Odyssey
Much of Homer's epic poem The Odyssey deals with the trouble the titular character finds himself in, and the suffering he and men must endure as he makes his way home over the course of ten years. Upon cursory examination, one might think that suffering in the Odyssey has some actual value, in that Odysseus is ultimately rewarded for his long-suffering efforts by being able to go home and murder everyone who wanted to marry his wife. However, this does not take into account the majority of the play, in which Odysseus' men suffer with no reward, being brutally killed and tortured for no reason other than to fulfill Poseidon's curse against Odysseus. This is most clear when Odysseus and his men visit the island of the lotus eaters, and by examining this scene in conjunction with the conclusion of the story, it becomes clear that the suffering in The Odyssey has no real value except to reinforce the biases of the day by arguing in favor of a violent masculinity, and for nearly every single character except for Odysseus, this value is nowhere near enough to recompense for the pain experienced through the story.
One of the first places Odysseus and his men stop is the island of the lotus eaters (just after pillaging a town and fleeing from the angry relatives of the murdered and raped townspeople), and examining the reactions of both Odysseus and his men to the lotus eaters reveals the poem's conception of suffering (9.42-44). Essentially, the poem seems to argue, through Odysseus, that suffering is not only worthwhile, but desired, as long as it is ultimately in the service of the dominant power structure. After surviving the Trojan War, escaping from the relatives of the murdered villagers, "a freak hurricane," and "nine days of bad winds," Odysseus and his men finally make it "to the land of the Lotus-Eaters" (9.70,...
Odyssey Homer's Odyssey is a classic epic poem, demonstrating all the hallmarks of epic poem structure and the epic journey cycle. The narrative of the Odyssey follows the return on Odysseus from Troy, a journey that takes ten years and spans many locations and setbacks, until he finally reaches his home in Ithaca. Even then, Homer must deal with one final setback before being successfully reunited with his family. This paper
For Aristotle, true freedom and liberty consists in ruling and being ruled in turn and not always insisting on fulfilling one's own personal desires at the cost of others. Thus, for Odysseus, true freedom can only come about when one is allowed to contribute to society for the betterment of everyone involved, a sure sign of moral correctness and rational thinking. In addition, Aristotle stressed the importance of justice and goodness,
Comparing the divine world in the Iliad and the Odyssey, Wolfgang Kullmann emphasizes that unlike in the Iliad, in the latter, "men themselves, not the gods, are responsible for their sufferings beyond their destined share. Gods, on the contrary, guarantee "poetic justice" when they warn men against doing evil." As Kullmann points out, the mortals in the Odyssey are less likely to act as mere objects of higher powers that manipulate
He is a full grown hero who only needs a goal to set him on his journey. Gilgamesh is young and inexperienced, and he needs help to grow and mature throughout his journey, which he obtains from his dear friend Enkidu. Gilgamesh has many lessons to learn, and Odysseus learns too, but he is farther on the road to maturity, and so his journey leads him somewhere he already
Virgil's epic poem "The Aeneid" is often described as the poet's response to Homer's epics "The Iliad," and "The Odyssey" in that it details the Trojan War and its aftermath from the Roman perspective. It is a Roman claim to great and far-reaching origins, and because of this apparently patriotic purpose, many classical scholars have attributed the poem's inspiration as Virgil's attempt to praise the emperor Augustus. However, to ascribe
Homer was a legendary Greek poet who is traditionally credited as the author of the major Greek epics the "Iliad and the Odyssey," as well as the comic mini-epic "Batracholmyomachia" (The Frog-Mouse War), the corpus of Homeric Hymns, and various other lost or fragmentary workd such as "Margites" (Homer pp). Some ancient authors credited him with the entire Epic Cycle, which included other poems about the Trojan War as well
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