The Odyssey and the Aeneid draw from the same ancient Greek mythos in their visualizations of the underworld, yet they recount tales of heroes who fought on enemy sides in the Trojan War. Aeneas and Odysseus embark upon parallel journeys, their travels sharing commonalities in both the types of encounters they have and their reasons for interacting with the dead. Despite these parallels, the two differ both in how they characterize and shape their depictions of Hell and in the reasons that the heroes seek help from their departed allies. The two interpretations, therefore, evoke different atmospheres, each with its own unique appeal. Through communing with the dead, Odysseus and Aeneas both seek wisdom and closure from their fallen loved …show more content…
Each obtains guidance from a prophet—Teiresias in the Odyssey and Sibyl in the Aeneid. Sibyl attempts to warn Aeneas of the struggles ahead, telling him, “You, sir, now quit at last of the sea’s dangers, for whom still greater are in store on land, the Dardan race will reach Lavinian country […] but there will wish they had not come. Wars, vicious wars I see ahead, and Tier foaming blood” (Vergil, 162). Aeneas is only interested in hearing from his father, Anchises, who now resides in the underworld; therefore, he disregards her warning, claiming, “No novel kinds of hardship, no surprises, loom ahead, Sister. I foresaw them all, went through them in my mind” (Vergil, 163). Odysseus, on the other hand, eagerly listens to Teiresias’s prophecy about his homecoming, taking to heart his advice against slaying Helios’s cattle and sheep. Odysseus next comes into contact with the recently departed Elpinor, whom he thought to be alive, who entreats him to “remember me, and do not go and leave me behind unwept, unburied, when you leave, for fear I might become the gods’ curse upon you; but burn me there with all my …show more content…
In both accounts, the hero needs to perform a sacrifice to call forth the spirits, or in the Aeneid’s case, enter the underworld. Both characters entreat the undead “with sacrifices and prayers”, then “[take] the sheep and cut their throats” (Homer, 169). In the Aeneid, however, Vergil takes this concept a step further, forcing Aeneas to find “a bough whose leaves and pliant twigs are all of gold, a thing sacred to Juno of the lower world” to offer to the boatman in Hell (Vergil, 164). In both versions of Hell there resides Tityos, whose “body [is] stretched out over nine whole acres while an enormous vulture with hooked beak forages forever in his liver, his vitals rife with agonies” (Vergil, 180). The Odyssey also includes the tale of Tantalos, whose punishment in Hell is that, as he stands trapped in a lake, “every time the old man, trying to drink, stooped over, the water would drain away and disappear” (Homer, 183). The images presented in the Odyssey’s vision of Hell are far bleaker than those in the Aeneid. Although the Aeneid contains its fair share of gory, unpleasant regions in the underworld, what sets that vision of Hell apart from that of the Odyssey is its happier regions, such as the “Blessed Grove”, where “wider expanses of high air endow each vista with a wealth of light. Souls here possess their own familiar sun and stars.
Odysseus, an epic hero in the epic poem The Odyssey, is similar and different to the movie The Princess Bride. The Odyssey, an epic novel, describes Odysseus’ decade long travel to get home to Ithaca. The Princess Bride is a movie about Wesley’s fight for his true love Buttercup. In the epic poem, The Odyssey by Homer and the movie The Princess Bride directed by Rob Beiner, the heroes are similar yet different.
At the end of their year-long stay on Aiaia when Odysseus and his men were preparing to leave, Kirke told Odysseus how he must go to the Land of the Dead and talk to the dead prophet, Teiresias, in order to learn how to get home safely. He and his men departed from Aiaia and sail to the Underworld, which is forever enshrouded in night. Once there, Odysseus followed Kirke’s instructions in order to talk to Teiresias. He first dug a pit into which he poured milk, honey, wine, and water, and scattered barley around its edges. He then prayed to the dead and promised to sacrifice a cow to the shades and a black ram to Teiresias when he and his men return home to Ithaka, and slashed a black ewe’s and black ram’s throats and pours their blood into the pit.
In the parallel journey of Odyssey and Aeneas, they embody their cultural values based on their origins in their actions. Aeneas portrays the high Roman values of duty and obedience . Like the Romans, he is obedient, sacrifices his romantic relationship with Dido, and follows Mercury’s command. Mercury is an ancient Roman god who spoke to Aeneas and made him fulfill his public duty. Odysseys actions of betraying his family and abandoning people that he is indebted during his journey portray the abhorrence of the Greek characteristics of selfishness by the Roman culture .
