Sacrifice In The Odyssey

The role of gods and sacrifice in Greek Mythology has a prime role in everyday life. In the epic poem The Odyssey, written by Homer, the main character, Odysseus, has one major goal in mind. Throughout the poem, Odysseus has the objective of getting home to Ithaca. On this journey back home, he overcomes multitudinous obstacles, sacrifices his crew men, and has the help of the Greek gods like Athena, Calypso, Ino, and Zeus. Several major themes are portrayed through Odysseus’s return home. The role of gods, specifically in making direct contacts with humans, animal sacrifice, and human sacrifice are unquestionably common in Greek Mythology, but today, these particular concepts are not common in modern literature or daily life.

The presence

and role of gods is very significant in Greek Mythology. During Odysseus’s return home, Poseidon stirs up a storm in which Odysseus is pulled under the sea. The goddess Ino comes and provides Odysseus with a veil to keep him safe after his ship had been demolished by Poseidon's storm. “He will not down you, though, despite his rage. You seem clear-headed still...find shelter. Here: take my veil...you cannot, now, be drowned or suffer harm” (Book V, Lines 350-360). In other words, Ino is willing to help Odysseus when Poseidon was trying to kill him. She knows that Odysseus is on his journey back home, and he should not die at the hands of Poseidon’s deadly power. In order to save him, she gives Odysseus her veil to wear, and it would have kept Odysseus safe. Odysseus gets out of the storm safely and lands on an island, in which a benevolent lady takes care of him and invites Odysseus into her home. Without the help of the goddess Ino, Odysseus would have most likely died in the storm.
In modern literature, this help from the gods is not common. This is because most people do not believe that one can have direct contact with God. Additionally, today we do not rely on gods for much help, and if we do, it would never happen like it had in The Odyssey. A god or goddess would never appear out of thin air and save somebody’s life, like Ino had done for Odysseus. In Greek Mythology, the gods play a very significant role in everyday life, but that is not common today. For example, Zeus is the god of the sky, thunder, and the ruler of all supplementary gods. He has control over the sky, like other gods have control over their given feature of the world. Today, some people still believe in these Greek gods, but many do not. The use and role of gods in everyday life is drastically different than that of Greek Mythology. In modern day, many people unpretentiously worship one god, monotheism, following the beliefs of their religion. This is remarkably different than the Greek belief, polytheistic. “Christians believe in a loving God who has revealed himself and can be known in a person way, in this life. With Jesus Christ, the person’s focus in not on religious rituals or performing good works, but on enjoying a better relationship with God and growing to know him better. Faith in Jesus Christ himself, not just in his teachings, is how the Christian experiences joey and a meaningful life” (Adamson 1). Clearly, many people practice different religions instead of a majority like the Greeks practiced. With each separate religion, comes a set of beliefs or rules that the people follow. All of these religions do not believe in the same worshiping of gods, and that is simply okay.
Today, we never imagine such things as animal sacrifice sacrifice.

However, in Greek Mythology, animal sacrifice is common, and some of these aspects are portrayed in The Odyssey. In this epic poem, there are several scenes in which the people sacrifice goats, cows, or any sort of animal as part of their religion and a way of worshiping their gods. These types of sacrifices, along with the sacrifices of people, is extremely common in daily life of Greek Mythology. “We make an end henceforth of taking, in our ships, castaways who may land upon Skheria: and twelve choice bulls we dedicate at once to Lord Poseidon, praying him of his mercy not to heave up a mountain round our city” (Book 13, Lines 225-231). In the epic poem, it is very common to immolate animals to the gods they worship. In this case, they are sacrificing twelve Bulls of their choice to their God Poseidon. They are doing this in order for the lord to have mercy on them, hopefully not punishing them. It is almost like they are bribing him of his mercy with sacrificing these Bulls. This type of sacrifice is very uncommon in neoteric life and literature. Even though human or animal sacrifice occurs in some places of the world, it is extremely atypical now, especially when compared to The Odyssey. Many people do not come in contact of any human or animal sacrifices, and it is bizarre to imagine that it was actually an option back

then.
Human sacrifice was very common in Greek Mythology, and is still practiced in a few parts of the world today.

A common example of human sacrifice in modern day is war. The soldiers who take part in battle give themselves up to defend their nation. In the front lines the soldiers never know when they’ll take their last breath or step. They sacrifices themselves for the better of the country. In The Odyssey, Circe informs Odysseus, before hand, that he will come across a prodigious monster on his voyage. This monster’s name is Scylla and she has six heads and twelve legs. For every one of her heads, she swallows a person off the ship. No ship was ever passed through this dangerous monster without losing at least one man. Overall, six men were sacrificed in order for Odysseus and the rest of the crew to get home safely. But today, human sacrifice is not common whatsoever. The majority of the people do not take practice in any form of human sacrifice. “Religious wars and persecutions are still not at all uncommon in various parts of the world. Christianity and Islam...both have a long history of religious wars persecutions” (Pearson, 1). Strictly speaking, some Christians and Muslims take part in human sacrifice during the times of war and persecution. In conclusion, human sacrifice, similarly to how it occurred in Greek Mythology, still exists

today.
There many different aspects of religion that are shown in The Odyssey, but the two main ones are the role of gods and sacrifice of men and animals. In The Odyssey, Odysseus, the main protagonist, receives the help of many gods and goddesses throughout his journey of reaching home to Ithaca. This exceeding portion of the epic poem dealt with his journey on sea, and all of the challenges Odysseus had come across during that time. One particular thing that Odysseus came across was gods, and today, we do not use these types of gods in modern literature or daily life. Even though some people worship gods today, they are not delineated in the same aspect as they were in The Odyssey. Additionally, the use of human sacrifice is common in this epic poem. Christians and Muslims used to contribute in human sacrifice during times of war and persecution. But other than that, human sacrifice is not common in many nations today around the world. Many aspects that are portrayed in Greek Mythology are not common today around the world, neither in daily life or modern literature.