One of the major themes of Homer’s Odyssey is the importance of cunning over strength. This also happens to be the case with Odysseus and his long ten year journey home from fighting in Troy. Odysseus uses his intelligence over strength to ‘fight’ through tough times and bring himself home to Ithaca. Odysseus uses his intelligence when he has his men tie him down while passing the Sirens, so he himself will be able to hear their beautiful song, but not be entranced by their singing. He also uses cunning to escape from the Cyclops’ cave without being harmed. He then uses his cunning by storing away all of the armory, shields, and knives from the suitors so he is able to kill them easily.
Odysseus uses his brain to sail past the Sirens without being entranced by their sweet song. A Siren is a bird-woman who bewitches everyone that approaches. The Siren women sing a seductive song. Their song has many powers. As Nugent says “as in the days of the musician Orpheus, music still has power to soothe the savage beast, to ally anxiety, and to connect with the divine through contemplation” (Nugent 45-54). Circe tells Odysseus, “There is no homecoming for the man who draws near them unawares and hears the Siren’s voices” (Homer XII, 40). . Odysseus follows the advice Circe gave him to put beeswax in his men’s ears so they will not be entranced. Odysseus then tells his men “but she instructed me alone to hear their voices…”(XII, 160), when, truthfully, Circe states, “But if you wish to listen yourself, make them bind you hand and foot on board and place you upright by the housing of the mast, with the rope’s ends lashed to the mast itself”(XII, 49). In this way, Odysseus is being selfish only wishes to know the Siren’s sing so he will...
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...story, because, if not for his mind, he would be dead and never to return home to Ithaca. Odysseus uses his mind to overcome the lack of strength by tying himself down to the mast as passing by the Sirens. He then uses cunning over the great strength of others by devising a plan to escape out of the Cyclops’ cave alive. Once Odysseus is finally home, he is able to use cunning over strength to kill all of the Suitors in his home so he and his family will be able to return to the happiness they had before he left for war.
Works Cited
Homer. The Odyssey. England: Penguin Group, 2003. Print.
Nugent, Pauline B. "The Sounds of Sirens; Odyssey 12. 184-91." College Literature 35.4 (2008): 45-54. Wilson Web. Web. 10 February 2010.
Hernández, Pura Nieto. "Back in the Cave of the Cyclops." The American Journal of Philology 121.3 (2000): 352. JSTOR. Web. 9 February 2010.
The story of Odysseus' encounter with the Sirens and their enchanting but deadly song appears in Greek epic poetry in Homers Odyssey. The Sirens in the ‘Siren Song’ by Margaret Atwood,are portrayed in a variety of ways. The Sirens are lethal,underprivileged and deluding.
Throughout modern history the ancient Greeks and their stories have influenced our culture and way of life. Many of the ancient Greek myths are those of caution that teach us moral lessons. For example, the myth of Odysseus and the sirens, told by Homer in The Odyssey, teaches us to resist the urge to indulge in temptations. Odysseus and his crew are travelling near the island of the sirens when Odysseus plugs the ears of his crewmates with beeswax and has them tie him to the mast so that he can listen to the sirens’ song and not crash their ship onto the rocks as they pass the island. Odysseus and his crew safely pass the island of the sirens without any casualties and continue on their journey home. Author Margaret Atwood and artist John William Waterhouse both display their brilliant ideas about the myth of Odysseus and the sirens using poetry and painting. Both Ulysses and the Sirens by John William Waterhouse and “Siren Song” by Margaret Atwood use the myth of the sirens to show that during their lives, people often encounter bad temptations that can lead to their demise and should pay no attention to such temptations.
