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Literary analysis over the odyssey
Literary analysis over the odyssey
Literary analysis over the odyssey
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Literary analysis over the odyssey
Literary analysis over the odyssey
Literary analysis over the odyssey
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In part one of Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus uses his epic hero qualities to help him out on his quest to get back home to Ithaca. He’s shows superb intelligence when fighting the cyclopes in “Book 9.” That’s a quality of superhuman intelligence that Odysseus possessed all throughout his entire journey. Another epic hero quality that helped Odysseus was help from Greek gods and goddesses. In part two of Homer’s Odyssey, Athena helped out Odysseus when he got back to his home land.
More and more modern stories are incorporating Sirens into their books. These authors and stories include Kiera Cass’ The Siren, Siren’s Storm, by Lisa Papademetriou, and Sirens by Janet S. Fox. However, one of the first stories with Sirens was Homer’s The Odyssey, where Sirens attempt to charm Odysseus off his boat to join them. Margaret Atwood writes her own twist on Sirens and their mythical abilities in the poem “Siren Song”, which is a narrative from a Siren about the song she sings.
Odysseus is heroic, courageous, outrageous, bold, fearless, manful, and valiant. Odysseus is heroic because he tricked the cyclops thinking that nobody was his name. Odysseus told his men to make a sharp spear and drop the spear in the cyclops eye so he can remove the giant rock and escape. Odysseus is fearless because him and his son killed the men that tried to take over his kingdom and marry his wife. Another thing is that Odysseus is bold because he made his son believe he was the father after the son did not believe him.
Athena is a major character throughout the book of The Odyssey and is known as the goddess of wisdom and battle. Throughout the course of the book, it is evident that Athena has a weak spot for the main character, Odysseus. Odysseus is trying to return home after the Trojan War, as the other Greek hero’s have already done, however he faces multiple challenges a long the way. Fortunately, for Odysseus, Athena was there to guide him through a few of these troubling situations.
How does Sophocles portray Athena revelling in her total control of Ajax and indeed Odysseus? From a modern perspective, and perhaps a classical one as well, Athena is a callous and despicable character. She revels in her complete dominion over both Odysseus and Ajax, remaining unreachable to all other characters, relishing in her protected position. Athena lavishly describes the savage rampage of Ajax as he slaughters defenceless animals, then subsequently his torture of the surviving animals as Ajax is deluded into believing they are men. Additionally, Athena calls Ajax out of the tent, addressing him directly while taunting Odysseus.
In The Odyssey, by Homer, Athena influences the lives of Odysseus and his family. In Greek mythology, gods challenge and control mortals. Gods also provide support to mortals and thus, mortals depend and act on behalf of the gods and their decisions. Athena, daughter of Zeus, is the goddess of wisdom, and both Telemachus and Odysseus benefit from her power. Athena possesses the ability to disguise herself and others, and this skill allows her to give advice and guidance.
Athena uses her role as the puppeteer to allow the entire epic to slowly unfold. Without Athena there would be no epic about Odysseus returning home from the brutal Trojan War for the reader to enjoy and the term “odyssey” would not be used to describe a long journey. Athena is the key to the entire story; consequently The Odyssey is her story. The Odyssey is Athena’s story because she plays the role of the puppeteer that causes the events to take place.
I love that Margaret Atwood chose to tell Penelope’s side of the story through Penelope’s point of view. It definitely makes the narrative of Odysseus and his journey much more interesting. However, the change in point of view causes the reader to question who is telling the true story – Homer or Penelope? Personally, I am having a hard time choosing what to believe and what not to believe; more specifically, I am conflicted over the character of Odysseus. In The Odyssey, Odysseus is portrayed as a hero whose only flaw is his pride.
Athena is known as the goddess of war. Odysseus was aided by her ideas on how to regain power through her tactical skills. The fact that the goddess warrior was on his side through the journey home, reclaiming his land, and killing the suitors was a huge advantage. Athena is very intelligent in how she strategizes and won wars in the past. Some may argue that Odysseus is the real hero but there were many times throughout The Odyssey where he needed Athena’s protection and input of logical ideas.
Odysseus: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Odysseus, he’s known as a war hero on his way back to his homeland, who ends up going on a ten year long journey due to unforeseen circumstances. On this journey, he encounters many monsters, many ladies, and we see his good side and his bad side. Due to the fact that he’s very noble and brave (and in an epic poem), that makes him an epic hero. He’s also a very famous archetype for The Hero.
Here, Odysseus tells Athena that she is all he has left and through her immortal powers, she is the only god still on his side who can help him in his time of need. Therefore, through Athena’s encouraging words, she is able to make Odysseus feel uplifted and more useful, especially as Odysseus is, at this point, very hopeless and miserably
The Odyssey, gods like Athena and Poseidon interfere with humans to satisfy their own desires, showing that they are just as imperfect and flawed as the mortals that they rule over. Athena favors Odysseus since he reminds her of herself. He portrays the same cunning, guile, and intelligence as she does; Athena had confided to him that “two of a kind, we are, contrivers, both,” comparing how similar they are. “Of all men now alive,” she says, “you are the best in plots and story telling.
Amongst the many women portrayed in the book, the two most important women are Athena and Penelope. Athena is the Goddess of wisdom, courage, law & justice, strength and skills. She plays the role of a mentor in disguise for Odysseus but doesn’t show him the full path to his destination as Athena wants Odysseus to fight and prevail on his own. Penelope is the wife of Odysseus and the mortal queen of Ithaca.
Even after this, Athena feels like she deserves more credit for Odysseus’ journey home than he gives
Another time she helped Odysseus was when she protected him from the suitors' arrows. Without the providence of Athena Odysseus wouldn't have survived the events of The Odyssey. In book 1 of The Odyssey it says how "The story of Odysseus begins with the goddess Athena appealing to Zeus to help Odysseus, who has been wandering for ten years on the seas, to find his way home to