Vulnerability In Homer's Odyssey

To be human is to be composed of skin, bones, struggle, and discontentment. The average human is constantly reaching for something greater than themselves: stability. We lack stability because we scrutinize ourselves over intellect, self-image, social class, or whatever makes us feel secure. By pursuing our own image of stability, we are forever wandering towards an infinite horizon. The story of The Odyssey by Homer can be used to examine what it means to be human. The Odyssey is about a man named Odysseus, who is lost at sea and faces various delays in attempt to return home. While the delays Odysseus faces are mythological creatures, they represent the day-to-day struggles of the pursue towards stability. A few of the struggles include the Cicones and Polyphemus. The Odyssey reveals the truth about what it means to be human through these delays. The myth can be applied to an endless amount of circumstances when critically examined from different points of view. From my own perspective, Homer’s Odyssey represents the endless struggle I face to find my idea of stability, which is passion.

In order understand what it means to be human through The Odyssey, it is crucial to be aware of some of the delays experienced, starting with the Cicones.

After Odysseus becomes exhausted from the never-ending torment of life, he searches for a place to rest and comes across an island with the Cicones. The Cicones destroy people by tearing them apart in order to settle their own conflicts and delays. In other words, the Cicones are cannibals that eat odysseus’ men. This reveals that when when people are in a state of exhaustion, they seek shelter. Oftentimes the shelter they seek is not safe and will tear them apart. The Cicones are deceiving because they look human on the surface; in reality, they will destroy people because they only care about

themselves.
These narcissistic cannibals represent the toxic people in life who drain the sustainability of human existence. Even though Cicones are terrible beings, humans have a tendency to mirror their actions. It is inevitable that we will cause delays in other people's lives, yet we condemn toxicity when we experience it ourselves. This is due to the fact that humans think about themselves in order to reach stability. While it was indecent for the Cicones to eat Odysseus' men, it is equally important to take the Cicone perspective into consideration. From a different viewpoint, Odysseus carelessly invaded the land of the Cicones, which resulted in him getting set back. By pursuing his stability without considering the consequences, Odysseus made a monster of himself. This shows that to be human is to be inconsistent, yet willing to struggle for the idea of stability.
Despite this inconvenience, Odysseus continues on with his journey and faces another delay known as Polyphemus. Polyphemus is a cyclops that traps Odysseus in a cave and refuses to let him go. Because the cyclops only has one eye, it can only have one perspective. Though Polyphemus slightly resembles a human, it is a shallow, closed-minded monster due to its two-dimensional thought process. Quite literally, a cyclops is not human because it does not have depth perception and has a skewed point of view. Polyphemus can only see things from one perspective, making it closed-minded and unchanging. Due to Polyphemus' stubborness, Odysseus blinds the monster in order to escape.