Examples Of Suffering In The Odyssey

uddhism Beliefs In The Odyssey Suffering is a journey that allows people to grow and change in character. One of the things people all go through in life is suffering. In the Buddhist religion, a person has to travel a path that endures many challenges and suffering. This path includes many temptations and bait to lure a person off their trail. If the person stays on the right path, and shows their devotion, they will eventually reach enlightenment. In Homer’s The Odyssey, the main character Odysseus has to travel a very challenging path to get back to his family which is his version of enlightenment. Although it is not directly spoken about throughout The Odyssey, the Buddhist belief in temptation, suffering and enlightment is shown throughout

In The Odyssey, Odysseus is faced with a lot of things that tempt him to fall off track. One of the temptations Odysseus faces are the sirens. “No one ever sailed past us without staying to hear the enchanting sweetness of our song – and he who listens will go on his way not only charmed, but wiser, for we know all the ills that the gods laid upon the archives and Trojans before Troy…” (Homer 137). In this quote the sirens are trying to lure Odysseus and his men off trail. The sirens’ beauty and voices tempt Odysseus and his men to go to them. Odysseus knows that the sirens are not good creatures, and falling into their grasp would lead them to death. Knowing this, he resisted being lured into their trap, and steered himself and his men away from them. In Buddhist religion, on the path to enlightenment, one of the challenges a person has to face are temptations. “Māra, the Buddhist ‘Lord of the Senses,’ who was the Buddha’s temptor on several occasions. When the bodhisattva Gautama seated himself under the Bo tree to await Enlightenment…”(Encyclopedia Britannica). The Buddha, who is the origin of Buddhism, had to face

Buddhists believe that in order to reach enlightenment, a person has to endure a long path of suffering. They believe that by reaching enlightenment, it is a person's reward for all the suffering they have gone through. “The Four Noble Truths are the foundational tenets of Buddhism, which spark awareness of suffering as the nature of existence, its cause, and how to live without it ”(World History Encyclopedia). This quote explains the Four Noble Truths and what they mean in Buddhist terms. In Odysseus’s journey, he had to go through a lot of suffering. One of the first challenges Odysseus had to face was Polyphemus, the cyclops. Polyphemus trapped Odysseus and his men in his cave and then killed several of them. “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. Then he dismembered them and made his meal, gaping and crunching like a mountain lion—everything: innards, flesh, and marrow bones. We cried aloud, lifting our hands to Zeus, powerless, looking on at this, appalled; but Cyclops went on filling up his belly with manflesh and great gulps of whey… ”(Homer 91). Odysseus was trapped in a cave with a huge monster, and then had to witness his men being ripped apart and eaten in front of him, causing him to emotionally suffer. Another place where