Self Decay In The Odyssey

In the Odyssey, Odysseus drove a hot spear into the eye of a cyclops and blinded him. Odysseus did this out of self preservation. Odysseus found an island on his trip back from the Trojan war, and decided to stop there for supplies. He found a cave inhabited by a man eating cyclops, the cyclops began killing and eating his crew one by one. Then Odysseus out of self preservation got a hot spear blinded the cyclops to help his escape: "Stranger, you are a simple fool, or come from far off, when you tell me to avoid the wrath of the gods or fear them. The Cyclopes do not concern themselves over Zeus of the aegis, nor any of the rest of the blessed gods, since we are far better than they." (Odyssey.) This after Odysseus stabs the cyclops in the

In the pardoners tale the three brothers come across a bag of money. When the first brother went to go get food, the brothers decided to kill the other brother and split the money. The third brother poisoned the food to kill the others and keep the money for himself. When the third brother got back the two brothers killed him, and eat the food. After the the two brothers eat the poisoned food they later died. "Well," said his friends, "you see that we are two, and two are twice as powerful as one. Now look; when he comes back, get up in fun to have a wrestle; then, as you attack, I'll up and put my dagger through his back while you and he are struggling, as in game; then draw your dagger too and do the same. Then all this money will be ours to spend, divided equally of course, dear friend p. Then we can gratify our lusts and fill the day with dicing at outperform own sweet will." Thus these two miscreants agreed to slay the third youngest, as you heard me say." (Pardoners Tale 223-235.) When the brothers showing the willingness to commit violence for the opportunity to have a little bit of power. People will be driven to violence over