Theme of Justice in the Odyssey and the Bible
Justice is a theme that differs in many different texts, and this also true in the Odyssey and the Bible. Justice in Homeric texts was served to neutralize a situation and bring things back to the way they were, to a time of stability and respect for authority. The bible has usually been interpreted, however, as serving justice on a moral basis, as a way to punish those who did not respect each other or act in God likeness.
The Greeks in the Odyssey viewed justice as only coming from the gods. They believed the gods punished them because they have fallen out of their favor, and not because they had really done anything wrong by human standards. As Socrates later stated in the Euthyphro, what is holy, and perhaps then just, is what is “approved by the gods.” Although Socrates proved this to be wrong, it still shows the view of most Greeks. Zeus in the opening book of the Odyssey stated, “Upon my word, just see how mortal men always put the blame on us gods! We are the source of evil, so they say- when they have only their own madness to thank if their miseries are worse than they ought to be.” This shows that the Greeks feared justice; they felt it was negative and often undeserved. However, each Greek deserved his punishment because he has a hand in its reason. For example, when Odysseus’s troops killed the cattle of Helios, they deserved Zeus destroying their ships because he had warned Odysseus beforehand not to let the men eat the cattle. When the Greeks disobeyed the gods, they disrupted the right order of things, and when the gods punished them, they made the other Greeks respect them once again, and thus fixed the balance of the world.
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...n a game. Gods in the Odyssey used justice to be feared and gain respect, and God in the Bible used justice to show love to his faithful disciples and to help his stray sheep stay on the path and learn his love for them.
Works Cited and Consulted
Bloom, Harold , Homer's Odyssey: Edited and with an Introduction, NY, Chelsea House 1988
Crane, Gregory , Calypso: Backgrounds and Conventions of the Odyssey, Frankfurt, Athenaeum 1988
Heubeck, Alfred, J.B. Hainsworth, et al. A commentary on Homer's Odyssey. 3 Vols. Oxford PA4167 .H4813 1988
Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Vintage Books, 1989.
Stanford, William Bedell. Homer's Odyssey. 2 Vols. Macmillan
Tracy, Stephen V. ,The Story of the Odyssey Princeton UP 1990
"Gospel of Matthew". The Holy Bible. New Revised Standard Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989.
Throughout its history, strong values have stood at the core of Greek culture. Ancient Greeks placed a focus on a balance of mind and body. Citizens were expected to adhere to three main Greek virtues; these being respect for the body, respect for the gods, and hospitality. At times, these virtues were not upheld, usually resulting in what they believed to be punishment from the gods. Examples of this can be seen in the epic, The Odyssey, authored by Homer. Throughout the poem, a repeated disregard for the ancient Greek values teaches readers a fundamental principle of life--consequences follow poor decisions.
Heubeck, Alfred, J.B. Hainsworth, et al. A commentary on Homer's Odyssey. 3 Vols. Oxford PA4167 .H4813 1988
Homer, The Odyssey, The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, ed. Maynard Mack, Expanded Edition, (New York: W. W. Norton, 1995), pp. 219-503.
A twenty-first century reading of the Iliad and the Odyssey will highlight a seeming lack of justice: hundreds of men die because of an adulteress, the most honorable characters are killed, the cowards survive, and everyone eventually goes to hell. Due to the difference in the time period, culture, prominent religions and values, the modern idea of justice is much different than that of Greece around 750 B.C. The idea of justice in Virgil’s the Aeneid is easier for us to recognize. As in our own culture, “justice” in the epic is based on a system of punishment for wrongs and rewards for honorable acts. Time and time again, Virgil provides his readers with examples of justice in the lives of his characters. Interestingly, the meaning of justice in the Aeneid transforms when applied to Fate and the actions of the gods. Unlike our modern (American) idea of blind, immutable Justice, the meanings and effects of justice shift, depending on whether its subject is mortal or immortal.
“(Zeus): 'Oh for shame, how the mortals put the blame on us gods, for they say evils come from us, but it is they, rather, who by their own recklessness win sorrow beyond what is given […].' (1.32-34)” This quote proves that the people of the Odyssey are in some control over their lives because their actions decide what will happen to them in the future. So, when the humans in the Odyssey mess up, the gods see it as their job to punish them.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of darkness and other tales. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Print.
Honor is a primary theme throughout The Odyssey. This honor culture is about the value of your name or reputation, how that affects your family, and a relation between honor and manners. While the entire text is chalk rich with examples, the encounter with the Cyclops, the Paeacian games, and the slaughter of the suitors are the clearest examples. The honor culture seen in The Odyssey is one that continues today in various cultures throughout the world. While many of the examples shown are of a violent nature, honor does not always correlate to violence. In fact, a strong honor culture may inoculate against random violence due to the need to have a certain reputation.
Homer’s The Odyssey is not just a tale of a man’s struggle on his journey home from the Trojan War, but of his struggle from the consequences of revenge. The Odyssey weaves in different characters’ tales of revenge from the gods and what impact revenge actually had on those characters. Revenge is an important underlying theme in The Odyssey because, in essence, it explains why Odysseus’ journey was so prolonged and treacherous. A few examples of revenge in the poem include Orestes’ revenge on Aegisthus, Zeus’ revenge on Odysseus and his men, and Poseidon’s revenge on Odysseus. These different examples of revenge in The Odyssey show the importance of the gods’ revenge in the epic journey of Odysseus.
Homer. ?The Odyssey,? World Masterpieces: Expanded Edition. Maynard Mack ed. Ed. Coptic St.: Prentice, 1995.
Homer. “The Odyssey”. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Martin Puncher. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012. 475. Print.
Heart of Darkness is a kind of little world unto itself. The reader of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness should take the time to consider this work from a psychological point of view. There are, after all, an awful lot of heads and skulls in the book, and Conrad goes out of his way to suggest that in some sense Marlow's journey is like a dream or a return to our primitive past--an exploration of the dark recesses of the human mind.
Religion was deeply intertwined with the culture of the ancient Greeks. In their stories, they prayed to the gods to satisfy their needs and offer assistance in their endeavors, and the gods would occasionally appear to select Greeks to give counsel, gifts, or other forms of aid. Alternatively, if the desires or endeavors of a mortal or mortals displeased one or more of the gods, they would also interfere with the fulfillment of their goals. In Homer’s Odyssey, the gods appear to or interfere with both Telemachus and Odysseus, either to help or hinder them in their journeys. Although the gods are responsible for the difficulty Odysseus faces returning from Troy, they are equally responsible for motivating and assisting Odysseus and Telemachus in their respective travels.
Darkness is a huge motif in The Heart of Darkness. Almost every other page is filled with some imagery relating to the dark or low visibility. It is well known in literature that darkness has negative connotations. The dark is associated with dirtiness, ignorance, and death. Being in the dark is not a good place to be, however, this is where Conrad places us.
...s in The Heart of Darkness, Conrad reflects the true nature of man. He concludes that within every man lies a heart of darkness. "This heart is drowned in a bath of light shed by the advent of civilization. No man is an island, and no man can live on the island without becoming a brutal savage. Inside his heart lies the raw evil of untamed lifestyle" (Heart of Darkness: A systematic evaluation).
In Europe, where people follow rules and regulations, these men are nothing, but in the jungle they are able to shine.However in the article, “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness,” Chinua Achebe describes the novella, “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad, as being racist.He supports this idea with examples from the text and with criticisms of the imagery used throughout the work. Achebe claims that by portraying Africa as “the other world and the antithesis of Europe,” Conrad is seeking to project Africa as the opposite of Europe and therefore,