Odysseus is a hero because he acts courageously while facing the many challenges he encounters. Odysseus’s shows great bravery when he engages in physical challenges. Odysseus daringly fights against the suitors, while significantly outnumbered: “For I must tell you this is no affair / of ten or even twice ten men, but scores, throngs of them” (XVI, 291 – 293). Even though Odysseus is facing hundreds of men, his bravery keeps him confident that he can win the battle. Odysseus must use his physical strength when Poseidon punishes him with turbulent waves: “Odysseus’s knees grew slack, his heart / sickened, and he said within himself / Rag of man that I am, is this the end of me?” (V, 307 – 309). Odysseus is exhausted from the torrential sea, yet refuses to give up because of enormous courage and his unwillingness to surrender. Odysseus must also cope with emotional challenges throughout his journey. His emotions are tested when he ventures to the underworld, Hades, and must confront his greatest fear, death: “From every side they came and sought the pit / with rustling cries; and I grew sick with fear. / But presently I gave command to my officers” (XI, 45 -47). Although Odysseus is deeply fearful when he comes face to face with the dead, his mental f...
In the Odyssey, Odysseus’ cleverness, a useful trait, leads to Odysseus’ displaying arrogance, making his strength transform into a weakness when used to the extreme. For example, when Odysseus and his men find themselves stranded on the island with the Cyclops, Odysseus cleverly escapes by tricking the Cyclops to believe his name was Nobody. As a result, when Odysseus and his men attack the Cyclops, the Cyclops attempts to yell to his fellow Cyclopes that Nobody is attacking him. Odysseus’ clever antics allow him and his men to escape the ferocious Cyclops, proving Odysseus’s wittiness an invaluable trait. Odysseus’ cleverness manages to allow many of his men to escape from a seemingly inescapable place. With the odds stacked against Odysseus
...y sirens represent half-women, half-bird creatures who lived on an island. They used to sing in beautiful voices to lure sailors off their course. When Odysseus was sailing by the siren's island, he made the rest of his men plug up their ears and ties him to the mainmast. This way, he got to hear the beautiful sound of their voice without being driven to suicide. In this story the women weeping over Lautaro were compared to the sirens, and some sailors going to tie themselves to the mainmast in an attempt to mimic Odysseus. There is a contrast of these stories with the quotes from the villagers.
Atwood and Waterhouse have made extraordinary additions to the endless variations of the Sirens. Waterhouse’s approach was more exaggerated as he added more sirens, and exaggerated their actions as the sirens were painted swarming and inspecting the men close up. Atwood showed her variation by making her poem from the point of view of a siren, and making them appear to be less curious and more cunning. Atwood’s sirens appeared to have more common sense and used it to their advantage. The two artists used their prior knowledge of the Odyssey to further illustrate the poem with their own ideas and imaginations, Atwood and Waterhouse have helped with further analyzation of the sirens by giving more detail on the personalities of the
In “Odyssey,” the tone is largely boastful. Odysseus often references his own skill or the skill of his crew as they attempt to pass the Sirens. The tone shifts briefly as Odysseus passes the Sirens to express his longing, but it quickly returns to being prideful. The Siren speaking in Atwood’s poem, however, is focused less on being boastful and more on being manipulative. On the surface, the tone is calm, but there is something more. As she beckons the reader to come closer, it is clear that she is trying to trick him into coming to his death. These contrasting tones show how the Sirens are viewed in each work. In the former, Odysseus’s insistence on boasting both before and after passing the Sirens shows that he downplays their skill. He sees himself as the more skillful one, even though he had to be restrained to stay alive. Atwood’s poem, however, illustrates the Siren’s true strength through the subtle manipulation present. In this way, tone helps develop the Sirens’ different
The definition of a hero is unique for every individual; however there are several regulations that majority of individuals can agree on. A hero must exhibit traits such as humility, kindness, and courage. Once the candidate expresses hubris, displays cruelty, or retreats from a formidable challenge, he cannot be considered a hero. Lastly, a hero candidate must overcome challenges that defy the odds. He must deliver a gift to society that benefits society as a whole; such gifts can be freedom, liberty, or hope. Odysseus in The Odyssey, by Homer, fulfilled these requirements and rightfully earned the title of a hero. Odysseus is well deserving of the title hero because he has put the needs of others before his own, shown signs of courage in the face of adversity, and displays humility by ridding himself of his hubris.
