The Odyssey is an age old classic read around the world. In the Odyssey, Homer tells the story of the wayward Odysseus. The story follows the protagonist as he makes his way back home, dealing with man-eating Cyclopes, a vengeful god, and a possessive nymph. During the story, the reader sees many sides of Odysseus as he dealt with his tribulations, such the cunning and witful side, but also the pompous and indulgent side. To begin with, Odysseus is trapped on an island with the nymph, Calypso. In the story, Mercury travels to Calypso’s island to tell her that Odysseus must be released. However, during this meeting, Odysseus was on the beach with tears in his eyes. Moreover, he spent his days on the shore weeping for his dear wife, longing …show more content…
Once again, readers how witful he is. Moreover, Ulysses devises the plan to make the Cyclops drunk. He does this by making the giant think he is begging for mercy by giving him wine. However, when the Cyclops finally falls into a drunken sleep, Ulysses and his men blind it. This proves the protagonists wit because, in the story, the Cyclops barred Ulysses and his men in a cave with a giant boulder, therefore, had the men killed him, they would have never left the cave. Eventually, the men escaped the cave by tying themselves to the underside of the Cyclops's sheep. Despite his immense intellect, Ulysses falls short on occasion. After escaping the cave, the men made their way back to the ship. Feeling emboldened by his wonderful scheme, Ulysses began to taunt the giant. Despite his men’s pleas, Ulysses would not yield. His arrogance nearly cost his men their lives, for the Cyclops heard the taunts and threw a colossal boulder towards the ship, falling a little short.
In conclusion, Ulysses is like every other well-written character: realistic. Ulysses is like any normal human being, he has his virtues and his vices. In terms of virtue, Ulysses cares very much for his family, and fellow soldiers. Not to mention he has an above average intellect that helps him out of sticky situations. However, he does have his issues. After the situation with the Cyclops, Ulysses easily became proud, and it nearly killed him. All in all, Ulysses is a pompous yet intelligent character that will be remembered for years to
When Odysseus is about to be released from the island, he decides to sleep with Calypso, a nymph goddess who lives on the island, before he sets off to return home. In the first part of book 5, Odysseus and Calypso are illustrated kissing and sleeping together(Homer 53). At this moment, Odysseus is cheating and being disloyal to his wife, Penelope, who lives at Odysseus’s house in Ithaca. Odysseus’s actions signifies his unheroic qualities because he did not try
She watched him leave, and that was her final moment she let go of him. In The Odyssey, Calypso is perceived as very seductive and snake-like because of her tricks whereas, in Calypso’s song she’s very sympathetic towards Odysseus “The sand will sting my feet and the sky will burn, it’s a lonely time ahead and I do not ask him to return.” Calypso knows that she has trapped him on her island for too long, so long that he eventually gave up on asking to go home, and that’s when she knew she had to let him go back to his wife. Though it hurt her a lot that he didn’t choose to stay with her, she knew somewhere in her heart that it was the right thing to do.
It was during the night when Odysseus and his men decided to be brave and put a stick in the Cyclops’ eye. Odysseus showed bravery by being able to put the stick in his eye and tried to not get killed. When the Cyclops decided to go outside, he opened the door to the cave, and Odysseus and his men decided to run away when they got the chance. They got their chance and ran off to the boat and escaped. This could not have happened without the courage of Odysseus.
“Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.” -Erich Fromm ‘The Odyssey’ by Homer, follows the story of Odysseus, a great Greek hero. It tells of his venture to Troy, to lead his army in the Trojan War, and his separation from loved ones and his kingdom for twenty years. However, the novel mainly focuses on the story of his homecoming and all he, and many others, had to endure while he was returning from abroad.
Odysseus is a hero because he is smart. For example, when Odysseus and his men approach the giant he offers him ¨liquor to wash down your scraps of men¨ (Homer 991). Odysseus is clever by doing this because he can predict that the liquor will make him fall asleep. He knows that the boulder that is blocking the entrance is heavy so he doesn 't kill Polyphemus. Instead, Odysseus only hurts him.
Odyssey Argumentative Essay The Odyssey is an epic by Homer. It is a story about Odysseus journey back to Ithaca after the Trojan War. All the Greek heroes had returned home after the Trojan War except for Odysseus who was an important hero in Ithaca. Odysseus was absent in his son’s life and Telemachus decided that, it was time to find his father and bring him back home to his wife Penelope.
On the Cyclopes' island, he was interested in meeting the owner of the cave who had such fine cheeses. However, his men only want to steal the cheese and leave hastily because there was an uneasiness about the cave. Nevertheless, he fixes upon staying and not soon after, the cyclops Polyphemus returns. He and his men are now in peril because of Odysseus' recklessness. The consequence of his decision is that shortly after Polyphemus devours most of his men but this bolsters him to conjure a plan to escape.
Odysseus portrays those three heroic traits throughout his voyage home to Ithaca, which is why he is a hero. Odysseus is highly dedicated to his reputation and ego for the whole of his rocky and treacherous journey. From going up against a cyclops that is five times the size of him, to placing wax upon his crewmates’ ears to mute the singing of the Sirens, Odysseus is brave when he faces his fears and intelligent when he creates lifesaving tools from ship materials. A modern hero can be someone who saves a life or even sacrifices his or her own for someone else. Odysseus can be compared to a modern hero because he risks his own life to protect his crewmates.
From the onset of the book, death is a recurring event, persistent throughout the entire poem. In many ways, the Odyssey is the story of the death of all of Odysseus’ friends and fellow fighters during their return home from conquering Troy. These deaths are particularly heartbreaking to Odysseus because, normally, one would expect that all dying would conclude with the end of the war against Troy. In this case, however, the anticipation of his return to his family at home became a series of tragedies. This sequence of events changes his view and molds Odysseus’ character in regard to his surviving friends and family.
That Odysseus is depicted as not just strong, but smart, shows that extreme intelligence was praised in Greek culture. The Cyclops was
In the Odyssey, Odysseus is shipwreck and washes upon an island where he meets Calypso, the sea nymph. With Odysseus being such a strong minded, courageous, and resourceful man made it ever so easy for Calypso to want to make him her husband. Calypso decides to entrap Odysseus with no way home, all his ships lost, and no crew left for seven years. During this time Odysseus seems depressed and miserably wanting to return to his family, every day he sat by the shore honing his hearts sorrow, staring at the shore with salt-rimmed eyes.
Odysseus has some good traits, some bad flaws, and has been in some ugly situations, but overall he is a true hero. Some of the traits that exemplify his heroism traits are his cleverness, determination, and his bravery. In several scenarios he saves his men from sticky situations, showing his bravery, his determination
In The Odyssey, Odysseus was a major hero of the novel. He had both heroic traits and human weaknesses. Odysseus defeated the Cyclops, defeated the suitors that were courting his wife, and overcome other challenges throughout the novel. A special trait that made Odysseus a hero was that he was a courageous
The book of Ulysses has many examples of physical and mental strength. This book mentions his amazingly useful ability to speak. He uses his ability to speak to escape a giant Cyclops and many others after that. I want to point out the use of his skill in the story of Calypso. In the tale of Calypso and Ulysses he is troubled by being forced to marry and live with calypso.
Odysseus spent many days working on prepairing his vessel to escape the island of his past lover and she explained to him how to navigate the stars and other things that would help him on his journey back to his homeland of