Odysseus Return Home In Homer's Odyssey

Intro To Literature

Essay #05 - 7/27/15

Hamilton S. Wyatt-Luth

The premise of the epic The Odyssey by the poet Homer revolves around Odysseus’ return home after years of hardship, adventure, and seven years on the paradise island of {Kalypso. Odysseus motivations to return home, even though the god Kalypso fell in love with him and held him captive on her island of paradise, Ogygia, are arguably due to a sense of need of purpose. It is for this reason that he left, as his self-defined purpose was to return to his homeland, his wife, and his son, and rule his kingdom in Ithaca. I would personally have done the same. Because of boredom, the need to finish the task that I had begun (returning home from Troy), and my duty to others (returning

home on behalf of my soldiers and also to be a husband and a father for my family), I too would leave the island of paradise if I were Odysseus.
The most basic and superficial reason for Odysseus to leave the island of Kalypso is boredom. Odysseus is described as a man who seeks glory, but also a man who seeks his home. For a long while, Odysseus enjoys his time on the island with the perfect Kalypso - but eventually his longing for home overpowers his enjoyment. He describes in book seven, “... the gods brought me to the island Ogygia, where Kalypso lives, with ordered hair, a dread goddess, and she received me and loved me excessively and cared for me and she promised to make me an immortal and all my days to be ageless, but never so could she win over the heart within me. There seven years I remained fast, but forever was drenching with tears that clothing, immortal stuff, Kalypso had given.” (Homer, translated by Richmond Lattimore 117) This quote from the epic describes his underlying dissatisfaction with his life on the island, coupling with boredom and his sense of purpose, leading him to leave the paradise. I would feel similarly. While an “island of paradise” would seem amazing and the attention of Kalypso unmatched, it would be redundant and feel gilded in comparison to the life of a mortal - even one of a king.
Long before his arrival on Ogygia, Odysseus had embarked on a journey home from the war with the trojans (where he took part in the famous trojan horse scheme) along with his surviving soldiers and crewmembers.

Encountering Poseidon’s son, Polyphemus the Cyclops, Lotus-Eaters, the witch-goddess Circe, Sirens, the sea monster Scylla, and even traveling to the Underworld to speak to Tiresias, Odysseus continually proves his tenacity and intellectual ability. At one critical moment, his men consume the meat of the cattle of Helios, sending them all into the sea in a punishing storm, killing everyone but himself. He is swept to the island of Kalypso, and that is where his seven year long stay began. The hardships he encountered is met with a contrasting sense of relief and relaxation he experiences on Ogygia with the doting Kalypso. Eventually, that sense of relief and relaxation wears off, and his need for glory and his homesickness return. Experiencing the adventures that Odysseus did, I would think back on them as unfinished if I did not return to my homeland to finish the journey. Odysseus is a man who does not sit idly by, and the great loss of life that preceded his arrival to Ogygia does not weigh lightly on him - and nor would it on

me.
Losing men in the war, to the Cyclops, to Scylla, and lastly to the storm that succeeded the thievery of the cattle of Helios, Odysseus is left alone in his final stretch of his journey home - interupted by a seven year stay at Ogygia. He says that “[His] men were thrown in the water, and bobbing like sea crows they were washed away on the running waves all around the black ship, and the god took away their homecoming.” (Homer, translated by Richmond Lattimore 196) His tone in this excerpt, and one before when describing how his men were “lifted high above me, and they cried out to me and called me by name, the last time they ever did it, in heart’s sorrow” (Homer, translated by Richmond Lattimore 101) shows how monumentally devastating these events are to him. I, as well as any other person I assume, would feel similarly. The terribleness of losing all of your companions to the wrath of sea monsters and storms of the gods would be traumatizing, but also motivating to honor the loss with the completion of the journey.
For these reasons, I would have done the same as Odysseus, and left the island Ogygia of Kalypso to finish my journey home. Dissatisfaction with the redundant life spent with Kalypso, no matter how amazing it is, would drive me to find home. The need to finish the task that I had begun years ago, as well as the need to honor my fallen comrades by returning to our homeland would motivate me to leave the paradise of the island of Kalypso. The island represents temptation, but one can use it as a point of relief and rest before continuing on their journey, as Odysseus did for seven years before deciding to leave.
Works Cited:
Lattimore, Richmond. The Odyssey of Homer . New York: Harper & Row, 1967. Print.