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Explain revenge as a theme in literature
The theme fo vengence in literature
Character of revenge in literature
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Vengance in the Odyssey
Vengeance is the main theme in the Odyssey, it is what all the conflict in the story is for
every conflict in the story is caused because of each characters thirst for vengance. The three
characters that show this most greatly are as follows. Poseidon through his constant punishment
of Odysseus throughout the story. Secondly Telemachus' need to make the suitors pay for
disrespecting his house as well as his mother and the lack of his ability to become or even be seen
as a possible heir to his fathers thrown. Then finally Odysseus and his need to avenge the
disrespect by the suitors. The hardships that each of these character goes through during his
journey inrage them to revenge and push the story to its climax.
The strongest and longest lasting vengence in the story is Poseidons he punishes Odysseus
for taunting his son after he had already escaped and taken the cyclops eye. Poseidon firsts makes
Odysseus loose his ship and men at see. Next he must deal with the Charybdis and Scylla.
Throughout his journey Poseidon sends him all over the seas and even taunts him with a glance
of his home but then it is ripped away from him due to his own men and their greed. Poseidon
is unwilling to stop his punishment and even the gods and goddess' can see this as said best
by Zeus himself "Bear in mind that Poseidon is still furious with Odysseus...though he does
not kill Odysseus outright, he torments him...
As Zeus saw this he was enraged at what Poseidon was doing. So Zeus said “ that if he will not come up to olemps, he will fight him for the city.”
After the incident with the bag of winds it is reasonable for Odysseus to have trust issues, but when it is a matter of life and death, Odysseus is witless. After being punished by Zeus because some of his crew ate Helios’ cattle Odysseus drifts in the ocean until he lands on Calypso’s island. 7 years pass and Odysseus can finally leave after he crafts a ship, after he leaves and sails for a bit, Poseidon sees it as a time to get revenge for his son Polyphemus. Poseidon completely wrecks Odysseus’ ship when he is close to the land of the Phaeacians. A goddess named Ino sees this and offers Odysseus help.
In the article “Stories of the Trojan War,” it talks about how the gods are raged by the disobedience of the mortals which caused uproar during the time (Peabody). One of the gods that seemed to have a raging authority was Poseidon, god of the sea. He made the journey of Odysseus very hard. For instance, Poseidon would make the sea’s rage, blew Odysseus and his crew off track, and last he strikes them with thunder. That ultimately destroys the crew; except for Odysseus who is left stranded until found by Calypso (Puchner). The actual cause of Poseidon’s anger was due to the fact that Odysseus had killed Poseidon’s son, Polyphemus in a horrific manner. Also, because Odysseus was not appreciative of the fact that Poseidon helped keep his secret of his plot to invade with the
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.
Before letting him leave the island, Circe tells Odysseus that he must face Scylla, a sea monster, and Charybdis, a whirlpool. Circe says, “Better by far to lose six men and keep you ship” (274). Odysseus is told beforehand that no ship could pass unscathed, but he chooses to not to tell his crew. He knowingly sacrifices his crewmembers’ lives and has no qualms about it, which shows his inner selfishness. He makes sure to protect his own life, but he sees his crew as disposable. Homer characterizes Odysseus this way in order to convey his views about humanity: humans are instinctively selfish. Odysseus also carelessley kills his remaining crew when he taunts the Cyclops. After hearing Odysseus’s name, Polyphemus prays to Poseidon and asks that Odysseus “never reaches home” but if he is destined to return, make sure he returns “a broken man—all shipmates lost, alone in a strangers ship” (228). If Odysseus had never told Polyphemus his name, he and his crew might have made it home more quickly and safely. Instead, his hubris causes an inescapable curse. Odysseus cannot bear the thought of forfeiting his fame, which leads to even more hardship on his quest to return home. Homer uses Odysseus to demonstrate the danger of egotistical
Poseidon wasn’t happy with Odysseys when his men killed Poseidon’s cows for food. Poseidon created the storm on the high seas and blows Odysseus on Calypso Island where he was captured. Due to having multiple gods in Greek religion, each god has a certain domain and they can’t interfere with another domain. All of the gods wanted Odysseus to be able to return home and reunite with his family except for Poseidon. “But my heart breaks for Odysseus, that seasoned veteran cursed by fate so long-far from his loved ones stills, he suffers torments, off on a wave-washed island rising at the center of the seas” (Homer 1.57-60). Athena’s appeals to Zeus about all of the Odysseus past sacrifices moves Zeus to take pity as well. When Poseidon is absent from Mt. Olympus, the other gods are able help Odysseus home. Athena guides Odysseus to Ithaca, getting him past many dangers and obstacles.
