Perseverance helps push a person past their limits to reach their goal. Throughout the book, Odysseus faces many problems he must solve in order to return home to Ithaca. He must escape the Cyclops’s cave, figure out a way to get past the sirens, and dodge the dangerous sea monsters. His determination will help him get back home to see his wife Penelope and return to rule Ithaca. In The Odyssey, Homer presents the idea that perseverance can make a person stronger when they overcome many obstacles and have a goal to work towards. Odysseus never gave up hope when he was trapped inside the cave of the Cyclops with his men. In the text, Odysseus says “So he declared, I poured him another fiery bowl- three bowls I brimmed and three he drank to the last drop, the fool” (Homer IX. 404-406). …show more content…
In the text, Odysseus says, “ I reached the crag of Scylla and dire Charybdis’ vortex” (Homer IXX. 464). Odysseus and his men are rowing towards the sea monsters layer. Scylla will kill them with the razor sharp teeth. Charybdis will swallow them in the seawater she gulps up. Odysseus knows that he is entering a very dangerous part of the waters. In order to survive, he must fight for his life. In the text, Odysseus also says “But heaving myself aloft to clutch at the fig-tree’s height, like a bat I clung to it’s trunk for dear life” (Homer IXX. 466-467). Odysseus avoids falling into Charybdis’ mouth by clinging to a tree. He holds on to the trunk with no good footholds. Some of his men have already fallen into the mouth of Charybdis because they gave up. Odysseus uses all his strength to hold onto the tree. He has to dig deep inside himself to find what he must work towards. His life depends on the little tree and his determination to stay live and hold on. Once Charybdis closes her mouth, Odysseus falls into the ocean and floats to land. He pushed through all the hard parts and finally reached
Odysseus’ trait of being risky as a leader overrides the crewman’s idea of quickly leaving. Even though Odysseus survives, many of his crewmates die to the cyclops. This not only makes his crew weaker because they have less men, but it also decreases the crewmates’ trust in Odysseus, harming them as a whole. His idea satisfied his personal desires, but it ended up being harmful to his crew. Odysseus and his men later end up blinding the cyclops and escape his cave.
He barely had any strength in him, just saw all of his shipmates die, and Poseidon wasn’t happy with him. Instead of giving up like most people would’ve done, Odysseus kept swimming and floating even though he had no idea where it might take him. Poseidon's rough waves didn’t help Odysseus either, but he stayed strong and fought threw it so he could
In the novel, The Odyssey, there is a scene where Odysseus must go to the cyclops but realizes that he will kill Odysseus and his men. He does not allow that to happen, he comes up with the clever idea of giving the Cyclops wine to drunken him so they may escape. For example the book says,
Odysseus and his crew would be trapped, and therefore starve or die of thirst inside the cave. After all the work he has gone through, he must have realized that it wasn't worth it to take the chance. Therefore, Odysseus thoroughly thought out this plan, and did not go through with murdering the beast at first sight. After some of his men are eaten, Odysseus quickly formulates a clever plan to escape and gain revenge by thrusting a giant spike into the one eye of Polyphemus, by first getting him drunk. After Odysseus claims that his name is nohbdy, and the spike is in his eye, the other cyclops ask who hurt him.
In utmost adventurous stories the author provides an explanation of the hero's journeys, fights, revenges, and returning to their hometown. The Odyssey, Odysseus goes on a long trip with his men and all of them have died except for himself. The main character was about to sail through the Sirens and he had to warn his men by saying, "Then we die with our eyes open if we are going to die or know what death we battle if we can"(Homer 581). Since the Sirens use their voices to lure men into their death, he had a tactic that helped them sail through easily: Odysseus took some beeswax and started to roll it up until it softens so no one listens to their songs, but himself.
When Odysseus is stuck with "Scylla to port and on our starboard bean Charybdis" (lines 174-175), it represents that there is no easy path and one will always face difficulties no matter what decision they make. When Odysseus' men "ignore Odysseus' warning not to
After his men and him escapes unnecessarily losing two men in the process, Odysseus taunts Polyphemus which leads to him saying “ Hear me Poseidon, sustainer of the earth, god of sable locks. If I am yours indeed and you claim me as your son, grant that Odysseus, sacker of cities and son of Laertes, may never reach his home in Ithaca”(Homer 124) . This quote shows that one of Odysseus’s many flaws is that he allows his pride to take control of his actions and doesn’t clearly consider the consequences. Another instance of Odysseus’s foolish pride is when he crossing the threshold Circe advises Odysseus to
The Odyssey by Homer is an exemplary story that teaches life lessons to those going on a journey for themselves. It illustrates how the challenges and obstacles one may face can help someone become a better leader. The Odyssey highlights one man, Odysseus, a man filled with excessive pride, experiencing the wrath of the god Poseidon. He expects to arrive at his home, Ithaca, safely to reunite with his wife, Penelope, but unfortunately faces many temptations and setbacks. Due to the challenges he faces, it prevents him from arriving home as early as he thought he would.
He has to overcome his foes and his environment. In the cavern with the cyclops, Odysseus must fight to survive. He and his men have to use wit and strategy to escape the cave. After the first attack on his men Odysseus knew he would need to develop a plan to survive. Odysseus and his men are put in danger as they encounter their foe:“Neither reply nor pity came from him, but in one stride he clutched at my companions and caught two in his hands like squirming puppies to beat their brains out, spattering the floor” (Homer 903).
Odysseus uses his strength and wisdom to finish what he has already started. As well as being courageous, Odysseus shows his wisdom when he plugs the sailors' ears with beeswax when going through the Sirens because, “no
Also, when Odysseus and his men finally escaped from the cyclops cave, Odysseus continued to yell at the cyclops,” O’ cyclops would you feast on my companions, puny am I in a cave mans hands? How do you like the beating we gave you? (Homer 13) This shows that Odysseus wasn't worried about what the cyclops would do to him and his men, he just wanted to get revenge on the cyclops for keeping them in his
However, after these disrespectful insults, Odysseus finally begins responding. Once he is able to get under the suitor’s skin, an enraged Antinoos resorts to violence and hurls a stool towards him. The impact injures Odysseus’s shoulder, but he still rises above the pain he experiences and again does not retaliate. However, eventually, the leader is able to exact his revenge against the enemies inhabiting his
Homer shows how Odysseus feels the pain of the journey strongly when his men are being devoured by the deadly man eating whirlpool, Charybdis. “She ate them as they shrieked there, in her den, in the dire grapple, reaching still for me- and deathly pity ran through me at that sight- far the worst I have ever suffered…”(Lines 821-825). As his men were being consumed by Charybdis, Odysseus realized that the journey would be more painful than expected. Odysseus also felt the grieving emotional pain of the journey when he watched his men face their inevitable deaths. “ No sooner had I caught the sight of our black hull, than the savory of burnt fat eddied around me; grief took hold of me and I cried aloud…”(895-898).
When reading the odyssey I noticed that Odysseus went through a lot of difficult tasks and journeys and has had more than one near death experience. If you read through the book you will notice that most of Odysseus’ hardships go with a life lesson that teach you what to do or not do in the future in that type of situation. One of the life lessons is when a has to hang onto the tree branch for a whole day to survive because Charybdis swallowed his ship. The symbol or life lesson in this part is determination because he wants to get home to his wife and son alive and it is a hard task,but he was willing do it because he had so much determination to get home. If odysseus didn’t have determination at that time he could have just let go because it hurt or it was hard ,but he didn’t because the need to go to his wife and son was greater.
He reminds them of how their devotedness and dedication got them through the worse. Perseverance requires overcoming a struggle but, in the end, improvement and achievement can come from hard