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Literary analysis of homer the odyssey
Fate in homer's odyssey
Symbolism of Homer the Odyssey
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Journal Book 22 : Eurycleia and the maids
Compare and Contrast : In The Odyssey, by Homer, Eurycleia is a nurse that takes care of Odysseus before he leaves to Troy. When Odysseus gets back home after 20 years, he find out that the suitors have taken over his palace, and are trying to take Penelope’s hand in marriage. He then murders all the suitors, then tells Telemachus, his son, “‘And when you have set in order all the house, lead forth these slave-maids out of the stately hall to a spot between the roundhouse and the neat court-year, and smite them with our swords till you take life from all’” (Homer 282). Odysseus makes the maids clean up the dead bodies, and makes them clean up, and then because they are not fully loyal to Odysseus, kills
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First of all, Odysseys believes that the maids helped the suitors in many ways, and they did not fully believe in Odysseus. One of the maids, Melantho, was rude to Odysseus when he was disguised as a beggar, calling him a pervert. This caused him to build up a rage towards the maids as he did with the suitors. I also believe that the maids had different viewpoints than Eurycleia. This is because Odysseus only kills the maids and not Eurycleia. Odysseus knows that Eurycleia is and always have been loyal to Odysseus, and so the maids weren’t.
Connection: Judith Beheading Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi
I believe that this image connects to this scene in The Odyssey. In this picture Judith, who was a spy, gets into Holofernes’ house, and kills him. The women that is a spy depicts Odysseus because he disguises as a beggar, and then kills all the suitors. The man that is getting killed connects to the maids and the servants because the spy (Odysseus) comes and kills them. The women behind the person killing the man can be said to be Telemachus, because he helped kill the suitors and the maids. The women is also using a sword, which is what Odysseus lets Telemachus to use to kill the maids (Homer
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Throughout the novel, Odysseus is on the constant race to get back to his family again. This is a sign of love and compassion, even though he doesn’t show that every time, like when he blinds Polyphemus. Odysseus wanted to know if his father was still well and alive, because he had been gone for 20 years now, and he has no clue what has happened to Laertes. I believe that there is a rollercoaster of emotions inside Odysseus at this point. On one hand, he had been wanting revenge on the suitors, and now that he has, he must feel accomplished. Then on the other hand, he is happy that he has gotten back to his family, and he shows concern for his father. I also infer that the reason that the parents of the suitors wants payback on Odysseus is because he had been gone for a long time, and he just showed up, and killed everyone. The parents didn’t even know for certain that Odysseus was back, they just knew that if someone had the strength to do it, it would be
In Odysseus's mind he has very good reasons to kill the suitors. He decided to kill them when he found out that they wanted to marry his wife. The suitors has all assumed that he was dead, for 20 years. As a result they tried to marry his wife. Penelope also believed that he was still alive and she tried to delay any marriages. Odysseus's idea to kill them all is not very logical especially because while he was away on his 20 year expedition he cheated on his wife two times. Odysseus actions were very rash. The reader can see this when Eurymachus says, “Rash actions, many here,” (Homer 818). Eurymachus knows that Odysseus has made rash decision and he is trying to show him his ways and how it is bad. Later the reader reads that Odysseus doesn’t really see that and he is just excited to be reunited with his wife.
Odysseus was within arms reach of home but because of how naive he was he was forced to keep going on his journey. After all of Aeolus’ hospitality and such a powerful gift Odysseus is still mindless at what this meant and because of him not being cautious, he could not complete his adventure. It’s surprising knowing that after being on a powerful god’s bad side and being forced back to sea, that Odysseus can be even more of a fool.
Women are often treated as tools to accomplish men’s goals because of this authority and are seen as beings who cannot live without the support of men. In The Odyssey, Penelope, Telemachus’ mother, is used by Telemachus to show his authority as the man of the house by sending her away to her room by his “masterful words” (Homer 186). By doing so he is also warning the suitors who have come to take advantage of the xenia he and his mother provided to them. While Penelope is strong by refusing the passes of the suitors, she maintains the vulnerable image by weeping for Odysseus who has been gone for ten years (Weimer 1). In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Shamhat the Harlot is used as a tool to seduce Enkidu, Gilgamesh’s male partner and friend. Ninsun’s reaction to Enkidu brings to attention to her worries of Gilgamesh being taken away from her, showing that relationships between men were held in much higher regard than mother and son relationship (“The Epic Of” 51-52). Men are depicted more powerful than women thus leading to supporting women, especially those they are related to.
