More handpicked essays just for you.
Critical essays major themes in the odyssey
The odyssey in todays world
Critical essays major themes in the odyssey
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
As one of the seven deadly sins depicted in the bible pride is defined as an excessive admiration of self. In book 9 of the Odyssey, The Cyclops, Odysseus and his men encounter Poseidon’s cyclops son Polyphemus. Odysseus manages to offend Polyphemus, causing the monster to devour two of Odysseus’s men and trap the remaining men inside his cave. At night Odysseus and his comrades fashion a stake and plan to attack the cyclops and escape before they are killed. The men blind Polyphemus by stabbing the stake through his eye, and they escape the cave by using the cyclops’s sheep to disguise themselves. The whole encounter could have went much smoother than what played out of Odysseus hadn’t let his biggest flaw get the best of him; his pride.
Odysseus
Odysseus is one of the most renowned warriors of all time. However, many historians argue that he was one of the worst leaders in all of literature and humanity. Throughout the Odyssey, Odysseus has shown traits unbefitting of a leader and king. Odysseus is a lousy leader because he is arrogant, disloyal, and selfish.
Odysseus displays his desire for glory through his careless actions during his encounter with the Cyclops Polyphemus. The desire for glory Odysseus displays is shown through the words he speaks to Polyphemus. He is a clever character but makes rash decisions that affect the outcome of his original goals and intentions. While Odysseus is trapped inside of the cave of the Cyclops, he begins to taunt Polyphemus. “I called back to the Cyclops, stinging taunts: So, Cyclops, no weak coward it was whose crew you bent to devour three in your vaulted cave—with your brute voice! Filthy crimes came down on your own head, you shameless cannibal” (Fagles, 226). Odysseus was insulting the Cyclops, and those insults caused the rage of the monster to boil over. The Cyclops was already angry with Odysseus blinding him, and was even more demoralized and angry when Odysseus began to taunt him. As Odysseus goes on with his insults and as his anger rises, he says, “Cyclops—if any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shamed—say Odysseus, raider of cities, he gouged out your eye, La...
Throughout its history, strong values have stood at the core of Greek culture. Ancient Greeks placed a focus on a balance of mind and body. Citizens were expected to adhere to three main Greek virtues; these being respect for the body, respect for the gods, and hospitality. At times, these virtues were not upheld, usually resulting in what they believed to be punishment from the gods. Examples of this can be seen in the epic, The Odyssey, authored by Homer. Throughout the poem, a repeated disregard for the ancient Greek values teaches readers a fundamental principle of life--consequences follow poor decisions.
Within the Penelopiad, Atwood’s responds to the cultural values of Homer’s Odyssey through the characterisation of Penelope. Penelope’s narrative perspective exposes aspects of gender and class relationships that the Homeric original ignores. Atwood couples this with multiple genres and an emphasis on the process of myth formation. This serves to challenge the construction of the Odyssey as a tool to encode social norms. However, this focus on subjectivity also emphasises the unreliable female narration of the Penelopiad. Conflict between these female characters reinforces values imposed within the Odyssey. Penelope’s interaction with other women demonstrates her compliance with Homeric ideas about class and gender. To a major extent, the
In life, it is important to be optimistic, and see the glass as half full. Being optimistic means to look at things in a positive way. And it is important to stay optimistic in life. Being an optimist can also be thought of as having lots of hope for the future. Sometimes it is hard to be optimistic when other things in your life are going wrong. But, you have to look past the negatives, and try to see the best in things and keep hope. Penelope and I are both similar because we both stay optimistic in life.
