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Odysseus Decisions In Homer's Odyssey

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In real life we make our own decisions, and some of those decisions lead to bad outcomes, even though we don’t blame ourselves for many of our mistakes, we are to blame. In Greek Mythology, humans make many important decisions in their life, many of them lead to horrible endings. In the journey of Odysseus, he made many choices throughout his journey that eventually led to the death of all his crew members. In other stories from mythology like the stories of Theseus and Icarus, they made decisions that led them and their loved ones to life threatening situations. Even Zeus once stated “My word, how mortals take the gods to task! All their inflictions come from us, we hear. And what of their own failings? Greed and folly double the suffering in the lot of them.” Zeus’ …show more content…

Such as in the story of Circe, Odysseus decided to go back to the dangerous land to save his men. “Against Eurylochus’ advice, however, Odysseus rushes to save his men from the enchantress.” (920) This shows that Odysseus chose to risk his own life and more members of his crew’s lives. Although some do say that this was a heroic act, he put his idea above those of his men. Also in the story of Scylla and Charybdis, Odysseus led his men to both of the monsters. Once his men began to get taken Odysseus could hear his men’s struggles, “Voices came down to me in anguish calling my name for the last time.” (936) In this final part of his journey to get home to Ithaca, Odysseus allowed all of his men to die when facing these sea monsters. He sacrificed his men, who had embarked on this extremely dangerous mission with him, for his own sake. These stories prove that Odysseus made all of his own decisions and he is the one to blame for many of the deaths of his men. In conclusion, there are many more times in The Odyssey where Odysseus sacrificed more and more of his men because of his own choices and

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