Analyzing Themes In Homer's The Odyssey

Discussion 3

In the Odyssey, Homer drastically changes the themes his writings focus on from that which is in the Iliad. In the Iliad, the main themes were that ok kleos, honor, wrath, vengeance, strife, divine intervention, aristeria, and rage amongst others. Now in the Odyssey the main focus is on nosotros, Xenia, wit an intelligence, over brawn, identity or lack thereof, subtext and underlying ideas, and family. In the Iliad,is deemed glorious and honorable, and is placed more importantly above even family. The Odyssey instead takes a different turn. No more are the grand speeches to get men fighting; instead the outcome of war is illustrated in the pain experienced by the characters. While many of these themes overlap in some degree, the switch from physical power to mental prowess is one of the more prominent changes. This is not to say that there were no acts of wisdom, intelligence, or strategy in the Iliad, just that they were more often overshadowed in importance by the use of brute strength. In the Odyssey we see a variety of scenes where Odysseus and other characters learn either by perception or by experience that brute force is not always the answer and that sometimes one must not only be wise and strategic in their actions, but at times must be willing to give up their glory in order to be successful. Over the course of the

When he realized the effects of the lotuses he manages to rescue his men that are already under their effect as well as preventing the rest of his men from being drugged, allowing them to get off the island as opposed to being trapped there and continuing on their journey home. Next Odysseus and his men have a run-in with the cyclops Polyphemus who traps them and begins to eat Odysseus's Men. At first Odysseus wants to react in anger, but he holds