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The Odyssey
There are many reasons why the suitors are not prepared for Odysseus's return. First, he has been gone a total of nearly twenty years, some ten years longer than the others who went off to fight in...
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The Odyssey
In The Odyssey, Zeus does not frequently appear; yet, when he does, he certainly utilizes his significant influence. In a sense, Zeus even sets forth the entire plot of The Odyssey, for, after...
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The Odyssey
Ogygia is the beautiful island paradise where Odysseus has been held captive by the enticing sea nymph Calypso. The island, like Calypso herself, is replete with seductive charms, and Homer paints...
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The Odyssey
Proteus, the Old Man of the Sea, is a sea-god living on the island of Pharos. As Menelaus tells Telemachus, he and his crew were stranded there on their return home from the Trojan War. Proteus's...
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The Odyssey
Although he is also quite humanly flawed, Odysseus is a good role model for several reasons. First, he is loyal. Despite the fact that he does sleep with Circe and Calypso while he's away, Odysseus...
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The Odyssey
I would argue that Odysseus's journey as a whole is more important than his ultimate destination. The word "odyssey" meaning a personal journey of some kind has passed into common usage. Implicit...
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The Odyssey
Homer's The Odyssey teaches many things about Greek literature; perhaps the first is its enduring influence on Western literature. The hero's journey literary archetype arguably comes from the...
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The Odyssey
Nausicaa is the daughter of King Alcinous, the king of the Phaeacians. Odysseus winds up on their island on his journey home to Ithaca. Nausicaa is a maiden and of an age to be married. Nausicaa...
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The Odyssey
Teiresias gives Odysseus a great deal of helpful information. He explains that "a god will make" the journey home very hard for him; Teiresias says that Poseidon is still very angry with Odysseus...
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The Odyssey
In the first book, the gods discuss Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, alluding to a story that we are not told outright in this particular epic. Essentially, Agamemnon had been away, fighting in the...
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The Odyssey
Many Homeric scholars have spent their entire careers studying and writing about the Odyssey. Some of these critics have also used their knowledge of the poem to complete new translations of...
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The Odyssey
And as a man longs for supper, for whom all day long a yoke of wine-dark oxen has drawn the jointed plough through fallow land, and gladly for him does the light of the sun sink, that he may busy...
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The Odyssey
Homer's epic poem The Odyssey is really a story of two men's journeys. Most people know of Odysseus' journey home to Ithaca since he is the main character and the epic poem's namesake. But...
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The Odyssey
In Homer's epic poem The Odyssey, the hero Odysseus is well-known for his bravery and cleverness. Most readers notice these qualities in Odysseus very easily because the epic poem focuses so...
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The Odyssey
On the whole, it's probably not a smart move to sign up as one of Odysseus's crew. Although you get to experience more adventure than most people could ever possibly imagine, things get pretty...
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The Odyssey
Odysseus and his men get into an awful lot of scrapes on their epic voyage. But thanks to the resourcefulness and uncommon bravery of our hero they're often able to overcome their difficulties. The...
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The Odyssey
No one knows precisely when The Odyssey was actually written. However, most scholars agree that it was probably composed some time in the eighth century BC. The setting of the poem—although we...
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The Odyssey
Polyphemus is a Cyclops, and he is a son of Poseidon. Odysseus and his crew encounter Polyphemus when they are on their way home to Ithaca. During this encounter, Odysseus displays hubris, or...
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The Odyssey
With his father gone, Telemachus must step up and become the man of the house. He must grow into his power as a young man and direct the servants and even his mother. We see him issue orders to...
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The Odyssey
Odysseus learns many important lessons while sailing home to Ithaca from Troy. The most significant lesson teaches Odysseus the dangers of hubris, or excessive pride in oneself. Odysseus...
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The Odyssey
Let's make one thing clear: Odysseus's arrogance is one of his least admirable traits—but it is part of what makes him heroic. For starters, it imbues him with great confidence. Being confident...
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The Odyssey
The overriding theme of Shelley's "Ozymandias" is the transience of all earthly things. Ozymandias, an Egyptian pharaoh, thought he could achieve immortality by his achievements in this life. Yet...
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The Odyssey
Telemachus is having an emotional moment here in this passage, which explains why he dismisses his mother like this. Female power is observable in Book 1 of The Odyssey, and though minor characters...
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The Odyssey
In Homer's The Odyssey, Odysseus is trying to make his way back to Ithaca after the Trojan War. While Odysseus faces obstacle after obstacle that keep him from going home, his wife Penelope and son...
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The Odyssey
A few distinct moments from The Odyssey stick out to me in regard to this topic. First, early on, Zeus sends Hermes to tell Calypso that she must give up Odysseus and permit him to leave her...