For seven years, Odysseus is held captive by the goddess Calypso. The young goddess “desired me and detained me in her hall. But in my heart, I never gave consent” (Homer 372). This quote suggests that although Calypso may have believed she was loved by Odysseus, he never really cared for her. If Odysseus would have stayed faithful to his wife, Calypso would have killed him. Thus, he is able to protect himself by lying to her. Another point in the epic where Odysseus' dishonesty impacts his success is with the suitors. After arriving at his homeland, Odysseus disguises himself to protect himself from being harmed: “Odysseus enters his home as a beggar, and the suitors mock and abuse him” (Homer 402). When Odysseus appears to be a beggar, the suitors think nothing of him. They disrespect him, his family, and his home. Had they know Odysseus was back, they would have treated him much differently. Because of the way they acted towards him, it can be suggested that they would be willing to do anything to take control of his kingdom. He is then able to find out more about them and their motives without getting
The role that the housemaids play in The Odyssey is that of servitude. They are expected to serve the suitors and put up with their rude demeanor. During the course of the ten years that the suitors are there, many of the housemaids sleep with them. Upon returning to Ithica, and slaughtering the suitors, Odysseus makes the housemaids who slept with the suitors clean up their dead bodies. After this he hangs them by the neck, with this gesture he indirectly calls them “harlots”. This indicates one of many feelings toward women of that time.
With the Odyssey, Odysseus learned a big lesson in humility. The greatest example of this is in the last five books or so within the story. He has to dress, act, and live like a beggar in order to regain everything he had lost. While he was a beggar, the suitors treated him horribly. Antinous, leader of the suitors, was the worst of them all. He was the first to mistreat Odysseus and planned to kill Telemachus. He was also the one that would abuse him physically and verbally for some time to come. Also, if that weren’t enough, he planned a boxing match for Odysseus to be in to watch him get beat up. All this was happening and the other suitors were most likely following their leader in whatever he was doing. Odysseus had to control himself the whole time this was happening. If he had lost his temper, the suitors would have killed him, his son, and most likely taken over the kingdom. That didn’t happen though. Odysseus learned self-control and humility. He may not be perfect at it, but going through all the humility made him a better man. Along the same topic, he was a king going through this humility. It would be one thing for a peasant to go through it, but a king? This made it even harder for Odysseus. He had rank above all the suitors and could rightly kick them out of his kingdom. Instead he waits for the right time and kills them all. The “pre-journey” Odysseus would of thought of himself invincible and probably would have died trying to get his kingdom back.
The image of seductresses is a recurring motif in The Odyssey. These women are a temptation to Odysseus. They attempt to keep Odysseus from accomplishing his goal: his homecoming. Circe is a bewitching goddess. She entices Odysseus’ crew into her palace with her enchanting voice. However, after she feeds them, she promptly turns them into pigs. Circe also succeeds in enticing Odysseus; he stays with her one year as her lover. It is so long that his crew declares that it is “madness” (326). They say that it is “high time” that Odysseus thinks of his homeland (326). Later on, Odysseus and his crew encounter the sirens. Knowing the danger they pose, Odysseus has all his men’s ears stopped up with wax. However, Odysseus wishes to hear their song; so he asks his crew to tie him to the mast. The song of the sirens is so sweet and enticing. Their “ravishing voices” almost make Odysseus forget his desire to return home (349). His heart “throbbed” to listen longer; he signals for his men to let him go free. The grea...
The power and influence of women is symbolized in Odysseus’ encounter with the dead in Hades. In the Underworld, Odysseus meets more women than men. He meets his mother and then a “grand array of women” (334). They all were “wives and daughters once of princes” (334). All of them are the legendary women who were the mothers of the greatest Greek lineages. This symbolizes how Greek civilization was founded by women; they were the ones who gave birth to the heroes. Similarly, The Odyssey is a story created by women. The plot revolves around the actions of women. Athena orchestrates all the events. The seductresses, such as Circe, the sirens, and Calypso, attempt to stop Odysseus from reaching home. The helpmeets, such as Nausicaa, Arete, and Athena, aid Odysseus in his homecoming. The wise and virtuous Penelope is the object of Odysseus’ quest. Unlike Helen who forsakes her husband, Penelope remains faithful. Unlike Clytemnestra who assassinates her husband, Penelope patiently waits for Odysseus. She becomes a model of female patience and of female intelligence. Her craftiness is the only one which can match up to Odysseus’. The Odyssey presents a wide array of women and demonstrates the influence that women have in the life of a
While the relationship between Odysseus and Telemakhos is a blind love, the relationship between Odysseus and Penelope is a love between two people who just want to be together. Odysseus shows his love towards Penelope throughout the Odyssey. In spite of the fact that Odysseus has been gone for twenty years, he never forgets his wife back in Ithaca. One example of how much he wanted to go home was when he went to the island of the Lotus-Eaters. He could have stayed on the island of the Lotus-Eaters where everything he ever wanted was there, but the thing he wanted the most was to be with his wife. Penelope likewise displays this kind of love towards Odysseus.
