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Importance Of Loyalty In The Odyssey

432 Words2 Pages

Madisen L. Ring
Mrs. Kriegbaum
Creative Reading and Writing
3 November , 2016
The Odyssey In relationships loyalty is an important aspect. Romantic relationships, friendships, or even family relationships loyalty is key. Loyalty and honesty go hand in hand. Without either a relationship will never last. In the poem “The Odyssey” by Homer, the importance of loyalty is constantly being portrayed. Between being a loyal wife, crew or even servant, everyone's loyalty was being put to the test by the most disloyal person of all, Odysseus. Odysseus was sleeping with multiple women over a span of twenty years but expected all of his kingdom to be loyal to him including his wife. This poem is not really about Odysseus and his journey but rather …show more content…

He was disloyal to his wife who was waiting around for him for twenty years. Penelope never once betrayed Odysseus because it was unacceptable for women to cheat on their husbands. “If you break little promises you'll break big ones” (McCarthy 34). The book The Road explains how honesty is everything. The man in The Road was honest with his son which kept him going and able to survive. Odysseus’ loyalty defines how truly important loyalty and honesty is. Although Odysseus was disloyal most of the time he did have moments where he displayed loyalty. When his crew members died he was grief stricken in the middle of the sea crying.”There, shedding tears, he Odysseus went unnoticed by all the others, but Alkinoös alone understood what he did and noticed, since he was sitting next to him and heard him groaning heavily” (Homer, ). This showed the vulnerable side of Odysseus. Even though Odysseus did not display his loyalty on the inside he thought he was. When he was passing through hades, Odysseus was confronted by the shadow of his fallen crew member, Elepnor, who had fallen off a roof and broke his neck. He told Odysseus he wanted a proper burial. “I beg you master to remember me then and not to sail away and forsake me utterly nor leave me there unburied and unwept in case I bring down the god's curse on you” (Homer 142). Odysseus running into Elepnor was the push he needed to realize he needed to be

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