Xenia In The Odyssey

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The Odyssey

Everyone has trouble and sometimes it may feel like you should give up but just because something is difficult doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try, it means you should just try harder. The Odyssey by Homer is a story about an epic hero named Odysseus who shows cleverness, mental strength, and physical strength throughout his long journey to get home after the ten year Trojan War.
Odysseus and his crew have landed on the cyclops island. Odysseus took with him a dozen of the finest fighters in his crew to geo-tour the island. They were hoping they would meet a friendly cyclop who will show them xenia. They found a cyclops home but the cyclops wasn’t there. His crew wanted to grab food and leave but Odysseus wanted to be polite and wait. When the cyclops finally comes he doesn’t show them xenia and he eats 6 of Odysseus crew. “ Here, cyclops, try this wine-to top off the banquet …show more content…

The suitors encourage them to fight and they take it outside. The beggar king strikes first and punches Odysseus. “Grabbing him by the leg, Odysseus hauled him through the porch across the yard to the outer gates” (18. 117-118). Even when he was turned into an old beggar Odysseus showed strength and was able to fling another old man across the courtyard and through the castle’s outer gates. Another example of Odysseus showing strength is when Penelope, Odysseus’s wife set up a challenge for the suitors. Whoever could string a bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axes would become her husband. “Setting shaft on the hand grip, drawing the notch and bowstring back back…… Right from his stool, just as he sat but aiming straight and true, he let fly and never missing an ax,” (21. 486-489). As an old man, Odysseus was able to do something that all the young strong and healthy suitors couldn’t. This really shows that even when he is an old man Odysseus has a lot of

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