Honor or having an honor culture is a hallmark trait of many cultures both ancient and modern. While many would go to Homer’s The Iliad for clear indications of honor culture within Ancient Greek culture, The Odyssey also provides clear indications of an honor culture. Before honor culture within The Odyssey can be explored, honor and honor culture must first be defined. The most common and relatable explanation for honor culture in our modern day world is a prevailing culture in the southern United States of America especially within the Appalachian communities. This culture and the Ancient Greek culture share simple hallmarks. Honor culture is about neither committing transgressions against another, nor tolerating them when they are done to you. It is about the value of your “good name” and reputation for being honorable. This means that slights not only against you but against your name are taken very seriously. These things are generally held throughout all cultures of honor. Some of the specifics of honor are defined by each individual culture; these specifics along with the general state of an honor culture are shown in three events within The Odyssey. The culture of honor is shown in through Odysseus in his encounter with the Cyclops, the exchange with the Phaeacian man at the games, and in the slaughter of the suitors.
One of the clearest points of honor and honor culture within The Odyssey is found in the encounter of Odysseus and the Cyclops. While the punishment that Poseidon rains down on Odysseus may be seen to stem from his arrogance in announcing his name to the Cyclops on his escape, “I called back with another burst of anger ‘Cyclops-/ if any man on the face of the earth should ask you/ who blinded you, shamed ...
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... is a great as eating all of his food, attempting to steal his wife, drinking all of his wine, and disrespecting his son. The fact that they do all of this with such impunity only compound the insult.
Honor is a primary theme throughout The Odyssey. This honor culture is about the value of your name or reputation, how that affects your family, and a relation between honor and manners. While the entire text is chalk rich with examples, the encounter with the Cyclops, the Paeacian games, and the slaughter of the suitors are the clearest examples. The honor culture seen in The Odyssey is one that continues today in various cultures throughout the world. While many of the examples shown are of a violent nature, honor does not always correlate to violence. In fact, a strong honor culture may inoculate against random violence due to the need to have a certain reputation.
While a lot of the analysis in the aforementioned paragraphs is Athenian based, the honor that is bestowed upon warriors is best seen through the Spartan society. Spartan’s were heavily military based and used all efforts to create warriors that would serve the polis. Absolutely everything in their society was based off this idea. Women were appreciated because they bore the sons that would become warriors, and sons were sent off at seven to begin their warrior training. Men who carried out their duty well were rewarded within the society and held an elevated status. Spartan’s held that ideal that to,“know that it is good for the city-state and the whole people when a man takes his place in the front row of warriors and stands his ground without flinching.” The wanted to create the strongest warrior possible and the only way to incentivize that was through honor. Honor was made an attainable goal for these warriors and something that they had been conditioned to want to strive for. Greek people also honored the gods though as their first and foremost responsibility. They needed to do right by these deities in order to be successful in their lives. Actions such as questioning their existence, or belief were looked down upon and in some cases even punished. The idea of honor was reinforced throughout their policies, lawmaking abilities and how they treated one another. Consequently, this would eventually lead to competing tensions between Athens and Sparta resulting the Peloponnesian War. However, honor is intrinsic to both of their ideals and integral to the values the Greek society
The Odyssey is an epic home it was written by homer in the classical Greek. The story is about the main character Odysseus a Trojan war hero and his journey to return home to Ithaca conflict and obstacles are throughout the story and affect different characters many of the characters experience some form of reciprocity by the end of the epic and get what they
If we compare the three different places, Phaeacia, Cyclops' island and Ithaca in Homer's The Odyssey, we can claim that these islands are quite different from one another both in terms of their nature and the inhabitants' way of living. Phaeacians, for many apparent reasons, is the most civilized society and they have best kind of nature and wealth. People of Ithaca follow Phaeacians with slight differences and Cyclops comes last in the sorting because of being completely uncivilized.
When it comes to hospitality, Greeks stand atop the list of all cultures for their generosity and politeness towards strangers. “Philoxenia” is the Greek word for “the love of strangers”. Philoxenia is demonstrated in several different cases in Homer’s The Odyssey. According to Greek customs, hospitality is respected by the immortal gods. If the Greek code of hospitality is not performed correctly, or not performed at all, the consequences may be very severe, gods may unleash their wrath to whoever does not follow this tradition of thoughtfulness. Homer suggests both positive and negative commentary on his own world through the examples of hospitalities that provide The Odyssey.
Of all the heroic traits such as honor and glory, given to the reader through Homer’s epic poems loyalty seems to be the strongest, as with Patroclus in the Iliad, so it is with Penelope, Telemachus, and Eumaeus in the Odyssey. Through the use of these characters loyalty is demonstrated to Odysseus, the hero if the poem. Their undying loyalty and devotion to the warring hero gives perfect examples of how humans should act to those they claim to be faithful too.
