Calygygia In The Odyssey

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Although Homer describes Odysseus as long-enduring, he is even more accurately described as battle-weary, because he fell apart emotionally when faced with the challenge of being trapped on Ogygia by Calypso and Poseidon’s wrath out at sea. Odysseus, who was the only survivor from his group of shipmates, has been trapped on Ogygia, a remote island, since the end of the Trojan War. This long period of time on the island has kept him away from his family and native land, Ithaca. When Hermes arrives at Calypso’s island as a messenger for Zeus, he finds Odysseus not acting like the brave warrior he knows Odysseus is, but sitting on a headland, “weeping...wrenching his heart with sobs and anguish...gazing out over the barren sea through blinding tears” (5.93-95). …show more content…

The prolonged conflict in this circumstance is the amount of time he has spent in Ogygia. If Odysseus acted like the brave man Hermes thought he was, Odysseus would have been up, using every bit of brain power he had to think of any way possible to escape the nymph with lovely braids and get home to restore the city dear to him. Another reason as to why Odysseus is more accurately described as battle-weary in Book 5 is because of how Odysseus reacts to Poseidon’s wrath out at sea on the way to Scheria, home of the Phaeacians. As Odysseus is out at sea sailing on his makeshift raft to Scheria, home of the Phaeacians, Poseidon realizes what Odysseus is trying to accomplish, becomes angry, and creates a huge storm, providing a massive obstacle for Odysseus to overcome. Instead of Odysseus fighting through the pain, he questions whether or not he should have been dead years ago in the Trojan

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