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The Odyssey
Odysseus does not want to go to Thrinacia (modern-day Sicily) because he has been explicitly warned by both Circe and Tiresias not to. Odysseus was sent by Circe down to the underworld, and that is...
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The Odyssey
There are a huge number of examples of literary devices in the Odyssey, but we can only deal with a few of them here. One of the most notable features of the poem is Homer's use of...
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The Odyssey
There are certain aspects of Odysseus that compare to the legendary boxer Muhammad Ali. As a young man, Muhammad Ali was unafraid to brag about himself, calling himself "the greatest" and telling...
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The Odyssey
It sounds like the assignment you're describing is to compose a poem about your personal goals using the mythical sirens as a motif. The sirens of the Odyssey and Greek myth were creatures often...
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The Odyssey
In The Odyssey, the sirens flatter Odysseus, calling him "honored" and the "great glory of the Achaeans." They invite him to dock his ship on their island so that he can listen to their song. No...
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The Odyssey
This question is very clearly answered in book twelve of the Odyssey. Circe gives Odysseus advice about the perils he will face on his sea voyage as he returns home to Penelope. One of the major...
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The Odyssey
Nestor greets and treats Telemachus as a friend when he comes in search of news of his father, Odysseus. Nestor has heard of Penelope's plight and the abuses of the suitors, but he believes that...
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The Odyssey
Odysseus and his men encounter Polyphemus, the Cyclops, in book 9 of The Odyssey, and not all of them survive their captivity in Polyphemus's cave. Moreover, Odysseus's hubris after their escape...
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The Odyssey
One major theme of The Odyssey concerns the beauty of home. For Odysseus, there is simply no place like home. As he says early on to King Alcinous of Phaeacia, "Nothing more sweet than home and...
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The Odyssey
This is an interesting question because I think most readers would agree that Odysseus is not humble at all. He is pretty arrogant, for example, when leaving the Cyclopes' Island after blinding...
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The Odyssey
I'd say it's a combination of the two. Certainly, Odysseus was smart enough to tell Polyphemus that his name is "Nobody" so that the Cyclops cannot identify his attacker to his peers. He knows that...
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The Odyssey
Odysseus is very much a product of his time and place. He is a great king and noble warrior who unhesitatingly subscribes to the dominant ethos of aristocratic Greek males. Yet he does so with a...
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The Odyssey
In Book II of the Odyssey, lines 35-128, Telemachus and Antinous have a lengthy debate on the appropriateness of the actions of Penelope's many suitors. Telemachus describes the constant drain of...
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The Odyssey
Perhaps the most important female character in the Odyssey is Penelope, Odysseus's long-suffering wife and Telemachus's mother. She is often called "heedful Penelope" because she is so obedient and...
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The Odyssey
It is obvious to us that the ancient Greeks valued hospitality because of how crucial it is in The Odyssey. When Odysseus and his men land on the island where the Cyclopes live, he wants to remain...
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The Odyssey
One interesting paper topic would be Homer's portrayal of father-son relationships, concentrating on the relationship between Telemachus and Odysseus. When the epic starts, Telemachus has never met...
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The Odyssey
After Odysseus’ disappearance, men wreaked havoc on his estate due to his absence. They were interested in marrying Penelope, Odysseus’ wife and Telemachus’ mother. Penelope avoided their...
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The Odyssey
When Odysseus is disguised as an old beggar, brought to his home in Ithaca by Eumaeus, his loyal swineherd, the suitors force him into a fight with another local beggar, Irus. One way in which...
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The Odyssey
The first set of values one finds in these epics are heroic ones. In heroic culture, aristocrats are expected to demonstrate physical prowess in individual combat. Displaying certain types of...
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The Odyssey
Penelope must contend with her fear that she is being duped by someone who is not actually her husband. After all, Odysseus has been gone for twenty years, and he would likely look very different...
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The Odyssey
No, Tiresias does not warn Odysseus about the Sirens, those mysterious women/ monsters whose voices could entrance the minds of men and cause sailors to wreck their ships. The goddess Circe was the...
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The Odyssey
Certainly, Odysseus is friends with Menelaus. In fact, it was to recover and protect Menelaus's honor that Odysseus went off to fight in the Trojan War in the first place. When Paris, the prince...
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The Odyssey
There was no one specific event that made Odysseus want to return home to his wife, Penelope, after twenty years. Honestly he didn't really want to leave in the first place, but he got called away...
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The Odyssey
At Athena's insistence, Zeus sends Hermes to tell Calypso that she must release Odysseus, her seven-years prisoner and lover. Calypso is undeniably upset by this news, especially in regard to the...
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The Odyssey
In Book V, Athena attempts to influence Zeus on Odysseus's behalf because she feels sympathetic toward Odysseus and his family. Odysseus has been kept for seven years by the nymph, Calypso, and...
