What Are The Obstacles In The Odyssey

Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey, describes the journey of Othello’s ten year long struggle to return home to his family in Ithaca after the Trojan War. Odysseus had faced many tough obstacles on his expedition, but was able to use his intelligence and ability to prevail in the end. Odysseus’s brilliance mentally and physically has been recognized by kings, fellow soldiers, and even by the gods. By looking at the epithets of Odysseus, we can see that he is recognized by not only people, but gods, to embody divine or superhuman qualities. Though those skills help him return home, they are also over amplified and causes Odysseus’s excruciating journey home and the death of all his crew.

The root of the reason Poseidon has cursed Odysseus’ journey

She complimented him on his decisiveness and ability to act to get things done in order to lure Odysseus into her palace and use her powers to turn him into a pig. Just before he had arrived at the Halls of Circe, “hotheaded Odysseus”(10.481) was just about to decapitated Eurylochus, his second in command, after Eurylochus returned as the only crewman to not be turned to swine by Circe. Eurylochus “tried to hold [the] shipmates back”(10.473) from going with Odysseus to Circe’s halls because he felt that Odysseus’s “rashness” (10.482) was the reason they had been through so many troubles and why they had lost so many crewmembers. After getting the urge to murder Eurylochus for not listening to his commands, Odysseus confessed that he was calmed by the crew and remembered Eurylochus was “close kin” to him. Though Circe sees Odysseus as a “man of action”, Odysseus is impulsive and makes rash decisions with “half a mind” (10.483). Odysseus is decisive, but he is inclined to act without thinking. In his “hotheaded” rage he almost killed his most important crewmember and a

Many of his descriptions are akin to godly attributes. In Book 7, Alcinous, king of the Phaeacians, was debating if Odysseus was a man or a god disguised as a “lonely traveler”. Alcinous thought Odysseus was ”one of the deathless powers” that “came to [them] face-to-face whenever [they]'d give them grand, glorious sacrifices”(7.) Odysseus is a very impressive, almost divine man, however like the Greek gods, his positive qualities can be over magnified and lead to his