The Role Of The Gods In Homer's Odyssey

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Odyssey Paper
In the Odyssey, written by Homer, and Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? by the Coen Brothers, the authors both tell tales interwoven with divine beliefs. In these stories, Odysseus the Greek hero faces Gods on his journey home. Similarly Everett, the escaped criminal, faced the Christian god on his journey. The gods in these stories sometimes hurt and sometimes helped Odysseus and Everett, along their journeys.
In the Odyssey, Odysseus angered Poseidon, the god of the sea, who made his hard journey harder with sea borne attacks. Odysseus stabs Poseidon’s son Polyphemus’ eye out which causes Polyphemus say this prayer:
“...Grant that Odysseus, raider of cities, never
see his home: Laertes’ son I mean...
Let him lose all of his companions...” (Homer IX 579-584).

That prayer was what alerted the receptive Poseidon to Odysseus’ actions, and Odysseus realizes that he has a harder journey ahead. This was the main encounter with a god that stalled Odysseus on his journey.
In the …show more content…

These ‘gods’ came in two forms: the bible salesmen and the police sheriff. While on a picnic with the bible salesmen he attacks and robs Everett. “And it is that which I propose to give you a lesson in right now...His club is ready. He swings at Delmar who staggers back with a grunt” (OH BROTHER...THOU). This man of god betrayed, stole, stalled, and injured these men for money. This was a representation of a god creating problems for the main characters. Another example of a divine obstruction was the police sheriff that followed Evert across the land to catch and kill them for escaping prison. When Pete tries to argue that he had been pardoned by the law the sheriff replies: "The law. Well the law is a human institution” (O BROTHER... THOU). The sheriff felt like what he was about to do came from a higher power, like a god. In both of these instances the journey of Everett and his company was stalled by a god like

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