Theme Of Loyalty In The Odyssey

In The Odyssey by Gareth Hinds, the countless examples of loyalty result in Odysseus and his family reuniting. When Odysseus is said to be dead or lost at sea, over a hundred suitors arrive at his kingdom, all wanting to marry his wife Penelope. Despite the hundreds of suitors constantly pestering her, she refuses to marry any of them. She continues to postpone her remarriage by telling them that she will remarry once she is done with her shroud, but destroys her work every night: “I wove a shroud for Laertes. All day I’d weave, but at night I’d pick out the work by candlelight. The trick worked for 3 years, but then my maids betrayed me” (Hinds 191). Her loyalty towards her husband is what kept her from marrying any of the suitors. Because

When Athena, disguised as Mentes, tells him that he should go to Pylos for news of his father, he is quick to listen for this reason: “But why wait? Get rid of these thieves. Call the inlanders to assembly… Take a good ship with twenty oars and go abroad for news of your father… [Telemachus responds] I will” (Hinds 9). Because of this loyalty towards his father he continues to be guided by Athena and during his trip back from Pylos, Athena tells him to get dropped off slightly east of Ithaca which leads him to meet his father in Eumaeus’s House. Odysseus is another prime example of loyalty. When he is stuck on Calypso’s Island he is able to overcome the temptation to stay on the island with her and live an eternal life: “If you had any idea of the trials still in store for you, you would gladly stay with me, become immortal, and enjoy a life of bliss… Now, don’t be angry, Calypso… It is my one wish, the never-fading ache in my heart, to return to [Penelope] and to my own house” (Hinds 52). Due to his loyalty and love towards Penelope, he leaves the island on a wooden raft and begins his return back to Ithaca facing many hardships on the