Theme Of Loyalty In The Odyssey

721 Words2 Pages

From the time of Homer to modern times, The Odyssey has remained entertaining to all generations. Whether it be for the romance and loyalty between Odysseus and Penelope, or the gory scenes depicted by Homer, the story stands out amongst all other stories for it’s enjoyability. While Odysseus was away, Penelope stayed true to him, and did not remarry or have sexual relations with anyone else, showing the loyalty in her true love for Odysseus. During the Trojan War and during the fight between Odysseus’s men and Polyphemus, gory scenes are depicted, audiences enjoy blood and gore. Odysseus’s determination to get back to Ithaca, and his ways of doing so showed his persistence, a moral would be that hard work eventually pays off. Obviously,there …show more content…

While Odysseus “slept around” on his trip back to Ithaca, he was always thinking of and wanting to be with Penelope. Instead of having sex with other men, Penelope stayed loyal to her husband. In Homer’s The Odyssey, it’s described by Penelope that her bed has not been touched by another man. “No other man has laid eyes on it-only my own slave, Actoris, that my father sent with me as a gift-she kept our door.”(Page 1105, Line 1610) Odysseus was determined to get to his wife and home, and would do anything to get back. This shows Odysseus’ undying love for Penelope. Even when suitors are tempting Penelope. she stays loyal. Clearly, romance is one of the themes in The Odyssey that makes it entertaining throughout the …show more content…

During the escape from Polyphemus, a gory scene played out and is described in The Odyssey. “...that great eye socket while blood ran out around the red-hot bar. Eyelid and lash were seared.”(Page 1056, Line 335) This goes into descriptive detail on the effect of the burning rod on Polyphemus’s eyeball. The fighting in Troy resulted in the gruesome deaths of many men, both Trojan and Greek. King Priam, for example, was killed whilst he was praying. Another part of The Odyssey that described was the attack of Scylla. While going through the narrow canyon, many of Odysseus’s men were attacked and eaten by the incredibly fast Scylla. Definitely, The blood and gore in Homer’s The Odyssey made it appealing to people for many

Show More
Related

  • Examples Of Loyalty In The Odyssey

    314 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the story The Odyssey, Odysseus showed many traits. I believe the most important trait he showed was loyalty. He showed it in multiple situations. Odysseus showed loyalty when dealing with the sirens, the louts eaters, and the cyclops.

    Read More

  • Loyalty In The Odyssey

    658 Words  | 2 Pages

    A very obvious example of loyalty is, Penelope. She is faithful to Odysseus for over 20 years and does not give up for long time. Even when the suitors came to her house and ate her food and overstayed their welcome she did not budge and still stayed faithful to Odysseus for the whole time he was gone. She told the suitors that when she finished her tapestry she would choose who she wants to marry, but every night she would undo a piece of the tapestry just so it would take longer and it would give Odysseus more time to come back just so she would not have to choose one of the suitors.

    Read More

  • The Odyssey - A Creton Lie

    793 Words  | 2 Pages

    Now comes the part where he puts Penelope to the test. By sharing this information with her about her husband he comes to understand her feelings for him. Penelope has not only been loyal to Odysseus as her husband, but also as the authority figure. She has demonstrated her loyalty by being true to him for twenty years in his absence and has not remarried.

    Read More

  • Woman Character of The Odyssey, Medea, and Thousand and One Arabian Nights

    1052 Words  | 3 Pages

    Firstly, Penelope who plays Odysseus’s wife is alone tending to her city Ithica until her husband returns. Meanwhile Odysseus is out fighting in the Trojan War and against many of the Greek God’s who are trying to make his trip back home as eventful and hard as possible; “…work out his journey home so Odysseus can return” (Homer 276). While King Odysseus is away Penelope is to deal with a bunch of suitors who are eating and trashing out Ithica, “…if those suitors have truly paid in blood for all their reckless outrage” (559). In order for Penelope to keep peace until Odysseus returns she has to come up with a clever plan to keep the suitors from completely taking over. For almost 2 years Penelope was able to keep the suitors from getting out of hand by saying she will find someone to marry and replace Odysseus after she is d...

    Read More

  • Temptations Of Odysseus

    1479 Words  | 3 Pages

    Temptations of Odysseus Odysseus: a hero in every way. He is a real man, skilled in the sports, handy with a sword and spear, and a master of war strategy. Most of the challenges and adventures in his return voyage from Troy show us this even if we had no idea of his great heroic stature and accomplishments in the Trojan war. I found in my reading of the Odyssey that most of the trials the gods place upon him are readily faced with heroic means. These challenges are not necessarily welcomed by Odysseus but accepted as part of his role.