In previous journal entries several connections to Aeneas and Moses can be made. There are also strong comparisons that can be made between both of the stories, the Aeneid and the Exodus. Both of these stories recount the founding of their new homelands: Rome and Canaan. Throughout both stories divine intervention took place and neither
The Odyssey is an epic pome that shows tragedy that Odysseus and Penelope had to endure. However, Penelope’s pain and suffering was not tantamount Odysseus’. After the completion of the Odyssey, it is evidently clear that Odysseus dealt with far worse struggles and experienced pain that far surpassed Penelope’s. One example of Odysseus’s great struggle is that he experienced the pain of losing his soldiers, which where some of his greatest friends and comrades. Penelope, on the other hand, lost some of her family but Odysseus also suffers through this because they were also his family.
Nicole Tschida ENG 210 3-31-18 The Aeneid, The Confessions, and The Spiritual Journey The Homeric epic often foretells of a long perilous journey filled with warfare and trials of the human condition that coincides with the spiritual journey that each human being has to take. How are The Aeneid and The Confessions similar in that they both depict warfare and a long spiritual journey? In The Aeneid, Aeneas’ journey is filled with many trials and temptations both physical as well as spiritual.
Different but Similar Both Homers’ epic, the Odyssey, and Aeschylus’ tragic trilogy, the Oresteia, tell the story of Agamemnon and what led to his doomed death. Both the poem and the play are similar in their plots except for few differences in their significance, presentation and details. This shows how flexible ancient myth is and how it can adapt to suit a particular author and audience. Agamemnons’ death in the Odyssey is a very good example of how people can be, through their own foolishness, bring destruction upon themselves. It also serves as an example of an epic hero failing to return home, which is known as nostos, thus for Odysseus, the epic hero, it delivers a foil for the successful voyage back to his home, Ithaca.
“O Brother Where Art Thou?” is a comedy, adventure film produced in 2000. Many of the scenes in this film are based off the Odyssey, which is an epic poem by Homer. It is based on a true hero’s journey back home. There are many correlations and yet differences between the Odyssey and the film. Although the overall plot of “O Brother Where Art Thou?” is vaguely similar to the Odyssey, there are certain “episodes” that closely mirror the film’s classical influence.
He says, “I’d rather be a slave on earth for another man--/some dirt-poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive--/than rule down here over all the breathless dead.” This is very intriguing to me because Achilles is in a position of power over the Underworld, and is still in agony. Homer’s idea of The Underworld is pretty similar to the ideology of the
The story Odyssey and O Brother, Where Art Thou have a lot of connections to our life just like how Odysseus was on a journey to get home and Everett was on a journey to get the treasure, we all have roadblocks and fears we have to pass. In the text, The Odyssey was written by Homer and the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen both authors deal with the main idea loyalty. Both stories have loyalty as the theme because in the Odyssey Odysseus wife was loyal to him for 20 years while he was gone.
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.
Homers complex writing is devoted to the extend he gives on the perspective into the Greek underworld, stories in which were prevailing in the Greek society. The numerous conditions of the reality of the afterlife are deeply described rather than the setting of the underworld. The underworld is described as the House of Hades which is where your death and inevitable fate lies. It is signified in The Odyssey Book XI, concretely in the scenes of Odysseus mother’s death in the Cimmerians, the Greek culture expresses a depressing but inevitable view of death as a complete dichotomy of the fate but shows the indication of more than just one afterlife.
While Odysseus’ actions taken to punish the suitors may appear immoral in modern society, by considering the ways in which modern society differs from Homeric society, Odysseus’ actions are just in the context of the poem. As violence has an extremely negative connotation in modern society, the use of the death penalty is morally ambiguous, and is a highly debated topic; however, violence is far more legitimized in the society of the Odyssey, and therefore, death is a far more acceptable form of punishment. This idea is exemplified by the way in which violence is discussed between characters within the Odyssey. In particular, this general acceptance of violence is demonstrated through the fact that many of the characters within the Odyssey share an almost unanimous belief that the suitors should be put to death to pay for their crimes.
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood is the retelling of the odyssey from the perspective of penelope. The story goes around with penelope and the maids, who were hanged. This book is written in first person of the view of Odysseus’s wife. The book transforms Penelope into a believable character by giving the reader a glimpse into her head and thoughts through a first person view. The Odyssey told her story, while the Penelopiad is her story.
According to Dante's Inferno, individuals who are deemed sinners and sentenced to the lower circles of Hell are required to traverse the Acheron River to enter the underworld. This journey is facilitated by Charon, who serves as the ferryman of the dead. The Acheron is a symbolic representation of the ultimate cessation of life and serves as a poignant reminder of the significance of leading a virtuous existence to evade perpetual