Odysseus In Homer's The Odyssey

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A warrior king on his journey home; the wrath of the gods, love, lust and revenge, this is the story of Odysseus. After a great victory at Troy, Odysseus and his crew are looking forward to a triumphant return home to Ithaca. Their journey becomes a twenty year odyssey, complicated and extended by the caprice of the gods, the strength and weakness of men, and divine intervention. In Homer’s The Odyssey, three characters who greatly impacted Odysseus’s journey are Circe, his crew, and Athena. First is Circe, a seemingly harmless witch goddess. She calls her island of Aeaea home. When she is first approached by Odysseus’ crew, they think her harmless and drink her wine. She turns his men into pigs and imprisons him for a year, extending his…show more content…
Though they mean well and want to get home, sometimes their actions cause more harm than good for Odysseus and themselves. When Odysseus receives a bag of wind from Aeolus the wind king, his men are suspicious as Odysseus has not opened the bag and not told them what is inside. Once the ship is in sight of Ithaca, his men, “open the bag, thinking it contains gold and silver. The bad winds escape and blow the ships back to Aeolus’ island.” The greed displayed by the men led to their downfall because the journey home from Aeolus’ island is filled with treacherous seas and deadly enemies. They must go a new route back to Ithaca and are attacked by a group of cannibals who throw rocks at the ship. Only Odysseus, forty-five of his crew and the ship survive. An indirect consequence of this was facing Scylla, Charybdis, and Circe. Once he and what is left of his men escape from the monsters, they pass the island of Thrinacia. Seeing the animals his crew begs to stop and eat them but Odysseus advises them against it, but does allow them to get off of the boat and rest on the shore. The men go against Odysseus’ orders and kill and eat a cow. To repay for the loss of his cow, Helios asks Zeus to kill the men who ate his animal. As they sail away from the island, Zeus “sends a thunderbolt to sink Odysseus’ ship. Odysseus alone survives.” (pg. 1236). A direct consequence of the sailor’s disobedience is…show more content…
When Odysseus lands on Ithaca Athena, “disguises him as an old man, so that he can surprise the suitors.”(pg. 1242) Athena disguising allows his to sneak into his palace undetected and not be spotted. The disguise also allows Odysseus to have the element of surprise when he reveals himself at the contest. After killing all the suitors and reuniting with Penelope, word of the slaughter has reached the townspeople, who are planning to break into the castle and attack. Before the citizens are about to attack Odysseus, Athena, “steps in and makes peace among them all.”(pg. 1265). This helps Odysseus by allowing him to remain at peace with his people and not have to fight all his subjects. Secondly, Odysseus has just battled nearly one hundred suitors and is probably tired and not physically able to fight for an extended period of time. Athena helps Odysseus in many ways and ensures a peaceful resolution to his

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