Epic Challenges In Ancient Greek Adventure The Odyssey By Homer

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Epic adventures have many obstacles that interfere with the protagonist's journey home. In the epic Ancient Greek adventure The Odyssey by Homer, the protagonist Odysseus, finds a way to overcome his many obstacles. Similar to Mark Watney and Commander Lewis in The Martian adapted by Andy Weir’s book, Watney must find new ways to survive without the help of his crew. In both epic adventures they show opposite leadership, outlooks on situations; however, each exemplify divine aid to return home unharmed.
Leadership is an important factor in both epic adventures but Odysseus and Commander Lewis use two opposing techniques to control their crews. In The Odyssey the individual who makes all of the decisions is Odysseus. He never asks for his …show more content…

Throughout Odysseus’s journey home he receives divine aid in: Scheria, Aeaea, and Ithaca. The goddess Athena assists Odysseus on the islands of Scheria and Ithaca. Athena protects Odysseus from elements and people that are capable of harming him. When Odysseus fights the suitors in his home he is put into danger when they attempt to throw six spears at him simultaneously to finally end his life and the battle; however Athena redirects “the whole salvo wide off the mark” (Fagles22.269). The reason Athena protects Odysseus and redirects the spears during this daunting battle is to allow him to reach his goal of getting the suitors out of his house so he can finally feel as though his journey is complete. Odysseus also receives divine aid from Hermes while he is on the island of Aeaea. Hermes assists Odysseus by giving him a drug to prevent him from falling under Circe’s spell. The drug allows him to rescue his men with ease. Similar to the gods and goddesses of Ancient Greece, Mark Watney receives “divine” aid from his crew aboard the Hermes. Watney is accidentally left on Mars by his crew but they willingly turned around to save him. When they reached Mars for the second time, Watney had prepared a rocket light enough to launch him out of Mars’s atmosphere and to his crew in their spacecraft. He receives “divine” aid from his crew member Rick Martinez throughout the whole launch of the rocket. Martinez is in charge of maneuvering the rocket off of Mars, out of the atmosphere, and to the Hermes spacecraft all while Watney is on board possibly injured and unconscious (The Martian). These epic adventures exemplify divine aid because without the help of Athena and Hermes, Odysseus would have died before he is able to reach his homeland of Ithaca and Mark Watney would have never seen Earth or interact with humans face to face

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