    Read More

  • What Is The Similarities Between The Odyssey And The Epic Of Gilgamesh

    1574 Words  | 4 Pages

    However, his journey isn’t over yet. This last leg of Odysseus’s journey is perhaps the most important and crucial. Odysseus’s nurse and maidservant, Eurycleia is the first woman in Ithaca to know that Odysseus is back after she recognizes the scar on his leg while she is washing him. Eurycleia vows to keep his identity a secret. Odysseus’s wife, Penelope has stayed faithful to Odysseus for all the years that he was gone. Penelope was consistently unweaving her web to the delay the suitors. The reader even grows sympathetic for Penelope as “we see her struggle to make the virtuous choice about her marriage, despite pressures from her suitors, her son’s endangered situation, and her own uncertainty about Odysseus’s survival” (Foley ). Finally, Odysseus reveals his identity and Penelope is bewildered, but quickly embraces her husband after he tells her the secret of their immovable bed. It is the faithfulness of Penelope and nurse Eurycleia that insures Odysseus’s survival to the very end.

    Read More

  • Relationships In The Odyssey

    406 Words  | 1 Pages

    While the relationship between Odysseus and Telemakhos is a blind love, the relationship between Odysseus and Penelope is a love between two people who just want to be together. Odysseus shows his love towards Penelope throughout the Odyssey. In spite of the fact that Odysseus has been gone for twenty years, he never forgets his wife back in Ithaca. One example of how much he wanted to go home was when he went to the island of the Lotus-Eaters. He could have stayed on the island of the Lotus-Eaters where everything he ever wanted was there, but the thing he wanted the most was to be with his wife. Penelope likewise displays this kind of love towards Odysseus.

    Read More

  • Selflessness In The Odyssey

    263 Words  | 1 Pages

    In The Odyssey, book nine and ten written by Homer, Odysseus constantly embodies the principal characteristics of a hero which are : cleverness, leadership, and selflessness. Thus, this character is regarded as an idol among the other characters and greatly captures the reader’s sympathy for his choices and the fruit to his actions in life. First, Odysseus displays cleverness in Book Nine when he tricks the Cyclops Poluphemus that his name is “nobody” in order to escape the horrors of the cyclop’s cave. He states: “Nobody--so my mother and father call me, all my friends” (Homer, 18). Second, Odysseus is a brave leader of his army especially in book ten when he displays leadership by motivating his comrades in keep trying to sail despite the

    Read More

  • Examples Of Sexism In The Odyssey

    1065 Words  | 3 Pages

    She is faithful to Odysseus for twenty years, devoted, and loving. Yet she is also strong, clever, and crafty. Penelope is so faithful, that she would rather die than never see Odysseus again, "How I wish chaste Artemis would give me a death so soft, and now, so I would not go on in my heart grieving all my life, and longing for love of a husband excellent in every virtue.” While some might consider this problematic, Penelope is faithful out of her Penelope devises brilliant plans to buy herself time for Odysseus to come home, such as her scheme with the loom and the contest she creates, which she knows only her husband can accomplish. Despite everything, Odysseus and Penelope have a strong relationship. When Odysseus is captured and tempted by Calypso in book five, he decides to go back home with Penelope. Calypso tries to change his mind, yet he says, “Don't be angry with me, please. All that you say is true, how well I know. Look at my wise Penelope. She falls far short of you, your beauty, stature.” This illustrates that Odysseus is truly in love with Penelope. He loves her for more than her looks and he doesn't mind if she isn´t more beautiful than Calypso or if she has gotten

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In The Odyssey Essay

    1296 Words  | 3 Pages

    Odysseus ' principles and characteristics are a prototype of an ideal Homeric Greek leader. Odysseus is noble, clever and loyal. Through his distress and blunders, he gains knowledge that was not only crucial for his survival but for his companions too. Odysseus’s cleverness constantly allowed him to avoid death because he relied on trickery, rhetoric and disguise. “The society depicted in The Odyssey is one where male values were dominant and where all socially relevant transactions took place between the male members of the community”. (Whittaker 39) While males’ dominance takes the forefront in society, their principles are continuously being challenged by the allurement of women. In The Odyssey, many instances of such seduction reveals

