Loyalty In Homer's Epic Poem, The Odyssey

Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, takes place in ancient Greece shortly after the end of the Trojan War. Many soldiers did not return home from the war, and this is what everyone was positive had happened to Odysseus, the beloved ruler of Ithaka. The Odyssey is the story of Odysseus’ dangerous ten year journey home and his family’s grief while he is away. Without one important trait, Odysseus never would have made it home: this trait is loyalty. The loyalty or disloyalty of his son, Telemachus, his wife, Penelope, and his crew shaped the hero’s journey BLANK. Homer uses loyalty like it is a journey, if you abandon it to early or only commit half-heartedly, there is no reward, but if you suffer and stay in for the long haul, one will be rewarded.

When Odysseus was asleep, his crew “untied the bag” because “temptation had its way with [them]” and it creates a storm that reverses all nine days of their journey (166). The crew assumes that there is treasure in the sack that Odysseus does not intend to share and they are overwhelmed with greed. Because Odysseus’ men prove that they have no intention to listen to him, he does not tell them about the terrible monster that killed six of the crew. He knows that panic will ensue and they would risk the lives of the entire ship to save their own. The relationship between Odysseus and his men is very dysfunctional because no one trusts one another and each man cares solely for himself. Soon after that, Odysseus and his men arrive on an island that is home to Helios’ prize cows. Multiple people have warned Odysseus not to kill the cows, so he does everything he can to prevent his men from eating the beautiful creatures. When Odysseus falls asleep, the crew mutinies once again and they “[slaughter] and [skin] the cattle,” enraging Helios and causing the gods to destroy their ship when they set off to sea (271). Every man

In the time period where The Odyssey takes place, women are expected to be loyal and are punished severely if they are not. For men, however, the rules are a lot more lenient. When Odysseus arrives home and hears about what has been happening in his hall while he was away, he becomes furious. All of the suitors are killed swiftly with arrows or spears, but each maid sleeping with them is forced to “thrust her head into a noose and swung” because she is a “slut” and does not deserve “the clean death of a beast” (423). The suitors went after his wife and lived in his house for seven years, but they get a less severe punishment then the disloyal maids. If the punishment were equal for both parties, Odysseus should be dead several times over because of the seven years he spends with other women away from his faithful wife. He is allowed to get away with it because he “[longs] for home” and never really enjoyed his stay, although Kalypso admits he was not an unwilling captive. Penelope waited for her unloyal husband for twenty years, fighting off hordes of suitors for the last seven, and now that her husband is home, she finally gets the reward. Penelope was in pain for all of these years, constantly breaking into tears over her lost husband. Now that she has suffered for so long, she can reap the reward of her loyalty and live happily with Odysseus. The suitors took the easy option and were