Comparing the Odyssey and Medea

While home is usually represented by a physical shelter such as a house, Homer and Euripides in their respective novels The Odyssey and Medea show that home has much more significance as a state where one can comfortably express the values and beliefs that define one’s identity. Both authors use protagonists who are far away from home. These characters often associate with and depend upon other characters they meet. Since they live under the influence of others, it is not surprising then to find that the two protagonists lose their individual identities. Moreover, both protagonists will also purposefully develop a second identity that is designed to conform to the society in which they inhabit. Since both protagonists are away from home for the majority of both works, it would be appropriate to examine, through specific instances, how both authors connect a lack of home with an absence of individual identity.

Both authors show, in instances, the two protagonists of each story dependent upon and governed by others who they encounter. This creates an inadvertent or unwanted loss of identity due to the absence of home. Odysseus finds himself lost at sea while he tries to return to Ithaca. Even as he tries to return to civilian life, he is still influenced by his experiences as a soldier in the Trojan War. In this state, he causes undue harm to others he encounters through unnecessary violence that further deters him from making his homecoming.

From Ilion the wind took me [to]

the Kikonians. I sacked their city and killed their people…

…the luck that came our way from Zeus was evil

The sacking of the Kikonians reveals that Odysseus is still very much immersed within the mentality of war. Before being introduce...

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...oss, but specifically in cases where the protagonists are unaware or do not desire loss of individual identity and cases where the protagonists purposefully choose to conceal individual identity by using disguises. In the progression of both stories, the former is seen less often while the latter becomes more common as both characters gradually become more aware of the differences between their individual identities and the collective identities of their surroundings along with greater authorial portrayal of the rigidity of society through necessary conformation to one collective identity. Throughout the two works, the two authors extend the concept of home beyond the conventional portrayal as merely a physical structure by giving it significance as a state where the uniqueness of individual identity can be freely expressed.

Works Cited

The Odyssey

Medea