Sacrifice In The Odyssey

The role of gods and sacrifice in Greek Mythology has a prime role in everyday life. In the epic poem The Odyssey, written by Homer, the main character, Odysseus, has one major goal in mind. Throughout the poem, Odysseus has the objective of getting home to Ithaca. On this journey back home, he overcomes multitudinous obstacles, sacrifices his crew men, and has the help of the Greek gods like Athena, Calypso, Ino, and Zeus. Several major themes are portrayed through Odysseus’s return home. The role of gods, specifically in making direct contacts with humans, animal sacrifice, and human sacrifice are unquestionably common in Greek Mythology, but today, these particular concepts are not common in modern literature or daily life.

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However, in Greek Mythology, animal sacrifice is common, and some of these aspects are portrayed in The Odyssey. In this epic poem, there are several scenes in which the people sacrifice goats, cows, or any sort of animal as part of their religion and a way of worshiping their gods. These types of sacrifices, along with the sacrifices of people, is extremely common in daily life of Greek Mythology. “We make an end henceforth of taking, in our ships, castaways who may land upon Skheria: and twelve choice bulls we dedicate at once to Lord Poseidon, praying him of his mercy not to heave up a mountain round our city” (Book 13, Lines 225-231). In the epic poem, it is very common to immolate animals to the gods they worship. In this case, they are sacrificing twelve Bulls of their choice to their God Poseidon. They are doing this in order for the lord to have mercy on them, hopefully not punishing them. It is almost like they are bribing him of his mercy with sacrificing these Bulls. This type of sacrifice is very uncommon in neoteric life and literature. Even though human or animal sacrifice occurs in some places of the world, it is extremely atypical now, especially when compared to The Odyssey. Many people do not come in contact of any human or animal sacrifices, and it is bizarre to imagine that it was actually an option back

A common example of human sacrifice in modern day is war. The soldiers who take part in battle give themselves up to defend their nation. In the front lines the soldiers never know when they’ll take their last breath or step. They sacrifices themselves for the better of the country. In The Odyssey, Circe informs Odysseus, before hand, that he will come across a prodigious monster on his voyage. This monster’s name is Scylla and she has six heads and twelve legs. For every one of her heads, she swallows a person off the ship. No ship was ever passed through this dangerous monster without losing at least one man. Overall, six men were sacrificed in order for Odysseus and the rest of the crew to get home safely. But today, human sacrifice is not common whatsoever. The majority of the people do not take practice in any form of human sacrifice. “Religious wars and persecutions are still not at all uncommon in various parts of the world. Christianity and Islam...both have a long history of religious wars persecutions” (Pearson, 1). Strictly speaking, some Christians and Muslims take part in human sacrifice during the times of war and persecution. In conclusion, human sacrifice, similarly to how it occurred in Greek Mythology, still exists