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Epic characteristics of the odyssey
Theme of ancient greek literature
Theme of ancient greek literature
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‘Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another’ (Homer). He is a person that sees beyond what others do. Things we wouldn’t think of saying he does and makes it so we actually want to read it. This quote means that someone might feel different than what they say. Homer was an imaginative writer because he vividly describes the heroism of Odysseus in The Odyssey, the obstacles that got in his way, the Trojan War from the Iliad, the strategies that took place, and homer was a normal person his life is just like ours. To begin, Odysseus was a very headstrong man that knew to do his duties as a king. Odysseus was not only the king of Ithaca; he was a husband, son, and father. For example, when he came home he didn’t act out of anger. He simply stated,’ Be strong, saith my heart; I am a soldier, I have seen worse sights than this’ (Homer). Most men would have gone straight to killing after seeing the betrayal of people. Not only that, but the fact that men were trying to be with his wife. Odysseus saw way more than just that he had seen his own crew members die. They called his name then were killed. When he did come back Aphrodite disguised him and when he came to his home as a beggar the suitors treated him horrible, but they did not know who he truly was. His son Telemachus told Eureclyia to get him cleaned up. She knew that it was her king because of his scar. The scar he got when he was attacked by a bore. Odysseus was such an interesting man because when he was younger he found out that he liked archery and he then became excellent at it. He would go hunting with his dog named Argos. He was very strong willing and focused, but at the same time he had numerous setbacks. Se... ... middle of paper ... ... gave you something to think about. ‘A creative man is motivated by the desire to beat others’ (Ayn Rand). Which means if you are creative let it show from you being yourself not just to beat someone else. Homer was a man that had a different type of style that other writers did not have. With that being said; are you a person that can think outside the box? Will you make it so a person remember you through your words or is it easy for someone to just say oh yeah, I remember him/her? Works Cited “Biography Of Odysseus”. Irasov. Yuri Rasovsky.web.18 January 2012 Cartwright, Mark. “Trojan War”. Ancient History Encyclopedia. : Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike.web.15 May 2013 "Homer." 2014. The Biography Channel web. 26 March 2014, http://www.biography.com/people/homer-9342775 O’Rourke, Michael. “Odysseus and the Cyclops”. Mysite.pratt.edu. web
Near the beginning of his journey, he met a Cyclops named Polyphemus. He killed & ate many of his men, so he had to stop him. He got him drunk with wine, and with an olive branch, along with his crew, “straight forward they sprinted, lifted it, & rammed deep in his crater eye.” (Pg 768: Lines 331-333) That was very brave, taking down a Cyclops. When Odysseus was disguised as a beggar, he asked the suitor Antinous for food, but denied his request & hit him with a stool. “The stool he let fly hit the man’s right shoulder on the packed muscle under the shoulder blade- like solid rock, for all the effect one saw.” (Pg. 808: Lines 1228-1230) Even after that, Odysseus remained calm & didn’t reveal his identity. He also fought al of the suitors & killed them all. He only had a few followers, and had to fight hundreds of men. His actions were very bold.
One of Odysseus’ traits is bravery. One example of Odysseus’ bravery is when he injures a Cyclops that is 5 times his size, “I drew it from the coals and my four fellows/ gave me a hand, lugging it near the Cyclops/ as more than natural force nerved them, straight forward they sprinted, lifted it, and rammed it/ deep in his crater eye. 329-332” This quote shows how brave Odysseus and his men are to face the Cyclops. Odysseus was intelligent to think about this idea, but he was brave for actually following through and doing it. Odysseus was also brave for fighting Penelope’s suitors even when he was outnumbered, “Now shrugging off his rags the wiliest fighter of the islands/ leapt and stood on the broad doorsill, his own bow in his hand/ he poured out at his feet a rain of arrows from the quiver/ and spoke to the c...
Sitcoms like The Simpsons, are used to show that the traditional family is not what it is played out to be on other shows like Father Knows Best, The Jetsons and Leave it to Beaver. The Simpsons challenges and upholds the traditional sitcom while representing the American nuclear family as a unique and lovable family. Like most shows that come out of Hollywood, The Simpsons is pro-Democrat and against Republican views. This show suggests that not following the traditional family roles will you give you a happier life. Gender roles are often used in the show to demonstrate masculinity and femininity. Through satire and parody, The Simpsons addresses gender roles and the typical problems and behavior of an average American family.
When people think of Odysseus, they think of a great, cunning, warrior. Who wouldn’t see him that way, he fought his way through Troy and embarked on a journey back home to see his son and wife again. On the surface Odysseus seems like a genius but in Homer’s, The Odyssey, Odysseus shows many instances where he outwits his foes but his foolishness heavily outweighs his smarts; he becomes boastful after a victory which leads to more hardships, he leaves precious cargo in the open for his brutish crew to mess with, and refuses help from the gods which nearly leads to his demise.
With the Odyssey, Odysseus learned a big lesson in humility. The greatest example of this is in the last five books or so within the story. He has to dress, act, and live like a beggar in order to regain everything he had lost. While he was a beggar, the suitors treated him horribly. Antinous, leader of the suitors, was the worst of them all. He was the first to mistreat Odysseus and planned to kill Telemachus. He was also the one that would abuse him physically and verbally for some time to come. Also, if that weren’t enough, he planned a boxing match for Odysseus to be in to watch him get beat up. All this was happening and the other suitors were most likely following their leader in whatever he was doing. Odysseus had to control himself the whole time this was happening. If he had lost his temper, the suitors would have killed him, his son, and most likely taken over the kingdom. That didn’t happen though. Odysseus learned self-control and humility. He may not be perfect at it, but going through all the humility made him a better man. Along the same topic, he was a king going through this humility. It would be one thing for a peasant to go through it, but a king? This made it even harder for Odysseus. He had rank above all the suitors and could rightly kick them out of his kingdom. Instead he waits for the right time and kills them all. The “pre-journey” Odysseus would of thought of himself invincible and probably would have died trying to get his kingdom back.
