Man Vs. Nature In Homer's Odyssey

In the Odyssey there were three themes that can be seen in the Odyssey man vs. nature, the will to survive, and knowledge vs. ignorance.

Within man vs. nature Odysseus had to overcome different challenges on his journey back home to Ithaca. To explain, Odysseus had many quests along his journey home. One quest he had after leaving Cyclopes Island was after he left Aeolus the ruler of the wind(). He had received wind from Aeolus to help him get back home to Ithaca. After leaving Aeolus ten days later Odysseus’s and his men could catch sight of Ithaca(). But while Odysseus was sleep his crewmen believed that Odysseus was holding out on them and open the bag(). Without knowing that it was just wind in the bag not jewels(). They were quickly sent back to Aeolia(). This is a great example, of man vs. nature because it shows Odysseus’s crewmen disloyalty to believe that Odysseus would be holding out against his men. This caused nature to go against everybody and send them back to Aeolia instead of going in their favor.

Also, the will to survive is shown within the Odyssey when Odysseus’s and his men were on Cyclops Polyphemus land. To clarify, after Odysseus’s and his men spotted wild goats near the cave they went to get some goats to have for a meal(). Without having any care of being spotted by someone they took their time(). Into they saw Cyclops Polyphemus he ate two of Odysseus’s men and enslaved the rest of Odysseus’s men and him in a cave(). Odysseus knew that he couldn’t move the rock from in front of the cave therefore he used the sheep skin to look like a sheep and get Cyclops drink off of wine(). After asking Odysseus his name he tells him that he is no one, to help carry out his plan to stuff red-hot staff into Cyclops’s eye(). This allowed Odysseus and his men to escape the land(). This relates to the will to survive because it shows how determine Odysseus was to get his men out of that situation. Odysseus was fun of seeing his men get killed so he used his intelligence to get his men out of the situation so that no more would get killed, because he knew Cyclops was much stronger than they were. Therefore he got Cyclops at his weakness so he could beat him at his best.
Finally, knowledge vs. ignorance was seen when Odysseus finally made it to Ithaca. To explain, Odysseus dresses up as a beggar and heads to his palace(). Penelope has interwishing that the beggar maybe Odysseus(). Therefore she stated that whoever could string Odysseus's fine t bow through twelve axe handles will be her husband. Penelope knew that only Odysseus could complete the task, after all the contest starts, none of the suitors can't string the bow(). Finally when Odysseus strings the bow with ease and shoots it through the 12 axe handles, he then kills all of the suitors (). This help Penelope and Odysseus become reunited again(). Therefore this could be seen as knowledge vs. ignorance because all the suitors didn’t use their head when trying to court Penelope. Both Penelope and Odysseus used their head in every decision. Penelope used weaving to avoid having to get married by one of the suitors. Odysseus used the beggar outfit to help with his plot in killing the suitors while trying to see if Penelope was being loyal. Their knowledge and their connection allowed them to play smarter than those around them.

Part 2:
In the Odyssey hospitality is seen as very important to the gods and people of Greece.

Showing hospitality is a rule in Greece. Hospitality is when people meet their guest’s needs before making small talking or knowing who the person is. Someone can demonstrate good hospitality by offering food, clothing, or anything else that the guest is lacking. Also, being respectful to the guest is seen as being a good host.

The role that hospitality plays within greek custom is social standing. In other words how the hosts treats their guest is a reflection of the outcome and how the gods look upon them. To explain, if a hosts does wrong by a guest, then bad things will happen. Verses if hosts does great things for the guest, good things will happen. Demonstrating good hospitality is important to the gods because the people in Greece don’t know when the gods will be in disguise therefore the idea of hospitality is to treat everyone as if they are a

god.
The encounter with Polyphemus and Odysseus shows how bad hospitality can lead to bad things. To explain, Odysseus and his crewmen arrived on Polyphemus land they brought wine and other gifts with them to give to the host. While Polyphemus decide to ignore their hospitality and eat two of Odysseus’s men (). While holding Odyessus and his crewmen captive in a cave for later meals to come. With all this going on Odyessus deides to use an eye for an eye against Polyphemus . By poking his in the eye blinden him , which angried Posiden because that was his son .But the action was seen as respect from Zeus who believe that the act was need against the rude host.