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Pride In The Odyssey

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Recommended: Short essay on pride

Shelsea Lopez-Massella
Contrast in the Usage of Pride within the Biblical text and Homeric Epic

Differing texts, the Odyssey and the Hebrew Bible serve to exemplify how “pride” is a term whose definition can be a spectrum with opposing ends rather than a solid meaning. As a word, it is able to connote a definition ranging from narcissism and self-adsorption, to self-assurance and respect for one’s reputation. Pride is an essential aspect of the Greek “hero”, being a characteristic that separates the common man from one of noble lineage and authority. Contrasting to the Homeric use of pride in heroism, the biblical use of the trait is always that of an example of behavior or character that is best averted rather than embraced; as it is a …show more content…

Here, the pride of the men is a shot at elevating themselves above others, to put themselves in a lofty tower that shadows all, leading them to a disarray of language barriers set in place by the Lord. The vanity in pride leads to calamity, undermines accomplishments, and harms their well-being. Solidifying the writers’ use of the malevolent behavior in characters to symbolize the foreshadowing of injury.
Unlike the constant negativity and sin that is imbedded in the anatomy of biblical individuals, Homer utilizes pride to expand the self, per se, allowing each character to either retain his current fame and reputation (in the case of Odysseus) or to seek out one’s purpose and build a name for himself through pursuit of glory (which we see in the character progression of …show more content…

Being a somewhat xenophobic society the Greeks, in this case the Phaeacians, must guarantee that the visitor is friend and not foe, prior opening their homes in hospitality. If they could not receive proof of his noble lineage, Odysseus ran the risk of execution or expulsion. There plays the role of pride; a hero must maintain his air of pride, and self-acknowledgment in his own accomplishments, tales of glory, and brawn, otherwise he is deemed weak in mind and spirit or perhaps seen as an unknown, and therefore, a

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