The Odyssey

Odysseus demonstrates heroic qualities in book eight when he attends the Phaeacian assembly at Alcinous's court. The finest Phaeacian young men display their athletic abilities, and Odysseus enjoys...

Odysseus faces a number of challenges on his way home, including: sailors captivated by the lotus-eaters a battle with Polyphemus, a cyclops a storm sent by Poseidon an encounter with a witch being...

Odysseus travels to the Land of the Dead to speak with the prophet Tiresias. When he gets there, he makes a blood sacrifice so that the spirits of the dead will emerge from the depths of Hades. One...

In book 11 of the Odyssey, Teiresias cautions Odysseus about the negative consequences of his past and future actions. The prophet warns Odysseus specifically about Poseidon’s revenge for the...

In regards to Greek tragedies, hubris is defined as excessive pride or confidence, which is a serious character flaw that leads to the demise of many heroic men. In Homer's classic epic The...

Odysseus lost six men from the crew of each ship to the Ciconians at Ismarus; they were attacked at night by the survivors of the town they'd sacked. He then lost six men total when they were...

Odysseus shows bravery many times throughout the course of the Odyssey. Here are a few of those examples. During his encounter with the Cyclops (Polyphemus), Odysseus and his men get stuck in a...

Odysseus tells Polyphemus his name is "Nobody" to prevent Polyphemus from being able to successfully call for help when Odysseus enacts his escape plan. When Odysseus and his men are trapped in...

Odysseus is a good leader because he is willing to keep his eyes on the goal no matter what. He does not allow himself to be seduced or distracted from his course perpetually, whether he is on...

It is always difficult, and usually of questionable practicality, to attempt to judge contemporary standards of morality with those that existed thousands of years ago. To attempt to impose those...

Homer wrote the Odyssey in a poetical meter called dactylic hexameter. This means that there are six metrical units, or feet, in each line. Homer uses the various colorful epithets to fit in with...

In The Odyssey, Odysseus tells the Phaeacians the story of his adventures and misadventures as he journeys home to Ithaca from the Trojan War. He explains how he and his men landed on the Island of...

In Book 11 of The Odyssey, The Kingdom of the Dead, Odysseus visits the underworld to consult with the prophet Tiresias. Circe instructs him to visit Tiresias so he can find out about his future,...

Odysseus's dealings with Polyphemus, the Cyclops, go a long way in terms of showing how Odysseus is both clever and heroic. When it becomes clear that Polyphemus is savage and brutal and will...

One could reasonably argue that Odysseus shows arrogance in wanting to hear the song of the Sirens, those strange creatures who lure sailors to their deaths against the rocks of their island. The...

One of Odysseus’ negative characteristics is that he is stubbornly selfish. Odysseus act stubbornly selfish in a few ways. The first is during the adventure with the Cyclops in book 9. Odysseus...

After Odysseus and his men blind the Cyclops, they sail away from the island. Just as it seems they are going to get away, Odysseus shouts back to Polyphemus, taunting the monster and telling the...

In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus' first stop after leaving Troy is the land of the Cicones. After initially defeating the Cicones in battle, the Cicones regroup and attack Odysseus and his men, who had...

This is an interesting question and certainly one that is up to a certain degree of interpretation. On one hand, it might be easy to argue that Odysseus is not a good leader, considering that all...

In Book IX of The Odyssey, Odysseus begins the tale of his wanderings, starting with the journey's second part, that from Ogygia through Phaeacia. Odysseus begins by describing the departure from...

A cautious Penelope, sought after by many clever suitors, uses the bed that she and Odysseus shared for so many years to trick Odysseus into proving his identity. The bed, carved from a tree that...

Odysseus meets the standards of the Greek hero because he is unwaveringly faithful to his family and to his people in Ithaca. Defying the odds, he fights to return to his home, and he never forgets...

The beauty of epic poems such as The Iliad and The Odyssey is that the stories are so rich that many can return to them again and again and find completely new meanings. As a result, distilling...

In truth, Odysseus's character doesn't undergo much of a change throughout his epic voyage. At the end of the poem, he's as much of a wily, fearless hero as he ever was. Nonetheless, some subtle...

In book 10, Odysseus learns from Circe that he and his men must visit the Underworld to receive important information from Tiresias, the blind prophet. Although Circe leaves careful instructions,...