To start, within the course of The Odyssey, Odysseus displays hubris through many of his actions. The most prominent instance in which Odysseus shows hubris is while he and his men are trying to escape from the Cyclops Polyphemus. They drug the monster until it passes out, and then stab him with a timber in his single eye. Polyphemus, now blinded, removes the gigantic boulder blocking Odysseus’ escape, and waits for the men to move, so he can kill them. The men escape from the cave to their boat by tying themselves under flocks of rams, so they can easily slip by. Odysseus, now proud after beating the giant, starts to yell at Polyphemus, instead of making a silent escape. Odysseus’ men ask him to stop before Polyphemus would “get the range and lob a boulder” (436). But Odysseus shows hubris by saying that if they were to meet again, Odysseus would “take your life” and “hurl you down to hell!” (462; 463). Polyphemus, now extremely angry with Odysseus, prays to his father, Poseidon, to make Odysseus “never see his home” again, and after which, throws a mountain towards the sound of Odysseus’ voice. (470). Because of Odysseus’ hubris after blinding Polyphemus, Poseidon grants the prayer, and it takes Odysseus 20 years to return home, at the cost of the lives of all his men.
For hundreds of years, psychologists have attempted to understand why toddlers selfishly refuse to share. Recently, many experts in the field agree that toddlers are incapable of sharing because of their lack of integral brain development. From birth through early childhood, a child can only recognize his own wants and needs. Around the time a child begins kindergarten, he starts to development his understanding of abstract concepts, such as empathy, and sympathy. However, some believe that humans never rid themselves of that original selfishness. In essence, humans are born selfish and hopefully become compassionate later on. The idea of a natural tendency towards selfishness
Within the epic poem "The Odyssey", Homer presents the story of Odysseus's quest to find his home and his identity. According to Homer's account, with its origin in oral tradition, the two quests are interchangeable, as a mortal defines himself with his home, his geographic origin, his ancestors, his offspring, etc. But in addition to this Homer illustrates the other aspect of human identity, shaped by the individual and his actions so that he may be recognized in the outside world. Through this Homer presents Odysseus in two ways: the first his internally given identity as ruler and native of Ithaca, son of Laertes, father of Telemachos; the second the definition of the external world which sees the "god-like" mortal famous for his clever actions and the god's almost unanimous favor.
Along the same line as humility comes pride. Odysseus had more pride and cockiness than any of the characters I have read about this semester. He didn’t seem as bad in the Iliad, but the Odyssey really showed him in a different light. He had to swallow his pride when he had to come back to his home and get it back. Just in the fact that he came back at all was pride swallowing. He lost all of his men.
book takes place in, is called to action and set in motion on his Hero
than the times of today. Back then, the most important aspect of life for a
In the epic the Odyssey, the three main characters, Penelope, Telemachus, and Odysseus, are a family, and they each show what it means to show arete. Arete by definition means somebody who shows excellence, not about being the best, or right. The ways you can show excellence is by having passion, loyalty, strength, commitment, self-awareness, creativity, and contributing. The characters show their own excellence in different ways. Each of these main characters, Penelope, Telemachus, and Odysseus has the characteristics of being an excellent person.
Walking into her boss’ office, my mom thought about what was to come. Is this really the best for my family? Will the pay difference be worth it? My mom strolled into her boss’s office, looked into his eyes, and quit. Sick of being yelled at and treated like an outsider, she moved from a private practice to Legal Aid where she could further impact the community. Even though this event may seem perfectly normal to most people, it nevertheless requires courage. While many people have different definitions of the word courage, dictionary.com believes it “is to do something difficult.” Even though the word does in fact have to do with overcoming a difficult situation, this definition is too broad. Many people believe that jumping off a cliff requires
Virtually, everything we do in our world is for the love of something or someone. In Homer’s epic, The Odyssey, Odysseus was driven by his love for Penelope and his home of Ithaca to attempt daring adventures that accredited him the title of a hero. Loyalty is one of the most vital attributes of a person’s character. It is loyalty that forms the bond and connections with the people and places around us. It is our daring thoughts and daring actions fueled by our loyalty that allow us the power to achieve goals or overcome obstacles in our lives. Whether our confidence comes from pure bravery or a desperate need for our love, it is vital in completing the tasks that we are presented with during our lifetime. Odysseus is a hero, because he is loyal, daring, and confident.
The passage is from the epic the Iliad by Homer. It describes the scene in which Thersites, an ugly representative of the middle class, questions the entire reason for the Trojan War and admonishes Agamemnon for partaking in such a trivial war. Thersites then gets beaten and humiliated by Odysseus for speaking out of turn and the aristocrats reclaim the stage.