Pylos In Electric Light

Around the 1200 B.C., Odysseus was sailing the Mediterranean Sea for the purpose of reaching home. In his long narrative poem, The Odyssey, Homer conveys how Odysseus desperately wishes to go home to Ithaca. However, he faces brutal treatment and obstacles from several different antagonists, and more obstacles appear when he reaches home. Odysseus came across many external conflicts, which he dealt with intelligence, determination, and loyalty.

Odysseus, King of Ithaca, and the main character in homer’s The Odyssey, was gone for twenty years before finally returning to his family and his homeland. He struggled through many hardships and lost many loyal companions. The King of Ithaca would not have made it home without the assistance of the Greek gods. Despite all of the help and advice that Odysseus receives from the gods, he is a very brave man because his courage and daring in the cave of the Cyclops, his inability to give up and abandon his men on Circe’s island, and his flawless following of the gods instructions are acts of bravery that is uncommon in most men.

In Homer’s Odyssey, the idea of fate is more significant than the idea and sense of duty. Odysseus’s journey begins when Poseidon learns that Odysseus blinded his Cyclops son, Polyphemous while trying to escape from his capture. This enrages the already hot-tempered sea god, damning Odysseus, his men, and his voyage. Poseidon attempts to delay and keep Odysseus from his home, Ithaca. His anger towards Odysseus is so great that Zeus has to step in to save him from the sea-god. Zeus, after Poseidon complains to him about the Phaenecians aiding Odysseus, states “Since for Odysseus now I vowed that he his home should win through many a misery yet utterly bereft not his return; for such your purpose was and decree.” (Homer, Book 13, st. 45) Zeus, in the Odyssey, acts as the hand of fate by preventing Poseidon from further stalling Odysseus’s return home. This is unlike Jupiter in the Aeneid, who dispatches Mercury to remind Aeneus of

Odysseus arrogantly does not think of the safety of his men and does not listen to them, only caring to annoy the Cyclops and to take the credit for blinding him. This shows his pride and his only care, to expand his legacy. By doing so, Poseidon curses his journey and makes it tougher for him to return

The way that their ship was destroyed by Zeus shows how they were punished for actively disrespecting Helios, which conveys how important reverence of the gods was to the Homer and the Ancient Greeks. Lastly, in what is perhaps the epitome of Poseidon’s wrath, Homer conveys the importance of respect for the deities. This value is portrayed in book 13 when Poseidon attacks the Phaeacian ship after they bring Odysseus home, “[striking] her to stone,” and, “[rooting] her to the ocean floor,” (291). This act of violence by Poseidon illustrates just one example of how mortals are punished for disrespect throughout The Odyssey. Because the Phaeacians chose to help Odysseus, thereby contradicting Poseidon and in a sense disrespecting him, they were punished which again, illustrates how disrespecting the gods, however unintentionally, can have disastrous and even deadly consequences. Homer’s use of violence by the gods in these three instances helps to convey the cultural norm of reverence of the gods in Ancient Greece.

Odysseus’ arrival in Ithaca is quite anti-climatic: although he is “overjoyed” and kisses the earth, Homer does not linger on the moment but relates how Athene and Odysseus proceed to make a plan. The killing of the

Since it was originally written in the 8th century, The Odyssey by Homer has served as inspiration to many writers and artists, who tell the story of the lost king of Ithaca, Odysseus. In Book 21 of The Odyssey “The Contest with Odysseus’ Bow”, Penelope, Odysseus’ Wife, decides that her beloved Odysseus will not return and therefore sets up a contest for the suitors to decide who her future husband will be. One portrayal of this contest is in O’Grady’s poem “The Test of the Bow” where the poet describes the act of Odysseus stringing and shooting the bow. Although Book 21 of The Odyssey by Homer and O’Grady’s poem “The Test of the Bow” express similarities in characterization, they differ in diction and tone.

Odysseus requests information from Tiresias regarding his destiny. In return, Teiresias describes his homebound journey and guides him through the upcoming obstacles. Teiresias forewarns Odysseus to avoid Helios’ cattle for they would cause havoc upon his crew. Additionally, Tiresias describes the method to diminish Poseidon’s grudge on Odysseus.