    Read More

  • The Role Of Poseidon In Homer's The Odyssey

    2371 Words  | 5 Pages

    Odysseus overcame the fury from Poseidon and the lust from the beautiful Goddess that he came upon, to ultimately be reunited with his wife. Some people say it was selfish for him to leave her in the first place, but he had to fulfill his duty to his country and fight in the Trojan war. Also, people say that he cheated on his wife with the Goddess's that he came to through his journey. This isn't the case because in Greek philosophy it was ok to have intercourse with a Goddess because there not humans. When Virgil says, "[Odysseus's"] heart set on his wife and his return--Calypso, the bewitching nymph, the lustrous goddess, held him back" (Homer 259). This quote shows how much his wife means to him. No one explains Odysseus's journey back to his wife then Dianna Rhyan Kardulias. Kardulias had her article, "Odysseus in Ino's Veil:," published into the Transactions of the American Philological Association. In her article she reinforces Odysseus's love for Penelope by saying, "Odysseus journeys home, from "submerged identity" back to wholeness and reintegration, from languishing "dangers of exotic vice" back to the firm-founded bed of Penelope" (Kardulias 23). To confirm his care for his wife he can't even enjoy his time Calypso a beautiful goddess. The contrast of this is the way that Aeneas viewed his wife. He didn't seem to love his wife that much or even at all. For example, when his wife, father, and child along with him were fleeing Troy, he was carrying his father and allowed his wife to get lost. When they are running Aeneas says, "did she Linger, or stray, or sink in wariness? There is no telling. Never would she be restored to us. Never did I look back or think to look for her, lost as she was" (Virgil 1140). This shows that Aeneas was only worried about getting his father and son to safety and wasn't concerned with his wife's disappearance. Another

    Read More

  • Essay About Love in Homer's Odyssey

    495 Words  | 1 Pages

    Often times in life we search for a companion, someone to share our love and life with.  Odysseus and Penelope's lasting relationship is an obvious representation of love in the Odyssey. Although Odysseus is gone for twenty years he never forgets his faithful wife in Ithaca.  This love helps him persevere through the many hardships that he encounters on his journey home.  Penelope also exemplifies this same kind of love for Odysseus.  At home in Ithaca, she stays loyal to Odysseus by unraveling his shroud and delaying her marriage to the suitors that are courting her.  She always keeps the hope that her love, Odysseus, will return.  Odysseus and Penelope's marriage clearly illustrates the theme of love.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Loyalty In The Iliad

    1060 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Iliad by Homer is an epic poem separated in different books or chapters that shows a fictionalized account of the Trojan War. Book 6: Hector Returns to Troy is the specific portion of the poem that is being covered in this essay. Hector from the Iliad shows a very clear aspect of his personality, a strong sense of loyalty and tenderness for his loved ones and also his people by being on the front lines during the war and showing his people he is willing to fight with them and essentially sacrificing himself for his family. Hector even knows his forgiveness towards his brother, Paris even though Paris is the main reason the Trojan War is in existence.

    Read More

  • The Role of Loyalty in The Odyssey

    1045 Words  | 3 Pages

    Intro: There are a wide variety of themes present throughout the Odyssey, written by Homer. Be it hospitality, perseverance, vengeance or power of the Gods, loyalty is truly the theme that brings the whole book together. Being 10 years after the Trojan War, many have forgotten about Odysseus and his men as they constantly brave what the gods throw their way. This essay will be talking about Odysseus and Penelope’s mutual loyalty to one another, the loyal relationships between Gods and men and finally, the loyalty Odysseus’ men show for him until death. This essay with prove to us that without loyalty, Odysseus’ legendary journey would have been put to an end near where they started. The general theme of loyalty is what kept Odysseus motivated and determined.

    Read More

  • Odysseus Character Analysis

    937 Words  | 2 Pages

    Homer’s The Odyssey is a Greek story that follows the journey of its primary character, Odysseus, back to his home in Ithaca after the Trojan War. Odysseus encounters many challenges in his journey home, from encounters with Polyphemus the Cyclops, the witch Circe and even the ghosts of dead Greeks. Meanwhile, his household in Ithaca is being threatened by suitors of his wife, Penelope, all wanting to inherit Odysseus’ possessions in the belief that he was already dead. Like many epic heroes, Odysseus possesses many admirable qualities. Three good characteristics of Odysseus are—cleverness, bravery and strength—here are some supporting instances from the epic that demonstrates Odysseus possession of such characteristics.

    Read More

More about Theme Of Loyalty In The Odyssey

Open Document