Recommended: Odysseus speech
Homer’s The Odyssey, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, contains a man named Odysseus whose story can relate to soldiers in today’s military, and how Odysseus has to persevere to get home. Odysseus is a loving husband who goes to fight in the Trojan War. His son, Telemachus, is born shortly before Odysseus has to leave for the war. The Trojan War is a long fight that lasts ten years.
However, Nausicaa stays because of the courage that Athena gave her. Odysseus pleads with Nausicaa, and she agrees to help him. Nausicaa decides to let Odysseus bathe in the river and give him food and clothing. Nausicaa wants her maids to help Odysseus bathe, but Odysseus declines the offer because he does not want the maids to have to see him naked.
Marquis Deveaux II Professor Steven Karnes HRS 10 17 October 2016 The Man of Artéte Gray clouds suddenly appear, moving swiftly, a waterfall of rain starts pouring out. Thunder fills the sky, with its loud roars, lightning flashed down upon everyone in its path. Dead bodies everywhere no one could have survived this but one man comes out with the glowing yellow skin of a god, muscles that would move elegantly with every move, and a man that looked like no other. A man Odysseus.
As you read The Odyssey you see how our ship crew and their caption, Odysseus travel through the seas: fights monsters and the supernatural beings: and Odysseus is always forming sly plans to get out of a sticky situation. I choose to sculpt a piece after The Sirens section. My project is how I pictured Odysseus being tied up to his ship having to listen to the sirens beautiful but sickening songs. I felt this scene showed how much Odysseus truly cares for his crew so much that he alone willingly tied himself to the ship and listened to the song so they could return to their homes. The scene also showed how intelligent he was to tell his crew members to put wax in their ears to block out the song.
The speech could not have been executed more perfectly; asking for aid, flattering her, imploring she has brothers to protect her giving her assurance, while complimenting himself making him appealing. “If any speech possible for a naked hero in front of a young girl, then odysseus has made it, and when he goes on to tell her his troubles and beg for her assistance, we know that nausicaa knows that this is the kind of man she can bring home to mother” (Clark
(Odyssey, Book 12, lines 167-171). This excerpt displays just how much Odysseus cares about his
Odysseus is talking to Athena when she tells him he has arrived at Ithaca. Odysseus is shell-shocked and come back saying, “But now I beg you by your almighty Father’s name…/for I can’t believe I’ve reached my sunny Ithaca,/ I must be roaming around one more exotic land–/ you’re mocking me, I know it, telling me tales/ to make me lose my way. Tell me the truth now, have I really reached that land I love?” (13. 367-373).
Similarly, Nausicaa twists her words to deliver a message to Odysseus in a roundabout way. She employs framing when she voices the gossip spread by the townspeople, saying “Now who’s that tall, handsome stranger Nausicaa has in tow? ... Her future husband-to-be, just wait! ... Good riddance! … She only spurns her own- countless Phaeacians round about who court her, nothing but our best”
Before Athena appearing as a Mentor, Homer shows Telémakhos as a shy boy who is having difficulties to live up to his father’s legendary reputation. He is shown as detached, lost and confused. Rather than taking an action, Telémakhos kept on complaining about the suitors’ manipulation of Xenia. In order to reach manhood, Athena calls him to action through making him undergo a journey. This journey, through Homer’s words, is not only meant to pave the way for him to mature by the time Odysseus is back, but also to save him from the suitor’s plot to kill him.
From Odysseus’ time with Calypso in Ogygia up until the moment he takes back his home and wife from the suitors in Ithaca, the struggles he faces help answer what makes for a good life. Homer uses Odysseus’ journey throughout “The Odyssey” to identify four aspects of a good life: mortality, honor, hospitality, and experiences. Homer reveals that mortality is necessary for a good life when Odysseus denies the opportunity for immortality that Calypso offers, he shows the significance of honor in his description of Odysseus’ bravery in the Trojan war and the consequent respect that Odysseus’ crew has for him, Homer reinforces the importance of hospitality in each city Odysseus travels to, and he conveys that experiences, good or bad, define a good life. The Greeks held their gods in high esteem and therefore when Homer or other characters in the epic refer to Odysseus as being “godlike,” this is one of the highest compliments he could receive.
Here, Odysseus tells Athena that she is all he has left and through her immortal powers, she is the only god still on his side who can help him in his time of need. Therefore, through Athena’s encouraging words, she is able to make Odysseus feel uplifted and more useful, especially as Odysseus is, at this point, very hopeless and miserably
There are many lessons Odysseus and is men learn on their journey home in the Odyssey. Unfortunately, only Odysseus makes it home and the rest of men are dead because of their foolish actions. In the Thrinacia and The Cattle of the Sun episode of the Odyssey Odysseus’s men once again disobey him and cost them their lives. The men and Odysseus learn valuable lessons throughout their epic journey, but in the episode the most important lessons they learn are; temptation can lead to death, being obedient can save your life, and trust your instincts. If Odysseus’s men would have been more obedient to their leader Odysseus perhaps all of them would have made it back home alive.
In The Odyssey, Homer uses detail and dialogue to show that Odysseus, the quester, while trying to achieve his main goal to get back home, learns that he shouldn’t let obstacles interfere with him. In the beginning of The Odyssey, we first hear Homer, the author of the epic, speaking towards us, the reader. He asks that Muse, a daughter of Zeus, enable him to tell the story of Odysseus. He says that he was “the wanderer, harried for years on end, after he plundered the stronghold on the proud height of Troy” (Homer 371). He continues speaking, and he eventually says why Odysseus is
The relationships between the Greek gods and mortals have always been complicated. The gods can be generous and supportive, but also harsh and destructive towards the humans. They claim to be all powerful beings with unlimited power and influence, but in truth, they are far more human than they are perceived. They meddle with human lives, not because they are wise, but because of their own selfish reasons. In Homer’s
The conversation between Athena and Odysseus in the middle of book 13 reveals how each of them feels and thinks about the other at this stage in the epic. When Athena is first coming to meet Odysseus, after he has landed on Ithaca, she decides not to appear as herself to Odysseus, but first as a “young man… a shepherd boy”, and she then changes back to herself (13.252). She does this to get an honest opinion from him, as if she had appeared as a god, he might not have been honest with her. She also wants to hear his story, and see if he is actually thinking about her. After he does not “recognize” her because of her “endless” shapes, she is angry with him and accuses him of “never getting tired of twists and tricks” (13.340,56,32).
