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Importance Of Home In The Odyssey

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Martin Luther King Junior once said “Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave”. The importance of home is an universally applicable subject from Odyssey that has a meaning that can be applicable to our lives. Home was a very important part in Greek culture and is also important to us in western society. In The Odyssey by Homer, xenia, nostos, and hubris is used to show the importance of home.
Xenia is used in the Odyssey to show the importance of home. Xenia is the greek term for “hospitality towards visitors”. This Greek term is shown when Telemachus and Peisistratus both began on their journey on a yoke. “And they drove to Menelaus’ palace,/Which they found filled with guests” (Lombardo 44). Menelaus has many guests in his palace because of Xenia which is valued in their society. They believe in Xenia because when people are away from home, they are uncomfortable so showing hospitality towards visitors makes them miss home less. Another place where Xenia was found was in the beginning of the book. They explained how the suitors stayed in Odysseus’ house while he was away on his journey “We …show more content…

Hubris means death from excessive pride. An example of hubris that is used in Odyssey is when Odysseus returns back home from his voyage and he unites with his son to plot to kill all the suitors. One of the main suitors that were killed was Antinous. “Odysseus/ Took dead aim at Antinous’ throat and shot,/ And the arrow punched all the way through/The soft neck tissue. Antinous fell to one side” (Lombardo 336). The hubris that is shown is when Antinous, a very prideful suitor who believes that he is the best. He was using all of Odysseus’ resources at home and he dies but it is not a big deal because he was depleting someone else's resources at their house for many years. This shows the importance of home because the audience is supposed to feel like he deserved to

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In the first instances of drastic changes to Odysseus mental state they are severely influenced by physicality of home. One example occurs as Odysseus and his crew are given a magical ship that would take them directly to Ithaca. The fact that Odysseus does not tell his men what is in the bag reveals that he holds the contents of the bag very highly, so much so that he even has this underlying paranoia against his esteemed crew. This secret would untimely lead to the downfall of this attempt home, which causes a rift in Odysseus’s mental state. As the bag of winds ruptures open and the crew is forced away from Ithaca, Odysseus contemplates suicide.

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