Flaws In The Odyssey

Flaw, a fault or weakness in a person’s character. The Odyssey gives many examples of flaws. No one in The Odyssey was flawless; including the gods and demigods. Some flaws are more common than others. The Odyssey teaches a great deal about common flaws of humanity. The Odyssey gives good examples of the human flaw of greed. Odysseus and his crew… “sacked the city , killed the men, but for the wives and plunder that rich haul we dragged away from the palace” (9.212). The crew attacked an innocent city because they could, also to say they did. They stole from the town and took their women. Another example of greed is when the suitors came… “they infest our palace day and night, they butcher our cattle, our sheep, our fat goats, feasting themselves sick” (2.95). The suitors were constantly eating and drinking the palace supplies. They overstayed

After thinking about it Odysseus said “at last, I mounted Circe's gorgeous bed” (10.241). Odysseus knew he was married to Penelope but still cheated on her. After he got his men back there was no need to stay, but he made that choice. Calypso tries to get Odysseus to stay saying… “Hardly right, is it, for a mortal woman to rival immortal goddess? How, in build? In beauty?” (5.158). Moving forward, Calypso tries to get Odysseus to stay for lust by making him feel bad. She let lust get in the way of what was right by trying to make him stay. The maids… “sluts- the suitors whores.” (22.453). were unloyal to Odysseus for lust, they were loyal to the suitors. The flaw of lust was shown multiple times in The Odyssey.

Flaws to humanity happen all throughout The Odyssey. All people make flaws , even a hero like Odysseus made many flaws. Not one person was perfect in The Odyssey. Outside of the book, unfortunately people have many of these flaws that are inevitable. Flaws are common, but you can learn a great amount about them in The