The sea can be seen as a dominant setting and a symbol holding a great significance that Homer included into his novel, The Odyssey. Although the sea is predominantly known in the epic as the vast expanse of water that served as a barricade and nuisance to Odysseus’ return home to Ithaca, this only becomes labelled as an adversity when the the god of the sea Poseidon becomes Odysseus’ foe. The sea is actually an essential and meaningful aspect of the ancient Greeks’ lives. It is such a remarkable thing in which it is the “giver of life” through it being a source for food as well as a waterway highway for transportation and exporting or importing goods. Although it may appear to most readers of the novel as merely a negative aspect of the journey, Homer in actuality incorporated the sea into the text with a paradoxical view, contrasting the destructiveness and the comeliness of sea.
Although water is such a crucial part of life, it is spoken of in the novel as an agent of death. Homer has made the sea ironically the road to the Land of the Dead, Hades’ underworld, in The Odyssey. To corroborate with that irony, when Odysseus and his men encounter Scylla and Charybdis in book twelve, the Sun God said, “I will sink into Hades and shine on the dead” (Homer 12.394) The sea is capable of bringing death and had eventually taken the lives of his crew men, with “their day of return snuffed out by the Sun God” (Homer 12.431-32) after “bobbing in the waves like sea crows” (Homer 12.430) Homer accentuates the deadliness of the sea by placing war and sea parallel in the epic in multiple sections: “At least those who had survived the war and the sea…” (Homer 1.14) and “...I’ve suffered and had my share of sorrows in war and at sea…” (Homer 5.2...
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...ct that it flows so strongly and cleans the dirtiest clothes can symbolize the sea as a cleanser and the dirt as troubles. “...the waves scoured the pebbled beach clean.” Homer repeats again of the water cleaning. He had this repetition to accentuate the water as a cleanser.
The paradoxical nature of the sea was indeed significant in Homer’s epic poem. The way we interpret the sea as either something comely or deadly is a matter of perspective. Along the storyline, the gods’ punishments using the sea was seen to be a calamity yet the nature of water is enchanting. Though water may be goodness, too much of something “good” can bring harm. Men were killed and ships were destroyed. Through the journey, Odysseus becomes more humane, creditable with his hardship experiences out at sea. In the end, a conclusion can be made that water can be considered a paradox of itself.
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.
The sea served as an object that could stop Odysseus from getting where he needed to be. Modern day soldiers have many obstacles that they must overcome. These obstacles can be many things such as drug or alcohol use if they are offered some, and they must overcome the fear they face if they see someone in their unit be killed. The men being killed can also relate with Odysseus when his some of his men were eaten by the cyclops Polyphemus when they entered his home (a cave). Later Odysseus and what was left of his man took a wooden stake and drove it into the eye of Polyphemus to be able to escape from his cave. Little did they know that Poseidon (god of the sea) was the father of Polyphemus, he told his father of the terrible thing Odysseus had done and Poseidon caused Odysseus to have a rough journey
The Greeks had many fears. The fear that seems perplexed is of the sea. One might think because they are geographically surrounded by sea they would have learned how to cope and master skills of the sea. They did not; it is proven in the odyssey that ancient Greeks feared the ocean. They feared the violence that the ocean can bring upon them. They thought ocean was an endless trap to death. Laodamas the son of king Phoenicia explained that there is “Nothing worse than the sea, I always say, to crush a man, the strongest man alive.” (Odyssey. P. 195). He could have seen what the sea had done to Odysseus. Odysseus, the greatest hero in the odyssey, was beaten and sabotage by the ocean. If the sea had done that to him, it might have killed and ordinary person in Odysseus position. The ancient Greeks recognize the destruction the ocean can bring upon them. That is the reason the sea was considered to be one of the most frightening things. The reason the...
The ancient Greeks have brought upon numerous ideas, inventions, and stories to the world. Greek mythology influences modern day literature and life. The Odyssey is an epic poem written by Homer, which tells the story of Odysseus's journey home after the Trojan War. Odysseus does not achieve his goal of reaching home so easily; monsters and gods come in his way and hinder him. The Odyssey expresses Greek values of hospitality from the customs of Ithaca, humility from Odysseus’s reform, and loyalty from Odysseus’s family.
Throughout Homer’s Odyssey there is a consistent internal conflict regarding identity. Odysseus’ long circuitous route home can be attributed not only to the gods but to his own flaws that additively form his identity. Particularly, these faults of complacency, arrogance, and desire for concealment as means of avoidance are outlined in his early interactions most explicitly with Polyphemus (IX). Phaeacia, where he recounts his adventures, serves as a transition point where Odysseus is forced to address his flaws. He gains the capacity to learn from his mistakes and change the person he sought to cover up with disguises (VI, VII).
Throughout the Odyssey, there are many relationships that represent love between two people. These relationships show loyalty, compassion, and the wanting to be near one another. Two of these kinds of relationships are between Odysseus and Telemakhos, and Odysseus and Penelope.
