Jacob and Odysseus are completely different in a literary sense; meaning that Odysseus is fictional and Jacob is historical. They share the obvious character traits of deceitfulness and pride. They both experience lifelong obstacles and eventually overcome them.
In the historical account of Jacob, he grew content in the comfort of his tent, while Esau, his brother, grew to become a “skilled hunter”.
Genesis 25:27 “The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents.” (NIV)
Being resourceful, Jacob deceives Esau and his father into selling him Esau’s birthright and blessing.
Genesis 27:41, Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father
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had given him. He said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” (NIV) When Jacob realizes Esau wants to kill him, Jacob quickly flees from his land to the land of Harran. Jacob was once confident and prideful, however with the humbling experience of fleeing, he begins to live a life of regret and shame. Jacob’s relationship with his second wife Rachel appears to thrive. Jacob worked fourteen years to marry her and once he does marry her, they remain loyal to one another. Despite Jacob’s mistakes God continues to watch over him and protect him. God assures Jacob that he is not alone. Like Jacob, Odysseus is a man of great confidence and pride.
Because of his resourcefulness, he is able to thrive away from his homeland. He is able to use his cunning ways to avoid trouble. Odysseus loves his wife Penelope and never ceases to find her. In book V, Calypso offers her hand in marriage to Odysseus, however, he declines because of his love for Penelope. Then, Calypso offers immortality if he stays but still, he refuses. “Well, I wish you luck all the same. If you knew what troubles you will have before you get to Ithaca, you would stay here and keep this house with me, and be immortal, however much you might want to see your wife whom you long for day in and day out.” (The Odyssey Pg. …show more content…
66) Odysseus eventually breaks his loyalty to Penelope by sleeping with a nymph. We see Odysseus overcoming his temptation when he knows that the sirens will allure him. He has his crew bind him so that he will not go to them. Athena, the goddess of wisdom and battle, guides and protects Odysseus throughout his journey and obstacles.
Odysseus teaches us of perseverance. He never loses hope of returning home no matter what trial has been placed before him. Jacob and Odysseus relate through their relationships with Rachel and Penelope, God and Athena and their lifelong journey.
Jacobs’s story teaches us to trust in God, for He is in control. It is common that when we our struggling, we pull away from God instead of trusting in Him. Odysseus teaches us of perseverance. He never loses hope of returning home no matter what trial has been placed before him. We can learn from both Jacob and Odysseus that in the midst of pride, self-confidence, and resourcefulness we need to remain humble. No matter how strong people believe they are, weakness will always exist.
While pride and resourcefulness can be beneficial, they can often impede on one’s judgment. Due to sin, people take these traits and turn them into negative traits. God longs for us to be humble, so often he will set trials in our lives to remind us of his power over us. Humility is the fear of the LORD; its wages are riches and honor and life. (Proverbs
22:4)
In The Odyssey, Odysseus portrays an important trait to the story, perseverance. His perseverance really stands out as something that he has and always will have. On his long journey home, he never gives up and just stays where he is, no matter how tempting. He always manages to push through and keep getting closer to his goal of returning home. An example of when he does this is when he is faced with the challenge of getting past Skylla and Kharybdis. He knows that either path will kill at least some of his men and possibly him, but he knows he has to keep going. "And all this time,/ in travail, sobbing, gaining on the current,/ we rowed into the strait---Skylla to port/ and on our starboard beam Kharybdis, dire/ gorge of the salt sea tide." (Homer, 12. 301-305). In O Brother, Where Art Thou, Everett also showed his perseverance. While trying to get back to his wife, he also faces many obstacles that he must get through. There were many people and things keeping him from where he was going, but he pushed through and got there anyway. His greatest obstacle to get through was when he came upon the sirens. He went down to the river and the sirens got the men drunk enough to fall asleep. While asleep, Pete was turned in by the sirens, but the other men hadn't been turned in yet. They woke up and were forced to get out of there as fast as they could with a frog they thought was Pete. Delmar wanted to stay and try to change Pete back but Everett told him they needed to persevere and keep going, and they did. Another trait that both of these men show in their stories is their cleverness. Odysseus show...
“O muse! Sing in me, and through me tell the story...Of that man skilled in all the ways of contending...A wanderer, harried for years on end…” (Homer). These are the opening words of The Odyssey. This is also in the opening scene of O Brother Where Art Thou?. O Brother is a reception of the revered story of Odysseus’ journey with a bit of a twist. The works have similarities that only a person well informed of the Odyssey could see. The Odyssey and O Brother highlight the trials of the main character’s journeys. While the Odyssey was written in the eighth century, O Brother is set during the 1930s in the deep south. Each of the trials that the characters face is supposed to make them quit their journey, but they proceed with greater determination.
“Cyclops, if ever mortal man inquire how you were put to shame and blinded, tell him Odysseus, raider of cities, took your eye, Laertes’ son, whose home’s on Ithaca!” There are two important leaders on is Odysseus from Homer’s The Odyssey and Luke Skywalker from Star Wars IV. Odysseus and Luke are both wise, but Odysseus is more arrogant. He being arrogant makes him less of a better leader, more of a stubborn person, and more narcissistic.
Over their travels in the epic The Odyssey, both Odysseus’ and his son Telemachus’ adventures were parallel but at the same time different. These travels led them both to grow and change drastically, and both learned some very important life lessons over the course of this epic.