Odysseus is a hero because he acts courageously while facing the many challenges he encounters. Odysseus’s shows great bravery when he engages in physical challenges. Odysseus daringly fights against the suitors, while significantly outnumbered: “For I must tell you this is no affair / of ten or even twice ten men, but scores, throngs of them” (XVI, 291 – 293). Even though Odysseus is facing hundreds of men, his bravery keeps him confident that he can win the battle. Odysseus must use his physical strength when Poseidon punishes him with turbulent waves: “Odysseus’s knees grew slack, his heart / sickened, and he said within himself / Rag of man that I am, is this the end of me?” (V, 307 – 309). Odysseus is exhausted from the torrential sea, yet refuses to give up because of enormous courage and his unwillingness to surrender. Odysseus must also cope with emotional challenges throughout his journey. His emotions are tested when he ventures to the underworld, Hades, and must confront his greatest fear, death: “From every side they came and sought the pit / with rustling cries; and I grew sick with fear. / But presently I gave command to my officers” (XI, 45 -47). Although Odysseus is deeply fearful when he comes face to face with the dead, his mental f...
Another example of his good composition is how he makes the whole thing into a formula, in formulaic epithet. Not many people could probably do that straight away. He sometimes goes on auto-pilot by using the same phrases. E.g. “As soon as Dawn appeared, fresh and rosy-fingered.” This shows another good example of Homer’s composition excellence.
Winslow Homer was late 19th and early 20th century American painter and printmaker. Homer worked in lithography, printmaking, oil, watercolors and several other media. He is most regarded today for his work in landscapes and marine subjects. A lot of his early work focused on rural life in his native New England. This is evident in one of his famous genre paintings currently on display in the St. Louis Art Museum titled The Country School.
This tale coincides with the times in Greece. This was a time that art and Philosophy were extremely important and respected by the people. Odysseus was a new type of hero that didn’t win by overpowering his opponents, but by using his mind to outwit them. Manners also seemed to play an important role to Odysseus, as he was learned to be polite and generous to strangers and in the end punished those who weren’t.
Scott Richardson is attempting, at a first glance, to, in a strange and not altogether believable way, proclaim that Homer is obviously misleading and misinforming his audience, and in this way greatly resembles his own character Odysseus. It seems that he is attempting to convince us, by way of literary arguments, that Homer has irreparably broken the trust between reader and writer, that he has raised multiple false expectations and that he has greatly mislead us on multiple instances. On a second glance, Richardson is endeavoring, still not altogether quite believably, to show that Homer has written in a way that gives the reader
Homer compares the crying Odysseus to a woman who weeps for her husband who died in battle. The weeping woman is described in a very dramatic scene in order to reflect the intensity of the sorrow that Odysseus is experiencing. The “woman weeps, flinging herself across the fallen body of her dear husband.” As she is “clinging to him, [she] wails,” and then “the enemies behind her strike her back and shoulders, then they carry her away to slavery and trials and misery.” The woman goes through a great deal of hardship, which explains why “her cheeks are wasted with pain.” Not only does her husband die, but the enemies strike her with their spears and take her away to suffer more. By comparing Odysseus’s crying to the woman weeping in this intense scene of misery, Homer is able to show the reader the degree of sorrow that Odysseus is feeling.
The challenges that Homer give the protagonist is all a test of character. Odysseus continues to pass the obstacles with flying colors, but his arrogance is the one flaw that is in dire need of correction. Some of the many challenges Odysseus overcomes on his voyage home is defeating the Cicones, surviving the Island of the Lotus Eaters, outsmarting the Giant Cyclops, saving his men from Circe, Traveling to Hades, passing between Scylla and Charybdis, escaping Calypsos’ Island and many more. Odysseus survives these obstacles and uses his smarts to escape near disaster. Often times he was the only one to survive these things and his crew often lost their lives due to their own stupidity. “‘We left the island and resumed our journey in a state of gloom; and the heart was taken out of my men by the wearisome rowing. But was our own stupidity that had deprived us of the wind.’”(P127 L75-79) Odysseus shows how he is an extraordinary man by being much smarter than his crew and the men that follow him. As a part of this stripping of Odysseus, Homer shows that Odysseus is a collective symbol of Everyman. On the one hand Odysseus is a great warrior, who is extremely intelligent, noble, and a great man. Although he has many god- like qualities he is still human. He shows that he is human and like every man, because of the fact that he still has major flaws. The
Have you ever wondered who Homer is? Have you ever heard of Homer? Do you know what he wrote? Do you know when he lived? All of these questions will be answered in the following paragraphs. Homer is an interesting man, not much is known about him, and what is known about him is questioned by the “Homeric Question,” he composed The Iliad and The Odyssey, and that is what his life is based off of.
Through the simplicity of the bust, we can see that Homer was a poor man. Homer was blind, and Rembrandt paints his eyes as brown voids, that lead the viewer’s eye into an inner darkness. The sightless eyes of Homer’s bust are innocent but profound. The touch of Aristotle’s hand on Homer’s head, highlighted with an ambiguous light, feel as if the touch of his hand is helping the philosopher acquire Homer’s knowledge. There is the perception of a musty, glowing, pitch-black interior room, with a terrible knowledge of
Homer is said to have been blind and told his stories orally. Because the facts of Homer’s life when he was born or died, where he lived, who he was- remain unknown and shall most likely never be known. Many scholars have doubted the existence of a “Homer” and point to his texts as the work of a collection of authors over a long period of time.