In The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Allen Mandelbaum, Homer retells the story of Odysseus’s expedition from Troy to his homeland, Ithaca. Along the way, Odysseus faces numerous challenges—from dealing with Poseidon’s wrath to getting trapped on Calypso’s island. With Athena’s guidance, he returns to Ithaca to reunite with his son, Telemachus, and loyal wife, Penelope. Throughout the book, hubris or excessive pride is in display especially with Odysseus and the suitors. Hubris causes the them to neglect the gods and create careless mistakes which backfire in the future. Their incapability to make good decisions is affected by their pride which blurs what is and is not a good idea. In addition, hubris is also a trait looked down on in Greek culture. Homer lets his audience understand how pride can be part of one’s success. However, hubris will not only cause his or her downfall but also of those around them.
Odysseus displays his desire for glory through his careless actions during his encounter with the Cyclops Polyphemus. The desire for glory Odysseus displays is shown through the words he speaks to Polyphemus. He is a clever character but makes rash decisions that affect the outcome of his original goals and intentions. While Odysseus is trapped inside of the cave of the Cyclops, he begins to taunt Polyphemus. “I called back to the Cyclops, stinging taunts: So, Cyclops, no weak coward it was whose crew you bent to devour three in your vaulted cave—with your brute voice! Filthy crimes came down on your own head, you shameless cannibal” (Fagles, 226). Odysseus was insulting the Cyclops, and those insults caused the rage of the monster to boil over. The Cyclops was already angry with Odysseus blinding him, and was even more demoralized and angry when Odysseus began to taunt him. As Odysseus goes on with his insults and as his anger rises, he says, “Cyclops—if any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shamed—say Odysseus, raider of cities, he gouged out your eye, La...
Although Odysseus shows he is prideful in Homer’s Odyssey, he also demonstrates rhetorical skills, wisdom, and compassion, which makes him an effective leader.
Experience is an important part of being an epic hero. This quality allows someone to succeed where others will always fail. Gilgamesh displays far more experience and knowledge than Sundiata, thus making him a better hero. He displays 3 main qualities that show he has experience. He is far more powerful and influential at the beginning of the story, he has more success in his early adventures, and (((((???))))).
The definition of pride is a feeling or deep pleasure of satisfaction that people obtain from their own accomplishments. Odysseus, the main character in The Odyssey, is full of pride throughout his long journey. Odysseus is a warrior from the ten year Trojan War and he is trying to get back home to Ithaca. He is one of the most popular war heros from his time. On his journey home over sea, the sea god and Odysseus’s enemy Poseidon, creates obstacles for Odysseus that he has to overcome if he wants to get home. Odysseus eventually returns home after another ten years. In the epic poem, The Odyssey, Homer represents pride Odysseus’ biggest flaw throughout his encounter with Polyphemus and the Phaeacians.
In The Odyssey, Odysseus is the hero because he is brave, a great leader, and curious. In the beginning of The Odyssey, Odysseus encountered with people and had some trouble on his journey. He also is a great leader, but he is rarely honest with his crew, he will help his crew, but he knows what will happen to his crew and never tells them. Odysseus is very curious because he saw an island and wanted to see what it was like on the island.
Odysseus and I share pride in a numerous amount of ways. Odysseus constantly thought about his pride, like in this example as he and his men sailed toward the six eyed monster known as Scylla, “But as I sent them toward Scylla, I told them nothing” (936). Telling them nothing shows arrogance. It says that he doesn’t care enough about his men to even listen to what Circe had to say. Circe told Odysseus to row quickly past Scylla in order to lose the least amount of men, but his ego got in the way of that. Additionally, Odysseus didn’t have just one instance of showing egotism and neither did I. He became one of Penelope's suitors, “I did not miss, neither did I take all day stringing my bow” (954). He was trying to win his lady back by shooting
As one of the seven deadly sins depicted in the bible pride is defined as an excessive admiration of self. In book 9 of the Odyssey, The Cyclops, Odysseus and his men encounter Poseidon’s cyclops son Polyphemus. Odysseus manages to offend Polyphemus, causing the monster to devour two of Odysseus’s men and trap the remaining men inside his cave. At night Odysseus and his comrades fashion a stake and plan to attack the cyclops and escape before they are killed. The men blind Polyphemus by stabbing the stake through his eye, and they escape the cave by using the cyclops’s sheep to disguise themselves. The whole encounter could have went much smoother than what played out of Odysseus hadn’t let his biggest flaw get the best of him; his pride.
In the epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh embarks upon a quest seeking immortality as a means to peace, meaning, and joy in life. He tries to reach it in many different ways, each as unsuccessful as its predecessor. The two main types of immortality are physical and through the actions or achievements of ones life. Gilgamesh tries first through his actions, but then undergoes a transformation which leads him to next attempt physical immortality. He eventually comes back to the point at which he began; however, now he realizes that the beginning point was always the object of his quest. Uruk, his city, is his legacy and the key to his quest. This lesson underscores his humanity, for often we cannot truly learn a lesson until we have first erred in the wrong direction.
The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem that was one of the first works of literature, from ancient Mesopotamia. The epic main character is Gilgamesh, and Enkidu. Gilgamesh is two-thirds god and one-third human and he is the king of Uruk. Despite being the protector of the city, he is a rapist and the gods send Enkidu to defeat Gilgamesh. However, when they meet and battle they become commendable friends afterwards. Together they go on several journeys throughout the first half of the epic and once Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh spends the second half of the epic searching for eternal life.
Gods and goddesses reign over the entire world in The Epic of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh, son of Lugulbanda and Ninsun, rules as king in the city of Uruk he himself built. He also constructs temples for the god Anu and his daughter Ishtar. He travels to the ends of the Earth to find Utnapishtim, the survivor of the flood that was meant to demolish all life. He returns from his travels, and he writes everything down on a tablet. This world Gilgamesh lives in has its similarities and differences of religion compared to modern day; they have people of authority that mortals seem to contest and disagree with for the most part.
My pride fell with my fortunes says William Shakespeare while explaining in one of his plays that the character was too prideful and lost everything he worked for. In the poem “Ozymandias” written by Percy Bysshe Shelley the poem explains a statue in the middle of the desert that has broken and no one sees it anymore. The statue was of a very prideful ruler who thought he was very powerful and mighty. The king thought he was better than any other king. The head that sits next to the two legs shows a frown which shows the emotions of the king and how serious he was. In comparison, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas is about a young man named Edmond Dantes, who was a sailor that was sent to jail because he got a letter from Napoleon
Odysseus from Homer’s The Odyssey is a man with many strengths, but not without faults. One of Odysseus’ biggest faults is his pride or hubris. Throughout the story, Odysseus’ pride gets him into a lot of trouble, but pride isn’t always a bad thing… Without pride, everyone would just be completely self conscious and paranoid. Odysseus’ pride in particular in The Odyssey seems to act in a way closer to the bad side. It appears to get him into a lot of trouble, but is that really pride? Odysseus’s pride could also be looked at more as a helpful quality, because helps him accomplish what needs to be done.
Like in every mythology, the hero undergoes a transformation. Gilgamesh is no exception to this as he plays the role of the archetypal hero. As the hero of the epic, he experiences an inevitable spiritual and emotion rebirth after experiencing trials of hardship, anguish, and turmoil. He transitions from a royal pain to an individual worthy to be the King of Uruk. As the epic goes on, Gilgamesh and the readers learn the true secret of immortality, but not without experiencing a metamorphosis.
with it he was bathing and a snake ate the plant. As soon as that happened