Kamalei Dwight
Kumu K. Hikila
Honors English 9
14 February 2023
Creative Title Here A guilty conscience is constructed of excuses. The Odyssey by Homer follows Odysseus’s journey through ancient-day Greece, telling the story of “heroic” actions that aren't very heroic in analysis. This truly sets the tone of how Homer’s Odyssey supports the patriarchal structures that still govern society today. This underlying theme is especially prevalent in how Homer portrays male characters. We see this theme exemplified in Homer’s portrayal of Odysseus in which Odysseus uses guilt as a way to shift the blame from himself onto others. As well as how those who receive this blame and how they react. This is illustrated when we hear from Calypso as she describes the double standard that has shaped her life. As she expresses to the world “You rivaled lords of jealousy---scandalized when goddesses sleep with mortals” (Homer 11). Calypso was continually shamed for the same things male gods were
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“Cyclops--if any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shamed you so--say Odysseus raider of cities, he gouged out you eye” (Fagles 21). Odysseus could not keep his egotistical ways at bay costing his men a much more traumatic journey. “Calypso the lustrous goddess tried to hold me back, deep in her arching caverns, craving me for a husband. So did Circe, holding me just as warmly in her halls, the bewitching queen of Aeaea keen to have me too” (Fagles 40).Odysseus's ego was so large he failed to realize that many of these women only fell for him because of their circumstances, with many of them being cursed to solitude. Odysseus lets his ego guide his life decisions a characteristic that can be seen eating away at society today. As one's ego can be there downfall. Odysseus's ego also allows him to have a fondness of revenge, getting revenge for the same things he has