All throughout The Odyssey there are scenes of good and bad xenia, or hospitality. It can be seen that hospitality is extremely important in the Greek culture, both how someone treats their guests and how the guests treat the host. A closer look chronologically into the good, then bad examples will show how one acts affects the actions that are brought upon them when they either follow or disobey Zeus' Law.
For the Greeks, Homer's Odyssey was much more than just an entertaining tale of gods, monsters, and men, it served as cultural paradigm from which every important role and relationship could be defined. This book, much more so than its counter part The Iliad, gives an eclectic view of the Achean's peacetime civilization. Through Odyssey, we gain an understanding of what is proper or improper in relationships between father and son, god and mortal, servant and master, guest and host, and--importantly--man and woman. Women play a vital role in the movement of this narrative. Unlike in The Iliad, where they are chiefly prizes to be won, bereft of identity, the women of Odyssey are unique in their personality, intentions, and relationship towards men. Yet, despite the fact that no two women in this epic are alike, each--through her vices or virtues-- helps to delineate the role of the ideal woman. Below, we will show the importance of Circe, Calypso, Nausicaa, Clytaemestra, and Penelope in terms of the movement of the narrative and in defining social roles for the Ancient Greeks.
Greek mythology deals significantly with culture and its factors, as they describe the societies and the people inhabiting it by depicting their everyday life and the state of their land. Both Hephaestus, in Homer’s Iliad, and Odysseus, in Homer’s The Odyssey, set out to portray the cultures that they saw, yet the cultures and societies varied greatly, from Hephaestus illustrating the highly developed societies of the Greek and their culture; while on the other hand, Odysseus seems baffled by how underdeveloped the Cyclopes land and culture is. Hephaestus and Odysseus seem to have the same understanding what is normal of a culture, society, and their factors; however, there are noteworthy variations between their accounts.
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.
Homer’s The Odyssey is not just a tale of a man’s struggle on his journey home from the Trojan War, but of his struggle from the consequences of revenge. The Odyssey weaves in different characters’ tales of revenge from the gods and what impact revenge actually had on those characters. Revenge is an important underlying theme in The Odyssey because, in essence, it explains why Odysseus’ journey was so prolonged and treacherous. A few examples of revenge in the poem include Orestes’ revenge on Aegisthus, Zeus’ revenge on Odysseus and his men, and Poseidon’s revenge on Odysseus. These different examples of revenge in The Odyssey show the importance of the gods’ revenge in the epic journey of Odysseus.
The Greeks placed great importance on personal honor. Why is this? Is it because to them man I nothing without honor. Or is it that the honor is more important than the man? "Honor to the Greeks is something that is won by a man's prowess, his ability to fight and be victorious on the battle field"(Schein 62). This is just one example of how honor is obtained. A second method of gaining honor is to be a great orator, one must posses the ability to speak in the assembly and express his ideas eloquently, and persuasively to the gathered body. A third way of achieving personal honor is to demonstrate athletic ability.
Many diverse cultures are found in every corner of the world. Every culture is defined by its traditions and values. The film “The Odyssey,” depicts the culture of the ancient Greeks, where it illustrates the life of a man, Odysseus, who has gone on a journey just to get back to his kingdom. Many values and traditions can be identified through the path of the journey. Some elements that are found important to the Greeks are the music, the religion, and the duty to the kingdom.
Throughout the story The Odyssey there are many themes that represent major parts of the story. The main theme that stood out to me is love which includes loyalty. “Love is a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person; a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend; or a sexual passion or desire” (dictionary.com). “Loyalty is defined in the Webster's dictionary as faithfulness or devotion to a person, a cause or a duty” (Webster’s dictionary). Through these definitions, it can be expressed that loyalty and love are major themes in Homer's epic, "The Odyssey". Love and loyalty shows relationships that are between two people. The few relationships that represents love and loyalty is between husband and wife Odysseus and Penelope and also between father and son Odysseus and Telemachus. These relationships shows more than just love and loyalty though, their relationships also shows compassion, sympathy and the need to be in each one another’s lives.
In The Odyssey, Homer, or more so, the characters, often referred to Odysseus as the ‘Great Odysseus’. In the text, it is obvious to see that Odysseus demonstrates arrogance, charisma, over-confidence, and pride. Odysseus and his m...
In the Homeric world, honor is qualified by power. In the Iliad, power is measured several ways. When Nestor tries to mediate between the enraged Achilles and Agamemnon, he makes the point that “power and glory [are] given by Zeus himself” (Book I, Line 294). A king is the ultimate in nobility, even if he is the king of a small, poor Greek city. Being a king depends on accident of birth, not on ability, and is a sign of the gods’ favor. Because the gods have smiled on him, “a scepter-holding king has honor beyond the rest of men” (Book I, Line 293). In the Greek army...