Odysseus faces life-threatening adversities in the sea and the situation only continues to worsen from there. A reader can easily picture the “whole storms of all the winds and covered earth and ocean alike”(291-292). Once the unique sentence structure is deciphered vivid images form. Epics intend to portray the central hero in action. Calypso eloquently, but with peculiar language paints the image of the battle, in this case, our Greek king facing the raging storm. While Odysseus fares in the stormy sea in an unnerved state he fears the goddess is correct regarding her assumption of his journey home being filled with pain. Accurately the circumstances he finds himself in are specified with a reference to the Danaans. Odysseus tells himself, “Thrice and four times blessed are the Danaans who perished” (305). Danaans is a title Homer utilizes to label the expeditionary force of Troy, the Greeks. As the, now, solitary hero confronts the wrath of Poseidon believes himself to be more unfortunate than the miserable Greeks during a difficult time. The pain he is experiencing is apparent when such remark is made. Odysseus continues to reveal and provide insight on his hardship. Specifically, he comments the Danaans lost while “doing the pleasures of the sons of Atreus” (306). A better sense of the ruthless waves and circumstances Odysseus is in is
Poseidon has never really liked Odysseus. When Odysseus tries to make it onto the shore of Skheria, Poseidon “…calls up wind / from every quarter, and sends a wall of rain…'; (89). Consequently, it is a safe assumption that Poseidon will really have it in for Odysseus. He states, “I thought he should suffer all the way [home]'; (233). After Odysseus returns home, Poseidon talks to Zeus and says he wants to put a mountain ring around the city and crush the ship of the Phaiakians.
These few instances of revenge: Orestes’ revenge on Aegisthus, Zeus’ revenge on Odysseus and his men, and Poseidon’s revenge on Odysseus in The Odyssey, lay the background for Odysseus’ story of struggle in his journey home from Troy. Revenge proves to be the main reason not only as to why Odysseus cannot return home, but also as a means of proving the importance of the gods’ role in the epic journey. Without these occurrences of the gods getting revenge on Odysseus and other mortals, there would be no passionate tales of the perseverance that Odysseus had in achieving his goal: getting home to Ithaca.
The god who Odysseus could not build a strong relationship with is Poseidon. The cause of the poor relationship between Odysseus and Poseidon that Odysseus blinds Poseidon’s son, Polyphemus, and reveals his name. When Odysseus first meets Polyphemus, he astutely says that his name is Nobody, so if anyone asks who blinded him, the answer would be “Nobody.” However, when Odysseus is leaving the island, he foolishly but proudly says, “If any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shamed you so-say Odysseus, raider of cities, he gouged out your eye, Laertes’ son who makes his home in Ithaca!” (227). Not only does Odysseus reveal his name but he also reveals his family members and his homeland. As a result, this release of personal information tells Poseidon who blinded his son, and Poseidon causes havoc for Odysseus.
Poseidon was relied upon by sailors for a safe voyage on the sea. Many men drowned horses in sacrifice of his honor. He lived on the ocean floor in a palace made of coral and gems, and drove a chariot pulled by horses. However, Poseidon was a very moody divinity, and his temperament could sometimes result in violence. When he was in a good mood, Poseidon created new lands in the water and a calm sea. In contrast, when he was in a bad mood, Poseidon would strike the ground with a trident and cause unruly springs and earthquakes, ship wrecks, and drownings.
middle of paper ... ... In Homer’s Odyssey, both Odysseus and his son Telemachus embark on long, difficult journeys; Odysseus trying to return from Troy to his home in Ithaca, escaping Calypso and the island of Ogygia, and Telemachus from Ithaca to Pylos and Sparta in search of his lost father. While The Odyssey tells of the courage both men demonstrate during their respective travels, their quests are the results of the intentions and desires of gods. Odysseus is trapped in exile on Ogygia by the will of Poseidon, whose anger Odysseus attracts when he blinds the Cyclops Polyphemus, son of Poseidon, and by the love of Calypso, who wishes to make Odysseus her husband.
In the time of Cornus and the Titans, Nereus was the sea god. Before retreating to his own underwater cave, Nereus gave one of his fifty nymph daughters, Amphitrite to Neptune ( Parin D’ Aulaire 114). Just like his brother Zeus, Poseidon was quite the lady’s man. One of his rather scandals acts was his love affair with the gorgon, Medusa. He and Medusa conceived one of the most famous creatures known to mythology, Pegasus, the winged stallion and his brother, Chysaor. A great hero known as Thesus was conceived when Poseidon raped Aethra. Above all, his love affair with his sister, Demeter is one of the most infamous love affairs in mythology. Since he fell in love with his sister, Demeter was doing the right thing and attempted to hide from him as she transformed into a mare. After Poseidon noticed, he decided to shape shift into one his famous symbols, the horse. Eventually, he was able to capture Demeter in his stallion form. Then, Demeter and and Poseidon produced a horse, Arion (Sellers 1). With another sea-nymph, Thoosa, Poseidon fathered possibly one of the most famous monsters, Ployphemus Cyclops, who was a one eyed creature (“Poseidon” Para. 6). For the reason that Poseidon was quite ...
There is many themes in The Odyssey, but Vengeance is the main theme. Ulysses´s vengeance is forwarded to the suitors and servants who don't listen. Ulysses also,has other vengeance in The Odyssey like with Cyclops. In The Odyssey you can be punished for the actions you do.
In The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Robert Fagles, one of the roles of the antagonists is given to Poseidon, the god of the sea. Within the ten years that Odysseus, a war hero, journeys home from Troy, Poseidon purposely threw Odysseus’ crew off course with his perilous waters. Due to this power and status as a god, Poseidon is not only honored by the Phaeacians, but also feared by them as well, notably with their plentiful offerings to him out of fear that Poseidon might be angered. Moreover, Poseidon appears to carry out the majority of his days in isolation, seldomly being in the company of other gods. Consequently, Poseidon, who holds power over the seas and gives birth to monsters, is depicted by ancient Greek culture as mysterious,