The Odyssey

The Odyssey is a Greek word meaning 'the tale of Odysseus.'; Odysseus, the King of Ithaca; husband of Penelope; father of Telemachus; and son of Laertes was not able to return home after the war he was once in: the Trojan War. Stuck on an island, he is presumed dead. In his absence, suitors for his wife ruin his house with lavish feasts. This epic poem, by Homer, describes how Odysseus, with the help of the gods, gets home and regains his kingship. Justice is always harsh in the Odyssey; there is either no justice or a lot of it; the punishment however, is always severe. Justice in the Odyssey plays out among these characters: Odysseus and his crew, the suitors, Poseidon, Aeolus, Hyperion, Agamemnon, Aegisthus, Melanthius, Melantho, Telemachus, and Polyphemus. Each one of these characters does something wrong and receives a harsh punishment. In the Odyssey, justice, when done, always allots a large punishment, never a small one. Aegisthus courted Agamemnon's wife and then killed him. The justice of the Gods is a swift and powerful one. However, Aegisthus had been warned: 'we ourselves had sent Hermes, the keen-eyed Giant-slayer, to warn him neither to kill the man nor to court his wife'; (pg. 4). Aegisthus ignored the warning, killing Agamemnon and courting his wife. Orestes, Agamemnon's son, killed Aegisthus to avenge his father's death. The gods saw this as swift, fair, and powerful justice: 'And now Aegisthus has paid the final price for all his sins'; (pg. 4). The suitors, led by Antinous and Eurymachus, expect justice to be served when Telemachus sails to Pylos without telling them. '[The] Suitors had embarked and were sailing the high seas with murder for Telemachus in their hearts'; (pg. 69). They eventually found him, however they did not kill him like they sought out to. This is a case in which 'justice'; did not happen at all. The adventure of Odysseus and Polyphemus, the cycloptic son of Poseidon, showed good examples of justice. Polyphemus ate four men of Odysseus' crew and in return, Odysseus and his remaining crew administered justice: 'Seizing the olive pole, they drove its sharpened end into the Cyclops' eye'; (pg. 135). In doing this, they were able to escape and they set sail. Odysseus, carried away in his pride, announced his identity to Polyphemus. When he had heard Odysseus' name, Polyphemus called upon his father, Poseidon, to adminis...

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...Medon the herald. These two were not killed because they were forced to side with the suitors. The person who committed the most crimes was the first person to be killed: Antinous. Eurymachus tried to avoid the justification of his evil deeds: 'the man who was responsible for everything lies dead already, Antinous here, the prime mover in these misdeeds . . . We will each bring a contribution to the value of twenty oxen, and repay you in bronze and gold, till your heart softens. Meanwhile, no one could blame you for your anger'; (pg. 330). However his soft-talking did not effect Odysseus, and he killed Eurymachus. Justice in the Odyssey can go either way: crimes are either too severely punished or not punished at all. This is so, in the example of the Antinous – Telemachus conflict. Antinous sought to kill Telemachus because he never told him that he was leaving Ithaca. They found him, but they never actually executed the punishment. A prime example of when justice was served in a harsh manner was when Odysseus stabbed Polyhemus' in the eye, blinding him forever for holding him captive. Thus the punishment did not always match the crime, and justice was done arbitrarily.