The Odyssey :: essays research papers

Ten years after the go down of Troy, the victorious Greek hero Odysseus has still not returned to his native Ithaka. A band of rowdy suitors, believing Odysseus to be dead, has overrun his palace, courting his trustworthythough weakeningwife, Penelope, and going through his stock of food. With permission from Zeus, the goddess genus Athene, Odysseus great immortal ally, appears in disguise and urges Odysseus son Telemakhos to seek news of his laminitis at Pylos and Sparta. However, the suitors, led by Antinoos, plan to ambush him upon his return. Odysseus most heavy(a) book of factsistic is his cunning Homers Greek audience generally admired the mark but occasionally disdained it for its dishonest connotations. Odysseus skill at improvising false stories or devising plans is nearly incomparable in Western literature. His Trojan provide scheme (recounted here and written about in The Iliad) and his multiple tricks against Polyphemos are shining examples of his ingenuity, esp ecially when getting out of jams. Both examples indirectly doctor to another dominant pattern in The Odyssey disguise. (The soldiers "disguise" themselves in the embody of the Trojan horse, while Odysseus and his men "disguise" themselves as rams to lean from Polyphemos.) Odysseus spends the hold water third of the poem disguised as a refuse, both to escape from harm until he can overthrow the suitors and to test others for loyalty. In addition, Athena appears frequently throughout the poem, often as the character Mentor, to provide financial aid to Odysseus or Telemakhos.Though he is usually a smart, decisive leader, Odysseus is wedded to errors, and his deepest flaw is falling prey to temptation. His biggest mistakes come in the episode with Polyphemos as he first foolishly investigates the Kyklops lair (and ends up getting pin down there), and then cannot resist shouting his name to Polyphemos after escaping (thus incurring Poseidons wrath). If Odysseus ch aracter changes over the course of The Odyssey, though, it pivots around temptation. After his errors with Polyphemos, Odysseus has his crew tie him up so he can hearbut not take afterthe dangerously seductive song of the Seirenes. Disguised as a beggar in Ithaka, he is even more active in resisting temptation, allowing the suitors to abomination him as he bides his time. Temptation hurts his crew, as well, in their encounters with Kirke, the bag of winds from Aiolos, and the cows of Helios.As Telemakhos tracks Odysseus trail through stories from his old comrades-in-arms, Athena arranges for the release of Odysseus from the island of the good-looking goddess Kalypso, whose prisoner and lover he has been for the last eight years.