Odysseus Essays

The Odyssey, written by Homer, shows many triumphs and frustrations of human life. Odysseus, the hero, endures battles and obstacles on his twenty year journey home. There is tragedy and victory throughout. Inevitably, some of these obstacles are caused by his men and their desires while others are caused by …

Three traits that Odysseus and Telemakhos share are clear-headedness, eloquence, and showing strong emotion. They are portrayed with these traits in the Odyssey, composed by Homer. Odysseus is a renowned military strategist, warrior, and the King of Ithaca. He was forced to go to war against Troy twenty years ago, …

Odysseus is a good leader because he always faces obstacles head on. Odysseus went to war in Troy. After many years the war is over and Odysseus starts his journey home. In “The Odyssey”, Odysseus begins his journey home facing nature, monsters, and gods. With his skills in all ways …

Odysseus is a character that embodies both strengths and weaknesses, which makes him an epic hero. The Odyssey, by Homer is the epic story of Odysseus’ adventures from The Trojan War to Ithaca. For ten years he endures human weakness, battling with the gods and a number of obstacles in …

Following the previous topic, we now touch on one of the most controversial questions that the Odyssey leaves its readers with. Is the man Odysseus, the hero of this poem, actually the ideal of the Greek hero in the ancient world? Certainly, people can argue both ways and support their …

Greek authors, when one considers the time period in which they lived, are relatively simple to distinguish from one another, particularly in how they treat Greek myth in relation to the message they aim to convey to their audience. Homer and Sophocles use myth to reflect their different perspectives on …

The greeks put a large emphasis on the importance of traditions. One important example of a tradition is to show hospitality and respect strangers as well as to hosts. If this tradition was broken, punishments were to be dealt out. Usually, the punishments were not specific. What happened after the …

There are many different themes in The Odyssey, but the most prominent theme Homer portrays in his epic poem is hospitality or Xenia. The act of Xenia was perhaps the most important Greek custom out of all because you see it being performed time and time again throughout Odysseus’ journey …

When it comes to Penelope there is much controversy surrounding whether or not she recognized her husband Odysseus disguised as the beggar. I believe Penelope intuitively knew that Odysseus was the beggar but did not want to raise any red flags to the suitors, so she conjured up a clever …

The Iliad and the Odyssey are two of Homer’s surviving works. These two epics poems are great works of literature that help us understand life in ancient Greece. The Iliad is compared to a tragedy while the Odyssey is compared to a comedy. The Greeks used both the Iliad and …