importance as far as the final outcome goes. There are more factors that are a part of
Decision-making is regarded as the cognitive process resulting in the selection of a course of action or a belief among several alternative possibilities. Every decision-making process produces a final choice that may or may not lead to action. When communication is systematic and accurate, decisions tend to be more effective and conversant. The more we are confident in our communication the better we can take decisions.
Effective decision making involves the ability to identify consistently and select the best choice among multiple options. This is true both personally and professionally. For the decision making process one may use a decision making model. A decision making mo...
Tubbs, S.L. (2004) A Systems Approach to Small Group Interaction. New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing Corporation.