The Odyssey is an epic poem by Homer. It is a story of the journey of Odysseus coming back to his wife and son in Ithaca after being away from them for 20 years. The ancient Greeks valued strength, bravery, wit, great stories and beauty. So this tale is centred on a male who holds all of those traits. This epic tale has been an inspiration for many literary creations including Margaret Atwood’s Penelopiad. Margaret Atwood’s Penelopiad is a feminist approach from the point of view of Odysseus’ wife
The Odyssey by Homer is a unique way to get a unique view at the life of Ancient Greeks. By using a fictional source to relate to a real place and time, the reader must be able to find a way to apply the fiction to the fact. That being said, one of the most intriguing examples of applying fiction to a real life situation is what a reader can learn about slavery through The Odyssey. Though the topic isn’t widely covered or discussed in the book, when it is mentioned it is relatively easy to draw a
In The Odyssey, Odysseus embarks on a prolonged journey home in which he endures many trials that exhibit traits the Greeks revere. Meanwhile, at home his wife Penelope resists suitors who plunder her resources and Odysseus’s wealth. This epic exemplifies qualities and characteristics, such as bravery, hospitality and cleverness, embodied by Odysseus in an environment where the Olympian gods and goddesses are intertwined in Greek life. When the Greeks value a quality in a person, they hold that person
The Odyssey is a story about coming home. It shows Odysseus, a warrior, who is trying to get back home ten years after the war in Troy. At the beginning of the story, Odysseus is left stranded on the island of Ogygia, home to the sea nymph Calypso. He washed up there after he angered Poseidon, god of the sea, when he blinded Poseidon’s son. Calypso, who has fallen in love with Odysseus, refuses to let him leave, and wants Odysseus to become her husband. However, because he is already married
change and when his story ends he gains great knowledge. One hero foresay is Odysseus in Homers’ The Odyssey; this hero starts out arrogant as can be but as the adventure progresses so does his characteristics all leading to his self-knowledge. In the beginning Odysseus, who is an intelligent but arrogant man, whose personality ends up leading him to begin his long unfortunate journey. When Odysseys’ enters the cyclopes’ cave he wants to see if “he would show [hi]m hospitality” (Homer 9/304).
author of The Odyssey may never be apparent, the epic’s creator shows a definite feminine mindset. The identity of Homer has long been a debate amongst scholars. The Odyssey was originally told through oral narrative and was never written down in full. This allowed a concept called “oral theory” to take place. Oral theory states that every time a narrative is performed, a small part of it is altered, whether it is intentional or accidental. The length and popularity of The Odyssey functioned to perpetuate
allows people to view them as a more realistic and relatable person. Greek heroes all fulfill several generalized epic hero traits. All make several mistakes, accomplish heroic feats, come face to face with death, and protect the weak. In Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus makes numerous errors in judgment and accomplishes copious heroic feats, both of which allow him to fit the archetype of a hero perfectly. Odysseus commits multiple errors in judgement, but he always fixes the problem or is forgiven. Odysseus
storytelling has been widely used throughout The Odyssey. In a time where there was no written language, the only way to communicate was through storytelling. Using only his own memory, Homer created a descriptive poem, and he passed it down to the rest of the world through oral tradition. It was his job, and an art. The purpose of storytelling is to convey messages to other people, and he found many uses of it in this epic poem. In (8:50) of the Odyssey, the bard Demodocus appears. Exactly like
After overcoming great challenges, including escaping the cyclopes, resisting the sweet calls of the sirens, surviving an encounter with the monsters Scylla and Charybdis, and Journeying through Hell, Odysseus finally returns to his family. Odysseus’s epic journey home creates the main storyline in Homer’s epic, yet there is an underlying story of his son, Telemachos, accomplishing the journey into manhood. Telemachos is introduces as merely a boy, yet throughout the epic he is forced to overcome
The domestic setting of the Odyssey is just as much a battlefield as the war setting of The Iliad. However whereas great warriors in The Iliad relied on physical strength and prowess on the battlefield, in the domestic setting of The Odyssey wit and deception are more relevant strengths than brute power. As Penelope attempts to delay marriage to the suitors, Odysseus attempts to return to his home in Ithaka, and Athene outlines a plan to reunite the two, disguise and duality in words and tricks become