In Homer’s The Odyssey, many happenings interfere with Odysseus’ journey to return home to his wife, Penelope, and son, Telemachus. Self-determination is a strong characteristic that Odysseus portrays in The Odyssey. The three traits that Odysseus portrays as evidence of his self-determination are: endurance, perseverance, and courage. Odysseus, like most humans, has his doubts of confidence, but seems to overcome them. Out of this great tragedy, he has become a greater man to regain his kingdom and live a long life. He learns that without his determination he would have never returned to his home. Nature played a key role in how the story played out. Nature can interfere and impede human progress but that nature cannot conquer mankind so long as men are willing to face hardship and accept the consequences of their struggle. After the Trojan War, Odysseus, the handsome, brave hero of The Odyssey makes the god of the sea, Poseidon, angry by claiming that he alone won the Trojan War. Poseidon vows he will make Odysseus' journey home tough. While on the island of the Cyclopes, they find an abandoned cave that is owned by the one-eyed Cyclops Polyphemus, the son of Poseidon. There they become trapped, Odysseus tells him his name is Nohbody, and offers Polyphemus some wine so that he can become intoxicated. Polyphemus becomes drunk, passes out, and Odysseus and his men devise a plan and attack him in his eye with a sharp, hot wooden pole. Polyphemus...
In both characters loyalty and dutifulness is a central ideal that they stick to. In The Aeneid Aeneas’ loyalty and sense of duty is seen in many instances, such as when they arrive on the shores of Italy and takes refuge Dido’s city of Carthage. While there, Aeneas and his people feast and live well, and Aeneas has the opportunity
In the epic poem, The Odyssey, Odysseus’ heroic deeds are recounted through a narrative, written by Homer, that describes his arduous journey of his return from the Trojan war to his homeland of Ithaca. Loyalty, patience, and determination, are necessary traits to survive the perilous, painstaking journey that Odysseus embarks upon to return to his native land. Loyalty is exhibited when Odysseus goes to rescue his crewmen on Kirke’s Island despite the probability of jeopardizing his own life. Odysseus presents patience throughout the entirety of his journey, but most specifically when his crew opens the bag of wind, which causes much regression on the embark homeward. Determination is displayed when Odysseus is on Calypso’s island.
Many people seem to be under the impression that the Aeneid is a celebration of Roman glory, led by the hero of fate Aeneas. I find these preconceived ideas hard to reconcile with my actual reading of the text. For starters, I have a hard time viewing Aeneas as a hero at all. Almost any other main characters in the epic, from Dido to Camilla to Turnus, have more heroic qualities than Aeneas. This is especially noteworthy because many of these characters are his enemies. In addition, Aeneas is presented as a man with no free will. He is not so much bound to duty as he is shielded by it. It offers a convenient way for hum to dodge crucial moral questions. Although this doesn’t necessarily make him a bad person, it certainly makes him a weak one. Of course some will argue that it takes greater moral conviction to ignore personal temptation and act for the good of the people. These analysts are dodging the issue just like Aeneas does. The fact is that Aeneas doesn’t just sacrifice his own personal happiness for the common good; he also sacrifices the past of the Trojan people, most notably when he dishonors the memory of his fallen city by becoming the men he hated most, the Greek invaders. The picture of Aeneas as seen in the end of the Aeneid bears some sticking resemblances to his own depiction of the savage and treacherous Greeks in the early books.
"I sing of warfare and a man at war…Till he could found a city…the high walls of Rome." (Book I, 1-12) There can be no dispute that the Aeneid is an account of the history of Rome. There are several items which with Virgil links the story of Aeneas to the Rome of his time period. Probably the most obvious of these is the surplus of predictions concerning Rome’...
It is clear when reading the Aeneid that Virgil was familiar with the earlier works of Homer, The Iliad and The Odyssey. Virgil, more than just being aware of these earlier works, uses themes and ideas from these poems in his own. Far more than just copying scenes and ideas, Virgil expands and alters these themes to better tell his story, unique from the Greek originals he is drawing from. Virgil reveals what qualities he regards as heroic through the juxtaposition of Aeneas’ character and the negative aspects of the underworld. By looking at which qualities are esteemed and derided respectively, we can identify the qualities that Virgil would like to emphasize positively to his readers. Also, we can argue that Virgil is indeed trying to convey a particular set or morals to those readers. Beyond the underworld, it is possible to clearly identify these traits in the other sections of the poem where Virgil is borrowing and making his own alterations. Using these distinctions we can very clearly derive Virgil's morality from the poem, and see where Virgil's ideal characters veer away from the Greek ideal that came before.
Aeneas’s voyage up to his journey to the Underworld has not been easy to say the least. He had to wat...
Homer’s poem The Odyssey depicts the tendency of people to ignore the consequences of their actions. Odysseus punished Penelope’s suitors without thinking of consequences that he would have to endure. He did not acknowledge the consequences because that would prevent him from doing what he wants to do. Odysseus wanted to kill the suitors; they ate away at his fortune. Finding consequences for murdering the suitors would force Odysseus to realize what he is about to do is not a good idea. Odysseus chose to ignore the consequences and killed the suitors anyway. Odysseus had absolutely no reason to kill the suitors; they had the right to stay in his home because Penelope made them feel welcome, Penelope and Telemachus both told them that Odysseus was dead, and although Telemachus told them to leave, he did not have the right to do so.
... wife and home as well as his place in Carthage in the name of the gods, in the name of a quest that does not directly benefit him. From this pursuit, he does not stand to gain spoils, and the most that could be said of his fame would be drawn from his descendents. It is this moral stance, this understanding of universal placement, of purpose, that sets Aeneas apart from other heroes.
