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In the second line “I will tell...” to line thirty-two “and the world...” the author communicates to the reader that Stesichorus has a different way of viewing the world. This is shown when Stesichorus said “everything everyone saw everyone saw because I saw it” (148). This portrays that Stesichorus believes that him seeing is essential for other people to see the world. This can be confirmed when Stesichorus said “I was responsible for everyone’s visibility” (148). I think the author is trying to tell the readers that Stesichorus blames himself for being blind because he “forgot” not to blink “until the start of the war” (148). During these lines, I think the interviewer pressured Stesichorus into going deeper in his story which might allow
What are the key points you will want to emphasize in your online profile for Character 1 (3-4 sentences)?
...or that awaited them, Odysseus decided not to inform his crew saving them from panic. “Odysseus decides to tell his men only of Circe’s warnings about the Sirens, whom they will soon encounter. He is fairly sure that they can survive this if he keeps their spirits up.” (xi. Summary pg.1234). Odysseus’ lie saves the group from panic, temporarily, but will cause death of six members of his crew making the matter worse. Not only betrayal in this situation will cause the lack of trust within the group, but also the loss of credibility.
When a person is accused of a crime they are either found innocent or guilty. This is the basic idea of justice and it is what many feel needs to happen if someone has done something controversial. In the play The Oresteia by Aeschylus, the story of Clytemnestra guilt or innocents is questioned. She does many things that people are not too happy with and those controversial actions throughout the story, mainly in the first part Agamemnon get her into the trouble. As we explore the case that builds against her innocents by exploring the killings of Agamemnon and Cassandra and the boastful expression about the killings.
The difference between a wise and a foolish decision is often found in discerning when to conceal and when to reveal. This discretion in concealing and revealing is a major theme within The Odyssey. There is a proper time to deceive and a proper time to tell the truth; thus, it is crucial that one act accordingly. This importance is exemplified in Odysseus' life. When he is discreet in his timing, he achieves his goal. One example of this is the Trojan War. While the other men in the horse want to expose themselves when they hear their wives' voices being mimicked by Helen, Odysseus forces them to stay hidden within the horse (Book IV, lines 306-311). Because of this discernment and self-control, the Trojan War is won. However, when he is careless in his timing, troubles follow. In the situation with Polyphemus, Odysseus makes an improper decision. He gives his name to Polyphemus as he is leaving the island of the Cyclopes. Although his crew urges him to stop taunting Polyphemus, he does not listen because of his pride in his skill of deception (Book IX, lines 519-552). As a result of this foolishness and pride, his return home is full of hardships and his companions die. Timing of concealment and revelation has such significant consequences because disguise is a powerful tool that needs to be handled carefully. From Books XIII to XXII, Odysseus uses it against the people of Ithaca to plan his revenge. In Book XIX, Homer employs the story of the scar and uses various literary techniques to highlight again on the power of disguise and importance of Odysseus' maintaining his disguise until the opportune time.
“Oh for shame, how the mortals put the blame on us gods, for they say evils come from us, but it is they, rather, who by their own recklessness win sorrow beyond what is given,” (1.32-34) is a simple quote reminding us the entities in charge of all characters in the poem The Odyssey – the gods. Hubris, or excessive human pride, is most detested by the gods and likewise is most punishable by them. The Odyssey is a story about Odysseus and Telemachus, two heroes who throughout their adventures meet new people and face death many times. Telemachus goes to find his father after he learns from Athena that he is still alive. The two meet, and Odysseus attempts to go back to Ithaca after he was lost at sea, and on his way there becomes one of the most heroic characters in literature as we know it. Like all heroic characters, Odysseus began to display hubris as he learned how true of a hero he was. James Wyatt Cook, a historian and an expert on The Odyssey, wrote about how hubris can affect the characters that display it. He says, “Because Homer’s Odyssey is essentially comic, that episode [opened wind bag destroys ship] is only one of a series of setbacks Odysseus experiences before reaching his home in Ithaca and recovering his former kingdom and his family. Such, however, is not the case for those who display hubris with tragic outcomes.” (Cook 1) Initially, Odysseus learns about Aias who died as a cause of the excessive pride he portrays. Proteus warns Odysseus when he says, “…and Aias would have escaped doom, though Athena hated him, had he not gone widely mad and tossed outa word of defiance; for he said that in despite of the gods he escaped the great gulf of the sea, and Poseidon heard him…...
