Trials In The Odyssey

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The War Veterans’ Trials The heroic commander Odysseus commanded the army that beat the Trojans by using the Trojan horse. He and his comrades are traveling back their home town of Ithaca. He faces many trials that require him to implement Metis to accomplish Nostos. These trials delay the return of Odysseus and his men. The Odyssey, an epic about Odysseus’s struggles to reach his home of Ithaca, presents Greek morals through a series of books. In The Odyssey external forces such as gods and monsters hinder Odysseus more than internal conflicts by not allowing him to accomplish his goal of getting his men and himself home. Gods such as Circe, Poseidon, and Zeus hinder Odysseus from getting him and his men safely home by delaying the war veterans. Once Circe transformed the swine back to men “she enticed winning our battle hardened spirits over,” Odysseus and his men “(sitting) at ease, / day in day out, till a year had run its course” (10.513). The men had just fought a…show more content…
Polyphemus “(snatching) up two more men (he started to prepare)” (9.384) dinner. Polyphemus eating two of his unwanted guests for dinner creates a total of six men dead from Polyphemus’s meals leaving six less men that could row Odysseus to Ithaca. WHY? The Laestrygonians “(spearing) the men like fish” (10.135) while attempting to escape the deadly cove. The Laestrygonians eat Odysseus’s men that have perched in the cove, because in the Laestrygonian culture men are considered to sport fishing. When fishing, a fishermen feels no sympathy for his catch; the killing of Odysseus’s men can be compared to this by being only considered as a sport. While sailing through the Scylla-Charibdis Strait “Scylla (eating) six men form our hollow ship” (12.265) diminished Odysseus’s fleet once more. Any sailor who travels through

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