Penelope's suitors plan to kill Telemachus as he returns from his voyage to find Odysseus. She finds out about the plot when Medon, a herald, overhears their plans and comes to alert her about the...

The exposition (or introduction) of Homer's The Odyssey introduces the character of Odysseus being discussed by Athena and Zeus, her father. She wants to know why Odysseus has not been able to...

Arrogance is generally considered at least a minor character flaw in virtually anyone, and the hero of Homer's The Odyssey is no exception. Following the Greek victory at Troy, Odysseus boasts of...

In Homer's The Odyssey, Odysseus is portrayed as a cunning, discerning man who exercises caution when he returns home to Ithaca after twenty years. Once Odysseus arrives home, Athena cleverly...

The primary reason why Odysseus does not sail directly home to Ithica following the Trojan War is due to the fact that he provokes the wrath of Poseidon and Helios. On Odysseus's journey home, he...

The protagonist of Homer's The Odyssey is Odysseus. Odysseus's heroic ability (or most important characteristic) is his great intelligence. His intelligence proves the saying "brains [intelligence]...

There are several similes in Book 5 of The Odyssey. In line 14 of Book 5, Athena says that Odysseus was "as kindly as a father to his children" as a leader of Ithaca. Later, as Odysseus is in a...

Odysseus faces a great many challenges in The Odyssey. First, although he cautions his men that they should move on quickly after the Trojan War, they "did not heed" him, got very drunk in...

Odysseus exercises caution when his ships arrive in the Land of the Lotus Eaters, and he sends only three men to go and scout out the land and the locals. (He's wary of another ambush like the one...

Odysseus, as a noble Greek warrior, is expected to possess great physical strength, and, in a number of places throughout The Odyssey, Odysseus displays feats of strength far in excess of anything...

At the beginning of Book Five, Athena petitions Zeus to intervene in Odysseus's dire situation and reminds him that Odysseus is being held prisoner by the nymph Calypso while the unscrupulous...

Odysseus wants to visit the Cyclops out of pure curiosity. He knows that he has the protection of the gods and he believes himself to be more than human so he does not fear entering Polyphemus'...

It was a literary convention in Greek epic poems and other classic works for the poet to begin his tale by calling upon a muse, to invoke her aid in telling the story. As goddesses, muses were...

The dead prophet Teiresias tells Odysseus that he must sail to the Thrinacian island and do certain things before he can return home. After Odysseus and his men sail from the island of the...

Athena visited Telemachus disguised as Mentes, son of Anchialus, and the leader of the Taphians. She claimed that she was on a voyage to Temesa for purposes of trade. She further informed...

In Book Nine of the poem, we encounter a heroic crisis for Odysseus. While it is clear that Odysseus is smart, this particular section of the poem reveals Odysseus' ego. Because of his hubris,...

Odysseus has not returned from the Trojan war. He has been gone twenty years now, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus still believe he will return. They are slowly beginning to think that...

An epic simile will take place over several lines. It contains the same measure of a simile in that there must be a comparison that begins it, often using like or as. In Book 1, here is a simile...

Odysseus, the hero from Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, does not kill the brutish cyclops, Polyphemus, because Odysseus and his men would be trapped in the cave. “Then he rolled a huge stone to the...

King Alcinous, along with his wife queen Arete, ruled the land of the Phaeacians. In the Odyssey, the exemplify the ultimate "good hosts." Greek culture values "xenos," which means hospitality...

Note the two answers above. In addition, though, note that Athena could, supposedly, tell Telemachus that his father is safe, and protect Telemachus with her godly powers. But that's aside from...

After losing the bag of wind given to him by ---Odysseus and his crew row back to the land of the Laestrygonians, powerful giants who hurl boulders at them, sinking all the ships but that of...

Odysseus' Revenge: CONFLICT: Odysseus and Telemachus are presented with terrible odds. Realizing that Odysseus is actually the king, the men begin to offer their apologies, but Odysseus will have...

In The Odyssey, Odysseus suffers great personal loss and struggles constantly in his efforts to return home to Penelope. Just as he can see his home in sight, there is mutiny on his ship and his...

Odysseus becomes curious about the nature of the cyclops, and so he takes his crew to Polyphemus's island to determine whether he is a savage brute or friendly, god-fearing creature. Odysseus and...