Tragedy; it’s inevitable. In life, everyone is bound to experience a rough time. These rough times and flaws are what test a hero and build character. Someone experiencing hard times transforms an average person and his mistakes into something remarkable and heroic. What characteristics make a him a tragic hero rather than just an ordinary person? A hero is a person who is admired for courageous acts, noble qualities and outstanding achievements. Despite possessing the same qualities as an ordinary hero, a tragic hero, who is born a noble birth and usually male, has a fatal flaw that ultimately leads to his ruin. The hero 's flaws can range vastly. Tragically, however, the flaws possessed with eventually ruin the person 's reputation and also
The greatest realization faced by a character is that of Oedipus who for many years has come to terms with his situation. The Prophet Apollo’s predictions that he will kill his father and have sex with his mother. The course of his life is shaped by this prophecy. What Oedipus has been told from the beginning of his life shaped his thinking, this also allows the reader to grasp that this myth is relevant to their lives. The physical actions of Oedipus are the results of a man with high principles and probing intelligence. The story can be separated into points where Oedipus gathers more information about himself. The “ignorance” that Oedipus faces is the foundation he was brought up by. He has believed that he lived with his birth mother and father and therefore when he learns of Apollo’s prophecy he leaves home so that it cannot come true. Slowly as the story progresses Oedipus discovers bits and pieces of his true-life story, as Oedipus learns that he killed Laius by the story of the shepherd. He continues on his journey to discovering the truth. When he pieces together what he has done he cannot face himself. The chorus best shows his true emotions
In his work, “The Enchiridion,” Epictetus outlines multiple examples of how we should react or behave in certain situations, one of these being death. In section 3, he states that “If you kiss your child, or your wife, say that you only kiss things which are human, and thus you will not be disturbed if either of them dies.” His logic follows a clear path - if you only kiss things that are human, that means you only kiss things that will inevitably die because that is a necessary piece of being human. Therefore, when the people you kiss, or love, die, it should not disturb or upset you because it was a given from the moment you met them that they would eventually pass away. While his description may seem callous and difficult to actually put
Have you ever been away from home for a long period of time? The main character Odysseus from Homer’s The Odyssey has been away from his kingdom fighting in Troy and sailing from island to island for twenty years. While at sea, Odysseus deals with both alienating and enriching experiences as he is surrounded by monsters who want to eat him and his men, and women who want him to love them. Odysseus survives the troubling situations and finally realizes how much he misses the love of his wife who is caring loving, and patient. She gave birth to his son who he has not yet met, which makes him anxious to return to his kingdom. Sometimes being away from what you think are the little things can give you a better perspective of what is around you.
Sophocles introduces a prophet, a seer, Teiresias, into the play. Teiresias is a wise, old man who has supernatural powers to interpret the past and predict the future. Ironically, Teiresias is physically blind, but can “see” the truth about Oedipus. Oedipus has trouble imagining that his father life was taken at his hands. It signifies that Oedipus as a man is ignorant to the true appearance of things - this blind man can "see" the truth about Oedipus, yet Oedipus, in all of his physical perfection, cannot.
However, the limitations of human capability prevent advancement of intellectual insight or knowledge. In Oedipus the King, Oedipus undergoes a drastic change from a prideful hero to hopeless sinner. Throughout the change, the balance between knowledge and suffering is kept stable. In the beginning, he is the “greatest in all men’s eyes” – prideful and confident (40). However, he is ignorant of himself and what is to come. When he does not know anything, he is happy and without struggle. When he is given knowledge from Teiresias, he accuses Creon of treason and suffers the loss of a friend. When given knowledge from the herdsman, Oedipus pushes Jocasta away and loses her to suicide. When realizing the truth, he loses his sight. Oedipus once had “[his] eyes but see not where [he is] in sin…nor whom [he] lives with” (397). However, as he chased the murder case, he had “no joy in the discovery: …[exchanging] blindness for sight” (454). “Sight”, in this context, represents the truth. For the truth, he became blind. In the beginning, Oedipus, to any man with information regarding the murder, “command[ed] him to tell everything to [him]…let him speak the truth. For [he] will pay him” (227-232). He foreshadows that acquiring information would come with a price. Though it may seem as though Oedipus advances his knowledge as he learns the truth, he suffers the loss of those around him. When he discovers the truth behind
Ever since civilizations began forming around 3,500 B.C (TimeMaps), there has been a gradual formation of social hierarchies. As humanity advanced, the progression of more needs was met, and the emphasis on knowledge and understanding of existence became more important. Philosophy is the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence. The prominent question of its study is to interpret the meaning of our existence. In recent times, a philosopher named Albert Camus won the Nobel Prize for his literary essay, "The Myth of Sisyphus." In this article, Camus brought to light many theories, but the central question posed was, “Proceeding from the premise that, in light of the apparent purposelessness of life, suicide is the only truly serious philosophical problem" (Ward 80). This statement gives an explanation behind the fundamental motivation behind our existence. You can theorize that, by living in an irrational world (Uncertainty), obstacles are inevitable, but to construct our viewpoint about them gives us ultimate control of navigating it.
In “Oedipus the King”, by Sophocles, Oedipus is blind to the truth for all of his life, he is determined to find out, who murder Laius? And without him knowing that Laius is his father; while Tiresius is physically blind but yet has lot of insight. It must be true that when a person is physically blind, he can have a special vision. Tiresius is blind, but it seems that he can see better than anybody else; He has a vision of the future. Tiresius seems has this cranky old man attitude when he said “Alas, alas, what misery to be wise. When wisdom profits nothing! This old lore I had forgotten; else I were not here.” And Oedipus response is “What ails thee? Why this melancholy mood?” This is a short scene on the
Ironically, this causes the king to gouge out his eyes, which have been blind to the truth for so long. He screams, You, you'll see no more the pain I suffered, all the pain I caused! Too long you looked on the ones you never should have seen, blind to the ones you longed to see, to know! Blind from this hour on! Blind in the darkness—blind! Oedipus furthers Sophocles' sight metaphor when he defends his decision to humble himself through blindness: "What good were eyes to me?
“Oedipus is, as it were, only a tragic analysis. Everything is already in existence, and has only to be unraveled.” Throughout the history of literature, there has been perhaps no other character quite as complex and convoluted as Oedipus. Whether it be the reality of his parents abandoning him to die or the mere fact that he married his own mother Jocasta, Oedipus has been continually analyzed and processed by scholars in an attempt to discover the means by which Oedipus arrived at his eventual outcome. To summarize, Oedipus, being originally from Corinth, travels to Thebes in search of his true heritage. After a series of events, Oedipus becomes the king of Thebes and soon discovers the truth. Once thorough deliberation has been given to