In Homer’s Odyssey, the multiple monsters Odysseus encounters while on his journey from Troy are elements of the poem that metaphorically represent different obstacles that he and his men have to overcome to reach Greece. In their encounter with the Sirênês in particular, these “monsters” symbolize the temptation of staying anchored in the past instead of living and focusing in the present moment, for they attempt to hamper the men’s return back home (present) by trapping them in the deep waters of the sea (the past). The main factor of the Sirens’ strategy that stands out in the text is their song, as it illustrates the lure of dwelling in the past memories of the battle of Troy. I will therefore demonstrate the significance of these monsters
In Homer's Odyssey and Margaret Atwood's Siren Song, Sirens are portrayed as creatures that trick men. Homer and Atwood use imagery, point of view, and diction to convey the image of the deceitful Sirens.
Odysseus doesn’t only show cleverness, but also him and I also show great bravery to others. When Odysseus and his men go into the Cyclops's cave, Odysseus has to be brave and think of a way for him and his remaining men to escape from the Cyclops’s cave, “Now, by the gods, I drove my big hand spike deep in the embers, charring it again, and cheered my men along with battle talk to keep their courage up: no quitting now” (906). Odysseus is telling his men a strategy to escape from the Cyclopes for them to be able to survive from the Cyclopes eating anymore of the men, a way I have showed bravery was when I had to conquer my fear of heights on a rollercoaster last spring, but I stuck through it just like Odysseus had to stick to his plan for
“I see destruction for ship and crew. Though you survive alone, bereft of all companions, lost for years, under strange sail shall you come home,” Tiresias prophesied. In the morning when Odyssiana woke, she realized that they were sailing near an island that people had suspected that sirens lived. She knew the terrible danger they were and prepared her crew. She gave them beeswax to cover their ears with and then she covered hers as well. Though they were tempted to listen to the song of the sirens, they sailed past them without uncovering their ears.
Picture this: a hero of great legends who travels to the underworld and back to get directions to his home from a blind prophet. It sounds like quite an impossible journey, but that is exactly what makes Odysseus all the more fascinating. The Odyssey, an epic poem orally transmitted by Homer, a Greek poet who wrote The Iliad, had to contain some variety of attributes that Greeks valued in a person. That one embodiment of what the Greeks found intriguing in a character is Odysseus. Odysseus is known as what is called an epic hero. An epic hero is a protagonist of a story that represents the most important attributes of a civilization. Odysseus, being based in ancient Greece, is the embodiment of intelligence, loyalty, and strength.
The challenges that Homer give the protagonist is all a test of character. Odysseus continues to pass the obstacles with flying colors, but his arrogance is the one flaw that is in dire need of correction. Some of the many challenges Odysseus overcomes on his voyage home is defeating the Cicones, surviving the Island of the Lotus Eaters, outsmarting the Giant Cyclops, saving his men from Circe, Traveling to Hades, passing between Scylla and Charybdis, escaping Calypsos’ Island and many more. Odysseus survives these obstacles and uses his smarts to escape near disaster. Often times he was the only one to survive these things and his crew often lost their lives due to their own stupidity. “‘We left the island and resumed our journey in a state of gloom; and the heart was taken out of my men by the wearisome rowing. But was our own stupidity that had deprived us of the wind.’”(P127 L75-79) Odysseus shows how he is an extraordinary man by being much smarter than his crew and the men that follow him. As a part of this stripping of Odysseus, Homer shows that Odysseus is a collective symbol of Everyman. On the one hand Odysseus is a great warrior, who is extremely intelligent, noble, and a great man. Although he has many god- like qualities he is still human. He shows that he is human and like every man, because of the fact that he still has major flaws. The
Lawall, Sarah N. “The Odyssey.” The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. 8th ed. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 206-495. Print.