However, his journey isn’t over yet. This last leg of Odysseus’s journey is perhaps the most important and crucial. Odysseus’s nurse and maidservant, Eurycleia is the first woman in Ithaca to know that Odysseus is back after she recognizes the scar on his leg while she is washing him. Eurycleia vows to keep his identity a secret. Odysseus’s wife, Penelope has stayed faithful to Odysseus for all the years that he was gone. Penelope was consistently unweaving her web to the delay the suitors. The reader even grows sympathetic for Penelope as “we see her struggle to make the virtuous choice about her marriage, despite pressures from her suitors, her son’s endangered situation, and her own uncertainty about Odysseus’s survival” (Foley ). Finally, Odysseus reveals his identity and Penelope is bewildered, but quickly embraces her husband after he tells her the secret of their immovable bed. It is the faithfulness of Penelope and nurse Eurycleia that insures Odysseus’s survival to the very end.
... the most pampered queen to the lowest servant, the women were always had the lowest perceptions of them. This scene is just a shadow of the stereotypical ideology of women being inferior to men and not being able to defend for themselves, while the men improve in stature and ego. Also, when Penelope talks about the “girl[s] and goddess[es] he was praising, the reader sees that Penelope knew all along Odysseus’s unfaithfulness to her. This is a sign of Penelope’s intelligence that was hidden due to the original story being solely based off Odysseus’s perspective.
In the era of Homer, women played a very specific role in society, and even in literature. Women of this time were basically put in a box, and expected to never step out of line. If they did go against the arbitration of men, then they would face serious consequences. However, female characters play a huge role in both aiding, and delaying, Odysseus’s journey home. I will proceed to analyze, and interpret, the actions and intentions of every major female character in The Odyssey.
Revenge is at the core of the Greek tragedies Agamemnon, the first play in the trilogy Oresteia (Aeschylus (525 - 455 BC), and Medea (Euripides (431 – 480 B.C.). The protagonists in each play are women who carry out horrifying acts of revenge on their husbands. Both characters – Clytemnestra and Medea – are at once heroines, villainesses and victims.
Eurycleia was old, wise, prideful and very loyal. “I knew it all, I gave him all he asked for, bread and mellow wine but he made me take a binding oath that I, I wouldn’t tell you no, not till ten or a dozen days has passed or you missed the lad yourself and learned what he’d done.” Eurycleia was the only one who knew that Telemachus had gone to find his father and she was loyal to him and didn’t tell his mother Penelope. Loyalty was something that was of great importance to the Greeks and Eurycleia was one of the most loyal mortal women in the story. Even when the other maids were having affairs with the suitors Eurycleia stayed loyal to the family she had been a part of for many years and grown to love. Odysseus trusted her with his big secret when she found out it was him when she was washing his feet but she didn’t say anything because his trust meant more to her then anything. Going through life constantly thinking about if someone’s going to figure out that you have been lying and disloyal wasn’t a life most mortal Greek lived and Eurycleia was not one of those women, in fact she was quite the
Throughout the book every time and after he conquers the new challenges Odysseus answers the question, which is repeated throughout, with a different answer. Each time he conquers a challenge on his journey home he learns a new lesson towards humility and answers with a new perspective. “‘I am no god,’ said the patient, good Odysseus. ‘Why do you take me for an immortal? But I am your father, on whose account you have endured so much sorrow and trouble and suffered persecution at men’s hand.’”(P 214 L 186-189) Although he is viewed by many people as very god-like Odysseus realizes that he is an ordinary man and is not a god. Odysseus’ desire to return home is another example that makes him an everyman. In this epic tale the word home had a double meaning for the hero. Home was where his family was and where he wanted to be. The physical element of being home and with his family was a huge deal for him. The other meaning of home was being safe and secure. His aspiration to return home and to return to his safety in sometimes shows that he is also a rather weak man. It is a human instinct to want to go home and stay safe instead of always being brave and