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Help.on the odyssey
The odyssey informative essay
Help.on the odyssey
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There are certain traits in which many people wish to possess. One of those traits is knowledge. Everyone wants to be smarter than everyone else, and being the smartest around is not always a bad thing. However, sometimes knowledge does not have to be a good thing. Knowledge is helpful to save lives such as Odysseus’s journey in the Odyssey and when the CIA foiled Al Qaeda’s terrorist plot to bomb an airplane. However, knowledge is also a burden when one begins to have second thought from my personal experiences taking tests.
To begin, Odysseus shows that his knowledge is useful and important in many places in the Odyssey. One specific time his knowledge is useful and lifesaving is when Odysseus has to cunningly figure out how to save his crew from the Cyclops Polyphemus. After the Cyclops becomes hostile to Odysseus and his men, Odysseus decides he must figure out how to leave surreptitiously. Odysseus then tells the Cyclops that his name is “Noman” in preparation for his escape. Later that day, Odysseus stabs the Cyclops in the eye and escapes successfully. The Cyclops stumbles ou...
Odysseus?s cunning is cardinal to his survival and that of his men. He uses his cunning to get them out of several unpleasant situations. When they are captured by the Cyclops, he can not use the strength of his men to escape, so he must use his cunning to free them. He lies and tricks the Cyclops to get out, ??My name is Nohbdy: mother, father, and friends, everyone calls me Nohbdy?? (9.397-99). This clever deception stops the other Cyclops from helping Polyphemos helping them to escape. Odysseus also shows his cleverness when he returns to Ithaca.
Once he and he men are sailing away from the Cyclops, Odysseus cries back to the Cyclops “if anyone ever asks you how you came by your blindness, tell them your eye was put out by Odysseus, sacker of cities, son of Laertes, who lives in Ithaca.” Odysseus has regretted his earlier decision for Polyphemus to not know his true name, because it means that anyone hearing the tale of a man defeating a Cyclops will not know that it was Odysseus who did it. The arrogant Odysseus does not like this, because he wants all tales of his prowess to be known for his. As he cannot let the chance of more fame escape him, he reveals to Polyphemus his true identity. This sentence, with which he risks the Cyclops throwing a boulder onto their ship, show the readers just how arrogant Odysseus is. It helps the readers understand quite how willing Odysseus is to risk anything if it will add to his
Odysseus found himself in some dangerous situations during his journey but he was clever enough to think of ways to escape them. For example, when he encountered Polyphemus, Odysseus tricked him when he told the Cyclops his name was "Noman." After Polyphemus believed him and was stabbed in the eye, not knowing any better called out to his friends, "Noman is murdering me by craft. Force there is none" (87). Odysseus’ power over his enemy is once again confirmed by his wit more than by physical force. Although this sense of guile is at his enemy’s expense, there exists a touch of dramatic irony that helps the reader to take part in knowing something that Odysseus’ enemy doesn’t know.
Remember now, to give me the gift just as you promised. Noman is my name, they call me Noman, my mother, my father, and all my friends too.” (Book 9: lines 360-365) Polyphemus fell asleep. Odysseus took an olivewood stake and stabbed him in his eye. The Cyclops was shouting “Noman is killing me!” (Book 9: line 407) The other Cyclops thought his pain was being inflicted by Zeus and continued on with their business. If Odysseus was not tremendously brave, how could he have pulled off a stunt like that.
In The Odyssey, book nine and ten written by Homer, Odysseus constantly embodies the principal characteristics of a hero which are : cleverness, leadership, and selflessness. Thus, this character is regarded as an idol among the other characters and greatly captures the reader’s sympathy for his choices and the fruit to his actions in life. First, Odysseus displays cleverness in Book Nine when he tricks the Cyclops Poluphemus that his name is “nobody” in order to escape the horrors of the cyclop’s cave. He states: “Nobody--so my mother and father call me, all my friends” (Homer, 18). Second, Odysseus is a brave leader of his army especially in book ten when he displays leadership by motivating his comrades in keep trying to sail despite the
Throughout the story of The Odyssey, Odysseus is both punished for his pride and rewarded for his ingenuity. When he lingers in the cave of Polyphemus, Odysseus ends up losing six of his men to the cyclops even though he boastfully attests that “He (Polyphemus) thought to tempt me, but he could not cheat a knowing man like me” (85). As a result, when Odysseus reveals his identity as they are sailing away from the island, Polyphemus pleads with his father Poseidon to punish the crew and to “vouchsafe no coming home to this Odysseus, spoiler of cities,…let him come, in evil plight, with loss of all his crew, on vessel of a stranger, and may he at his home find trouble” (89). This curse comes true, as Odysseus is the lone survivor of Poseidon’s storm and meets trouble with the suitors as soon as he returns to Ithaca. However, while Odysseus is punished for his pride, he is able to learn from his mistakes, and is accordingly rewarded for his ingenuity and cunning. By stating that his name is “Noman” and by getting Polyphemus drunk, he and his men are able to escape the cave, and when he disguises himself in Ithaca, he is able to successfully defeat all of the suitors and take back his home and city as
For this second identification Odysseus has undergone a long journey, measured not only by time and distance but also as a series of alienations in foreign lands, illustrating to Odysseus what exactly his identity does not consist in, namely the immortal, the underworld, or other nationalities. Through these alienations Homer establishes the hostile world in which Odysseus must struggle to exist and in which sometimes the Gods themselves become hostile, causing mortals to suffer. In order to survive this, Odysseus also explores what it is to present oneself as without a past, home, fixed identity, or as he names himself to the Cyclops - a "Noman". That is to say that in certain instances Homer presents Odysseus as performing the opposite action of most mortals(i.e. attempting to make a name for themselves) by disguising or even eradicating his name, thus establishing an externally identifiable ...