The reader finds him out at sea on a small raft, sailing towards the land of the Phoenicians:"Poseidon god of the earthquake launched a colossal wave, terrible, murderous, arching over him, pounding down on him, hard as a windstorm blasting piles of dry parched chaff, scattering flying husks—so the long planks of his boat were scattered far and wide.”(Homer 88). For a seafaring hero like Odysseus, the struggle to reunite himself with his loved ones takes as place just as much on the sea as on the land, and the wilderness of the greek islands is unmatched against the brutality of the Mediterranean. Another trend in greek mythology is false havens, whether it be the lotus eaters or the sirens, Greek heroes are frequently tested by things that remind them of the feeling of home. A prominent example inside Odysseus’s story is that of Circe the goddess where the reader sees the following,“she enticed and won our battle-hardened spirits over.And there we sat at ease, day in, day out, till a year had run its course,feasting on sides of meat and drafts of heady wine …”(Homer 175 One of the main themes in the Odyssey is the everlasting bond of family and the hearth, here the reader sees the protagonist of

This instance is one where hubris and arete can be shown as Odysseus’ motivators. Arete is very important to greek heroes, and sometimes hubris comes right along with it. This being when Odysseus yells back to the blinded cyclops, telling him that Odysseus, the king of Ithaca is the one who blinded Polyphemus. “Cyclops, if any one of mortal men shall ask thee about the shameful blinding of thine eye, say that Odysseus, the sacker of cities, blinded it, even the son of Laertes, whose home is in Ithaca” (Homer, Odyssey, 9:502-505). This here explains that Odysseus just created a major issue for him and the other ships with him. This greatly angered Poseidon, and so Poseidon made is he could never get home. This myth here shows us again that if Odysseus would have never yelled out his name, his fleet would have made it safe home. Instead they all suffered and roamed the seas for many years. This example lets the reader know that you should win your battles without expressing too much

It is at this point in the epic where the anger of Poseidon is unleashed on Odysseus, and from then on, the journey is nothing but a struggle. He is trapped by the goddess Circe, who turns some of his men into pigs. Then, he is forced to make a trip to speak to the

Odysseus was an amazing man, whose exploits were made legend by Homer. While he was sailing, he endured many temptations. One temptation he could not overcome was when he was on his journey home, And Odysseus and his men took refuge on an island which held the livestock of the sun god; meanwhile, there was a large hurricane that stranded them on the island with little food (pg.170, paragraph 6). This gave a chance for Homer to realize the problems Odysseus was put through to get to a very simple goal of returning to his home. The disobedience of the crew was an opportunity for how the rest of his comrades died and he ended up at the island of Ogygian.

After their misadventures the crew was weary and pleaded with Odysseus to let them rest. He begrudgingly agreed to their terms, though paranoid of their location. They had landed on the island of the Titan God of the Sun, Helios. Circe had warned him to avoid it, and not to touch his prized livestock. When he told his crew it angered them, and they did nothing to follow their leader’s instruction.

There has long been a fashion among critics and historians, including Sir James Frazier and Graham Hancock, to insist upon taking the account of Odysseus' voyage to Hades in Book XI of the Odyssey at near face-value as a description of people and places familiar to a Greek audience of Homer's day. Both linguistics and comparative history have been employed to discover exactly how accurately this originally oral epic conveys this gritty realism. Something, however, is not right with this purely empiric approach. What is missing is an examination through the lens of ancient religious practices. Surely a literary work so teeming with deities-wise Athena, spiteful Poseidon, impish

Ireland’s political history has always been tumultuous and vivid. Especially the 18th century can be said to feature several key events of the nationalist conflict, which united Ireland and Scotland against the English Crown. Irish ballads and poetry, in general, constitute an account of various events that have happened in the 18th century. In the following essay, I want to give a brief overview of salient characteristics of this time, focusing especially on the “Jacobite” ballad ‘Mo Ghile Mear’ written by Seán “Clárach” Mac Domhnaill.