Homer compares the crying Odysseus to a woman who weeps for her husband who died in battle. The weeping woman is described in a very dramatic scene in order to reflect the intensity of the sorrow that Odysseus is experiencing. The “woman weeps, flinging herself across the fallen body of her dear husband.” As she is “clinging to him, [she] wails,” and then “the enemies behind her strike her back and shoulders, then they carry her away to slavery and trials and misery.” The woman goes through a great deal of hardship, which explains why “her cheeks are wasted with pain.” Not only does her husband die, but the enemies strike her with their spears and take her away to suffer more. By comparing Odysseus’s crying to the woman weeping in this intense scene of misery, Homer is able to show the reader the degree of sorrow that Odysseus is feeling.
There has long been a fashion among critics and historians, including Sir James Frazier and Graham Hancock, to insist upon taking the account of Odysseus' voyage to Hades in Book XI of the Odyssey at near face-value as a description of people and places familiar to a Greek audience of Homer's day. Both linguistics and comparative history have been employed to discover exactly how accurately this originally oral epic conveys this gritty realism. Something, however, is not right with this purely empiric approach. What is missing is an examination through the lens of ancient religious practices. Surely a literary work so teeming with deities-wise Athena, spiteful Poseidon, impish Hermes, omnipotent Zeus-deserves such study.
Returning to the quotation “… the great leveler, Death: not even the gods/ can defend a man, not even one they love, that day/ when fate takes hold and lays him out at last’” (Homer 3.269-271). Death is a power that surpasses the gods. In The Odyssey we are introduced to gods who control the water, the wind, and the decisions of men. They can bring peace and war, but the one thing they cannot do is prevent a mortal’s fated death. This alone shows how central death is to The Odyssey. The power that death holds rivals no others in this story, there is “… no escape from death” (Homer 12.483). Death is a constant threat for Odysseus throughout this story, and the future foretold for Odysseus by Tiresias is not one of his life being a good one but of “…your own death will steal upon you…/ a gentle, painless death, far from the sea it comes to take you down…” (Homer 11.153-154). His fortune ends not with his happy life, but with his eventual death. This scene is crucial because it draws the reader back not to the life that Odysseus will have once he has successfully returned home and killed the suitors but the death that he will experience. It draws it back to when and where Odysseus will die and take his place among the
The epic poem The Odyssey, written by Homer, centers around the main protagonist Odysseus and his long journey back home. Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, returns home after defeating the Trojans in a ten year war. On his way back, he angers Poseidon, god of the sea, by blinding his son, Polyphemus the Cyclops. Due to Odysseus’ actions, Poseidon refuses to let Odysseus reach home, and Odysseus and his crew are forced to go through a series of obstacles throughout the epic. Through this adversity, Odysseus must show his heroic attributions in order to survive. Homer portrays Odysseus as a hero by giving him characteristics such as: craftiness, loyalty, and bravery.
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
Victoria agreed with the theme of the Odyssey having to do with loving one another and being loyal too. “The Odyssey takes itself less seriously than other epics; it is a great deal more fun, but also has a great deal more heart. It is a moral poem; it teaches us about civilization and human nature, how to live together in respect and harmony, how important are the virtues of love, home and family, and ultimately how happiness is a greater goal than any amount of fame and fortune; lessons that have not lost their relevance today”(BookDrum, victoriahooper). This quote shows that the odyssey is more than just a journey and Odysseus taking an adventure and trying to make his way home; it’s about during this adventure what his loved ...
Homer's great literary classic, The Odyssey, represents and illustrates many emotional and mental values. All of these values can be classified under three different main themes that are constant throughout the epic tale. These themes are: A boy's struggle to be a man, a king's struggle to reclaim his kingdom, and a man's struggle to return home. As one reads this book it will become more and more evident to them that a man's struggle to get home is the most important theme throughout Homer's adventure.
Throughout the course of his journey, Odysseus is haunted by the thought of his enemy, Poseidon, who has far more power than Odysseus and strives to keep him from returning to Ithaca. Poseidon still holds a grudge against Odysseus for blinding Polyphemus at his cave. Soon before Odysseus reaches Phaeacia’s shores with hope of rescue, Poseidon notices that “he’s [Odysseus] fated to escape his noose of pain” if he makes it to Phaeacia, and threatens to “give that man [Odysseus] his swamping full of trouble” to prevent him from reaching his destination (Homer 5:318-320). While Odysseus is among the most powerful mortals, he is not comparable to Poseidon. This is why, in a situation like this, it is an important skill to know your strengths, and act intelligently.
To begin, in the epic poem called The Odyssey by Homer performed during the 5th century, the protagonist Odysseus is forced into this traverse because to fully support Menelaus who began the Trojan War in order to retrieve Helen. However, when this war is over, Odysseus was shipwrecked in the island of . Odysseus commits his biggest mistake when Polyphemus in the island of the Cyclops captures him. While in captivity in Polyphemus’ cave, Odysseus comes up with a plan that will set him and his crew free and allow them to escape. Odysseus hits Polyphemus in the eye and blinds him. This upsets Poseidon considering Polyphemus was Poseidon’s son. As a result, Poseidon curses Odysseus never to return home.