In the Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus must face many obstacles on his journey. He is only able to conquer them because of his wonderful qualities. He meets, a Cyclopes, Sirens, a six-headed monster, a regurgitating whirlpool, and a group of greedy, lovesick men. Some Odysseus's more important qualities are, determination, cunning, and protecting.
In the epic poem, The Odyssey, by Homer, Odysseus goes through many trials while trying to return home from the Trojan War. On his voyage home, he must visit the Land of the Dead, evade the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis and when he does arrive home, participate in a tricky reunion with his wife, Penelope. All of these examples show that Odysseus has extreme determination and perseverance. Perseverance is an excellent quality that few possess which can spark achievement.
Jacob's name means "deceiver" and he lives up to his name. His deceitfulness began with stealing his brother's birthright. One day, Esau came in from the fields famished and found Jacob cooking a meal. Jacob offered his half-starved brother, "Give me the birthright and I'll give you some soup." Esau being starved, sold his birthright to Jacob. (Genesis 25: 29-34). Sometime later when Isaac thought he was going to die, he called Esau into his tent and told him to kill an animal and make him some soup. Isaac's wife overheard this and connived a plan with Jacob to deceive Isaac. Jacob disguised himself as Esau and obtained his blind and dying father's blessing (Genesis 27).
Odysseus (Ulysses in Roman) was one of the great Pan-Hellenic heroes of Greek mythology. Famous for his courage, intelligence and leadership he was most recognized through his resourcefulness and oratory skills. Throughout classical literature and through many authors Odysseus’ characteristics have changed as much as the stories that surround him. The epic and tragedy I will focus on in particular is The Odyssey by Homer and Hecuba by Euripides. The defining characteristics of Odysseus ranges widely as is shown in Homer’s The Odyssey and Euripides’s Hecuba. The figure of Odysseus in homers The Odyssey is the antithesis of the Odysseus in Euripides Hecuba due to their historical contexts and respective audiences.
While the relationship between Odysseus and Telemakhos is a blind love, the relationship between Odysseus and Penelope is a love between two people who just want to be together. Odysseus shows his love towards Penelope throughout the Odyssey. In spite of the fact that Odysseus has been gone for twenty years, he never forgets his wife back in Ithaca. One example of how much he wanted to go home was when he went to the island of the Lotus-Eaters. He could have stayed on the island of the Lotus-Eaters where everything he ever wanted was there, but the thing he wanted the most was to be with his wife. Penelope likewise displays this kind of love towards Odysseus.
Odysseus is a wise and strategic man who becomes a better person because of the lessons he learns on his journey. Odysseus learns to have hope and he learns not to have so much pride in himself. He also learns that people cannot change their fate, and that years of grieving can create a hard heart.It is hard for people to enjoy their goals in life if they do not think about the journey they took to get to where they are in life. After all, people learn a lot on the journeys they venture through and become stronger people from them.
Often times in life we search for a companion, someone to share our love and life with. Odysseus and Penelope's lasting relationship is an obvious representation of love in the Odyssey. Although Odysseus is gone for twenty years he never forgets his faithful wife in Ithaca. This love helps him persevere through the many hardships that he encounters on his journey home. Penelope also exemplifies this same kind of love for Odysseus. At home in Ithaca, she stays loyal to Odysseus by unraveling his shroud and delaying her marriage to the suitors that are courting her. She always keeps the hope that her love, Odysseus, will return. Odysseus and Penelope's marriage clearly illustrates the theme of love.
Odysseus is one of the very many prominent characters in Homer’s Epic poems, The Illiad, and The Odyssey. Odysseus has been famed one of the more relatable characters from Homer’s writing, as well as one of the Greatest Greek Mythology Heroes. Homer’s Epic poems highlight many periods of shame and honor for Odysseus. The character analysis of Odysseus through the poem’s timeline shows vast developments and heroic features appear to take form in him. The Illiad portrayed Odysseus as more of a secondary figure behind Agamemnon and Achilles. In contrast, The Odyssey portrayed Odysseus as a hero in the form of an average human.
The relationship between Odysseus and his wife Penelope is one of loyalty, love, and faith. Both characters are driven by these characteristics. Odysseus displays his loyalty in his constant battle to get home to his wife. This love helps him persevere through the many hardships that he encounters on his journey home. Odysseus spent 20 years trying to return to his home in Ithaca after the end of the Trojan War. Along the way he manages to offend both gods and mortals, but through his intelligence, and the guidance of Athena, he manages to finally return home. There he discovers that his home has been overrun by suitors attempting to win Penelope’s hand in marriage. The suitors believed that Odysseus was dead. Odysseus and his son, Telemachus,
Homer’s The Odyssey is a Greek story that follows the journey of its primary character, Odysseus, back to his home in Ithaca after the Trojan War. Odysseus encounters many challenges in his journey home, from encounters with Polyphemus the Cyclops, the witch Circe and even the ghosts of dead Greeks. Meanwhile, his household in Ithaca is being threatened by suitors of his wife, Penelope, all wanting to inherit Odysseus’ possessions in the belief that he was already dead. Like many epic heroes, Odysseus possesses many admirable qualities. Three good characteristics of Odysseus are—cleverness, bravery and strength—here are some supporting instances from the epic that demonstrates Odysseus possession of such characteristics.
Odysseus and Ulysses have differences, but also similarities. The man's role in his son's life shifts once Telemachus matures. However, Odysseus and Ulysses portray similar characteristics - their love for their crew and their determination in achieving goals. The man is a born leader; he shows leadership in raising his son, caring for his crew, and ultimately, in taking charge of his life. The poets acclaim men who have direction in life to strive and attain goals.