Rivers In The Odyssey Essay

It is said by Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, that one can never step foot in the same river twice, for rivers are flowing and changing. Rivers signify the flow and cleansing of life, freedom, and transitions. In ancient works, such as Genesis, translated by Robert Alter, Odyssey, originally told by Homer and translated by Stanley Lombardo, and The Epic of Gilgamesh, translated by Andrew George, water and rivers are used to express such attributes. Although rivers work to propel plots forward in Genesis and Gilgamesh by symbolizing beginning, transition and purification, they denote death and hardship in Odyssey, working as a retarding agent.
In Genesis, water is a defining necessity for all life. Without water there were no crops, for

Instead of providing a means for life to flourish, rivers in Odyssey further hardship and provide passage to death. When Odysseus is faced with a journey to Hades’ house, he must travel a branch of the water of Styx to complete his mission. The River Styx ferries souls of the dead to the Underworld, symbolizing an ending to life and a passage to death. In this situation the River hinders Odysseus’s homecoming as it marks another hazardous journey, emphasized by how the dead react to Odysseus’s presence in the Underworld: “Not even you can ever top this, this bold foray into Hades”, since so few living beings accomplish the feat (Od 11: 493-4). Odysseus’s “bold foray into Hades” includes “[crossing] many rivers, great bodies of water, nightmarish streams”, all various forms of rivers ultimately hampering Odysseus’s nostos (Od 11: 155-6). The abundance of rivers and their impedance on Odysseus’s journey contrasts the notion that rivers encourage purification and beneficial transitions. Odysseus becomes more fatigued when dealing with the delaying rivers, never transformed or enlightened, their purposes being to setback his