What Are The Obstacles In The Odyssey

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In the epic poem The Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus and The Achaeans are sailing back to Ithaca from Troy. Alcinous the king of the Phaeacians, trusts Odysseus to be the one who sails to Troy and back safely. However, Odysseus’s heroic acts are not enough to save all of his crew. Ithaca’s people do not expect The Achaeans to take 20 years to get back home. Provided that Odysseus and his men encounter many monsters and upset multiple gods, it creates many life and death situations. The Achaeans face the cyclops early on in their journey, which is one huge event that proves the loss of a few men is not going to stop them. When The Achaeans tell the cyclops, how their ship got to this land, he is enraged and rejects, “We cried aloud, lifting our hands to Zeus,/powerless, looking on at this, appalled;/but Cyclops went on filling up his belly/with manflesh and great gulps of whey,/then lay down like a mast among his sheep” (9.239-243). …show more content…

Even though they are starving, Odysseus tells his men not to eat the cattle, but they end up eating it. Lord Helios is very angry and loudly expresses, “O Father Zeus and gods in bliss forever,/punish Odysseus’ men! So overweening,/now they have killed my peaceful kine, my joy/at morning when I climbed the sky of stars,/and evening, when I bore westward from heaven” (12.908-911). Odysseus falls asleep and blames it on the gods because he couldn’t watch to make sure his men don’t eat the cattle. After he wakes up, Odysseus realizes the men are eating the cattle, and Lord Helios is extremely upset. As soon as Lord Helios says these words to Zeus, he destroys all of Odysseus’ ships besides the one he is on, and kills all of his men. Odysseus makes it through Lord Helios and Zeus’ powers and preservers to make it back home on his one ship that is left. Even though Odysseus is now all alone, he still ends up making it

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