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The Symbolism Of Water In The Odyssey

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Water was a very interesting character in The Odyssey. Water had the capacity to kill, prevented people from getting somewhere, kept something alive, had what seemed like an endless span, was a method of transportation, the substance of life, and showed up in gas(pg. 50) and liquid form.

Water was a dangerous force to be reckoned with in The Odyssey. Water has a part in why Ulysses didn’t get back to Ithaca for twenty years. The water currents, changed by the wind, made it so that he couldn’t get back. On page 18, a massive whirlpool was mentioned. The whirlpool had a name; Charybdis. The whirlpool was so big that you could see the bottom of the ocean from the surface. The whirlpool was in the Strait of Messina (which is between modern day …show more content…

on a raft. The water was so bad that it broke up his raft and he had to swim for two days and two nights to get to an island. If the Poseidon hadn’t done that, Ulysses might have gotten back to Ithaca sooner. The water might have been calm all the way to …show more content…

When Ulysses stabbed the Cyclops Polyphemus, he made enemies with Poseidon (the Greek god of the sea). Poseidon would hate him until he died because Cyclops’ were supposedly Poseidon’s children. So Poseidon made it hard for Ulysses to get home, therefore breaking his spirit little by little when he couldn’t get back to Ithaca and see his family, but he didn’t succeed in breaking Ulysses’ spirit. Then when he got off Calypso’s island(seven years later), Poseidon tried to kill him and a goddess of the sea saved him. She gave him a veil and told him to swim to the nearest island, then told him to cast the veil behind him, without looking back. Ulysses did that and he got to the Phaeacians, who helped him get to Ithaca (over

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