In Book eight of Homer’s Odyssey our hero Odysseus has come to the palace of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of the Phaeacians. This book can be read as a historical record, containing paragons and social rules. These rules and paragon are Homer’s and the archaic Greek’s view of a society in its most undisturbed form. Homer uses the Phaeacians to illustrate what behaviors are to be expected of a kingdom. By giving the listener/reader such a calm and well-organized realm Homer creates a stark juxtapose to all of the other oikos (homes) seen previously in the epic. Family, peace, respect, leadership, religion, sport, sailing, and much more are exampled in their quintessential form. All these aspects of Greek culture are held to high esteem and the Phaeacians are given all of these qualities by the gods.
Impressed by Aeneas’s exploits and sympathetic to his suffering, Dido, a Phoenician princess who fled her home and founded Carthage after her brother murdered her husband, falls in love with Aeneas. They live together as lovers for a period, until the gods remind Aeneas of his duty to found a new city. He determines to set sail once again. Dido is devastated by his departure, and kills herself by ordering a huge pyre to be built with Aeneas’s castaway possessions, climbing upon it, and stabbing herself with the sword Aeneas leaves behind.
In The Odyssey, Odysseus portrays an important trait to the story, perseverance. His perseverance really stands out as something that he has and always will have. On his long journey home, he never gives up and just stays where he is, no matter how tempting. He always manages to push through and keep getting closer to his goal of returning home. An example of when he does this is when he is faced with the challenge of getting past Skylla and Kharybdis. He knows that either path will kill at least some of his men and possibly him, but he knows he has to keep going. "And all this time,/ in travail, sobbing, gaining on the current,/ we rowed into the strait---Skylla to port/ and on our starboard beam Kharybdis, dire/ gorge of the salt sea tide." (Homer, 12. 301-305). In O Brother, Where Art Thou, Everett also showed his perseverance. While trying to get back to his wife, he also faces many obstacles that he must get through. There were many people and things keeping him from where he was going, but he pushed through and got there anyway. His greatest obstacle to get through was when he came upon the sirens. He went down to the river and the sirens got the men drunk enough to fall asleep. While asleep, Pete was turned in by the sirens, but the other men hadn't been turned in yet. They woke up and were forced to get out of there as fast as they could with a frog they thought was Pete. Delmar wanted to stay and try to change Pete back but Everett told him they needed to persevere and keep going, and they did. Another trait that both of these men show in their stories is their cleverness. Odysseus show...
The Odyssey details Odysseus’ arduous return to his homeland. Ten years have passed since the end of the Trojan war and Odysseus, the “most cursed man alive”, has been missing and presumed dead by many. (10.79). Throughout the novel, gods play a significant role in the fate of Odysseus and other characters. The extent of the gods’ role though is not unqualified, contrary to Telemachus’ suggestion that, “Zeus is to blame./He deals to each and every/ laborer on this earth whatever doom he pleases” (1.401-403). While Zeus does have this power, his description of how humans meet their fate is more accurately depicted throughout the novel. As he aptly points out, “from us alone, the say, come all their miseries, yes,/ but they themselves, with their own reckless ways,/ compound their pain beyond their proper share” (1.38-52). While the gods do doom certain mortals, many of these mortals exacerbate their ill fate by making rash decisions and ignoring the gods’ warnings. The gods are also not always disrupting mortals lives; they often aid mortals in need. In fact, mortals who effectively court the favor of the gods often benefit greatly. While the gods’ powers are unquestionable, no one god’s power is insurmountable. Gods can be outsmarted and their wrath escaped. The Odyssey, in congruence with Zeus’ statement, ultimately, portrays human freedom as existent, but limited.
	In The Aeneid, Aeneas is on a journey to lead his people, the Trojans to a new homeland. Aeneas was chosen by fate to lead the Trojans to establish a new homeland in Italy and Rome. This fate also represents the national destiny of Rome. Aeneas looks towards the future, towards Rome’s power over the known world. In the same way that the Promised Land was guaranteed to the Hebrews in the Old Testament, the Trojans’ Promised Land was guaranteed by fate. History is the guarantor. The theme of this work is that of how a nation came to be.
Odysseus is curious about who lives on the mainland. Odysseus decided to bring a dozen of his men and a wine given to him from Apollo to go visit a cave near the shore of the mainland. The cave happens to be the home of Polyphemus. Odysseus and his men discover ample amounts of food in the cave and his men want to steal it and leave. Odysseus decides to not do this and to wait for the owner of the cave to return so he can see how hospitable the host is. Polyphemus is the son of Poseidon and is nearly as powerful as Poseidon himself. Polyphemus laughs at the idea of hospitality and responds by eating two of Odysseus’ men and trapping the rest for meals. When the cyclops leaves, Odysseus devises a plan to make a lance out of a club the giant uses. When Polyphemus returns, he proceeds to eat two more of Odysseus’ men. Odysseus then offers Polyphemus the wine. While drinking, Polyphemus asks the name of Odysseus in which he responds by saying that his name is “Nobody.” Once Polyphemus passes out, Odysseus and his men stab the cyclops
... attempts they do just the opposite. With Venus’ many interventions, Aeneas is prevented from making mistakes and is guided to his fate, from not killing Helen [book 2] to leaving behind the old and the weak for Italy [book 4] . He is shown enough times to be the puppet of their play: from obeying the will of the gods while enduring the wrath of other gods, all this in order to set the wheels in motion for the far off future Roman race. However, there are also times when he is also shown to be exerting his won free will. For example, in book 12, killing Turnus when he is begging for mercy, something not heroic and which Susanna Braund debates the positive and negative aspect of in her essay on Virgil and the Meaning of the Aeneid [1.17-18]. nonetheless, this act demonstrates that even the gods and the fates require his cooperation to fulfil his destiny.