The character of Odysseus in homers epic is known for his strength, courage, brilliance, guile and versatility. These characteristics can be seen when he tricks the Cyclops Polyphemus (son of the earth-shaker Poseidon). After Odysseus tricks the cyclops into getting drunk with red wine the cyclops asks him his name. To this Odysseus proclaims “Noman is my name. They call me Noman” (Hom.Od.IX.364). This
The Odyssey is a tale that has changed literature and storytelling. In this tale Odysseus is a Soldier from the battle of Troy trying to get home to his island of Ithaca, where he is king. His wife and son must wait ten years while he is trying to make his way home. In Odysseus’s absence wooer’s, or better known as suitors, learn of his absence and travel to Ithaca to win his wife’s hand in marriage. These men come every day feasting on Odysseus’s food and wine, and give his servant’s orders. His son Telemachus, does his best to keep the suitors from ruining his fathers house but he is only a boy, and doesn’t receive the respect of an adult. Telemachus then has a visit from the god Athena, whom Odysseus is friends with, who advises him to travel to find out about his father. In his travels he hears that Odysseus may still be alive. Meanwhile Odysseus goes through a series of adventures and hardships that prove his wisdom. It is interesting in contrast of the Iliad, even though Achilles was much stronger and a better warrior, Odysseus was portrayed as a greater hero due to his wisdom. He uses this wisdom to escape from the Cyclops.
When Odysseus and his men realized they were trapped inside the cave, Odysseus was smart enough to realize that they would be trapped forever by the Cyclops boulder if they killed him. Not only is Odysseus smart enough to create a plan of escape by getting the Cyclops drunk but also stays calm and collected to trick the Cyclops into drinking the wine without arousing suspicion. As a result, they stab the Cyclops, blinding him. To hide his identity as king of Ithaca and to trick the neighboring Cyclops he gives a false name by saying, “My name is Nohbody: mother, father, and friends, / everyone calls...
So to say, knowledge can either make or break a person. It can act as a benefit, for power, or loss, for ignorance. “Do not take for granted what you know. Ask yourself how you know what you know; ask yourself whom it benefits, whom it hurts and why.” (Blackboard: Knowledge is Power)
To begin, one feature that makes Odysseus and epic hero is his intelligence. In order for him to have survived through his journey, he has to have a massive amount of intellect. To have survived a Cyclops is an accomplishment of its own. His ability to think on his feet and to plan situations and ability to make a right decision in horrid environments has helped him survive throughout his disastrous journey. When he is trapped by the Cyclops, Polyphemus, he has to carve, smooth, and sharpen a gigantic spear-shaped-pole out of a large tree that he and his strongest men would then use it on the Cyclops to blind it. In order to follow through with his plan, Odysseus has to sedate him. He gives Polyphemus an extremely strong wine, in which Polyphemus asks him his name. Odysseus replies: “My name is Nohbdy; mother, father, friends, everyone call me Nohbdy”(9.274-9.275) When the Cyclops passes out, Odysseus and four of his strongest men stab Polyphemus in his eye with the sharpened pole that he and his men ...
To begin with, Odysseus is an intelligent and clever man. He is a hero because he has the capacity to understand the situations and think through the struggles they are going to face. Odysseus is put against all the odds possible, and at times it seems like the gods are against him. Odysseus tricks the Cyclops, Polyphemus, in a very strategic way and handled the situation effectively. “My name is Nohbdy: mother, father, and friends, / everyone calls me Nohbdy (Homer 498). Odysseus’ cleverness is brought out because he conceived an idea that would be adequate enough to trick a Cyclops. Later when Polyphemus is stabbed, he screams, “Nohbdy, Nohbdy’s tricked
In Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, Odysseus fails as a leader by prioritizing his reputation over his crew’s safety after defeating the cyclops Polyphemus. In the story, Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, travels to Troy to fight against the Trojans. On his journey back to Ithaca, a string of damaging incidents lead him to a mysterious island, which he later discovers is inhabited by the murderous cyclops Polyphemus. His crew manages to escape the cyclops, but not before Polyphemus kills several of Odysseus’s crew. Odysseus escapes and could have sailed away peacefully, but he calls out to Polyphemus to suggest that “if anyone, any mortal man, asks you how you got your eye put out, tell him that Odysseus the marauder did it,” (IX, 500-502). This prompts Polyphemus to lob a rock, nearly destroying Odysseus's ship. It is odd that this was
The first heroic characteristic of Odysseus is his cleverness. In The Odyssey, one of the instances where Odysseus displays cleverness is in his encounter with the Cyclops, Polyphemus. Polyphemus captures Odysseus and his men in the island Cyclopes, which was filled with other giants. Although it is expected among the Greeks to display hospitality to strangers, Polyphemus ends up eating some of Odysseus men. In order to escape the giant, Odysseus comes up with a clever plan. He offers Polyphemus wine in order to get the giant drunk. When the giant falls asleep, Odysseus stabs Polyphemus’ singular eye, blinding the giant. The giant naturally wakes up, and starts to try and recapture Odysseus and his men. Knowing that the giant’s shouting would most likely attract the attention of the other giants in the island, Odysseus replies to Polyphemus when the giant asks him his name that his name was “Noman.” But when Polyphemus shouts for help, none of the other giants come to his aid, since he is shouting “My friends, N...