The author of a Why I Am a Muslim: An American Odyssey discusses their viewpoint as an American Muslim female in the article. Asma Gull Hasan is an American born child of Pakistani immigrants who grew up in California and was attending liberal college courses during the Oklahoma City bombing, she uses these experiences in the article. Hasan opens the article with a hypothetical question, encouraging readers to think of the stereotypes placed on Muslims. The author points out the racial diversity of Muslims in America with useful statistics. The author shows an understanding of Muslims are capable of terrorism, however points out that the religion in based on peace and not war. The author expresses their opinion on the next step to progress in America, open conversations and education. Also discussed is media bias and the understandable affect it has on American’s perceptions of the religious group.…
Heroes are characterized by their intelligence and resourcefulness, strength, bravery, and loyalty. Based on this description, Odysseus, the protagonist of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, is a hero. In the section “The Cyclops”, Odysseus represents these five characteristics in many forms. His bravery is shown when he approached the Cyclops, Polyphemus, while trapped in his cave, to yell about not obeying the gods’ rule of treating guests well, as he was not, to Odysseus and his men. A portion of what he told Polyphemus was, “We would entreat you, great sir, have a care for the gods’ courtesy; Zeus will avenge the unoffending guest.” While hollering at him, Odysseus was very much in danger of being eaten alive, being so close and yelling at…
As humans we make mistakes, but the real power is learning from our mistakes. Often we can learn from others mistakes that way we don’t have to feel the pain ourselves to understand why we shouldn’t do something or be a certain way. Also we can learn from history and past mistakes that lead them into bad times and disputes. From literature we learn morals and lessons through the characters position. “We live with our archetypes, but can we live in them?” rightly said by Poul Anderson.…
A personal virtue that is a major theme in the epic, The Odyssey, is loyalty and perseverance. The best example of loyalty in of the epic, Penelope, who waited faithfully in Ithaca for 20 years for her husband, Odysseus’, to return. Odysseus’ son Telemachus, who also showed loyalty by standing by his father against the suitors who are after the throne. The two analytical lenses that I will use to interpret this epic, is the Psychological and the social class lens. The psychology lens focuses on the internal struggles of a character in a text. This could be seen by the three main characters, Odysseus, Telemachus, and Penelope. All three character, psychologically, have their mind set on their longing reunion throughout the epic which ties to…
It is very important for the people of the ancient world to practice hospitality. In the Odyssey, Athena, disguising herself as a seafaring man, appears at Odysseus’ palace. She is ignored at the front door by the suitors of Penelope. Later, Odysseus’ son, Telemachus, apologizes to her for the suitors’ lack of hospitality. He invites her to have a meal. In return, Athena offers the young prince a piece of good advice that he should go abroad in order to seek his father’s whereabouts. In this case, the host and the guest establish a mutually helpful and respectful relationship that ensures their safety and the society’s stability.…
In the Odyssey, Odysseus is described by many as a hero with great courage, wisdom and godlike qualities, but his actions throughout the epic may shed light on some of his less heroic qualities and how the Homeric image of a hero and how the modern image of a hero may differ.…
In The Odyssey the reader learns about what the Greek people valued by learning that they valued hospitality no matter who you are, and lineage. The story shows the reader that if someone is found in a situation in which they do not know someone, the host should be hospitable and help the stranger with what he or she needs. Also, the idea that where someone comes from, who their father is , and who is their family is determines how they should act and what they are like. The Odyssey Shows many examples of these ideas in the text, by making the characters experience these situations.…
In our modern day, there are plenty of different ways that a person can show hospitality towards a guest whether it be a stranger or friend. Having only lived in the United States, I have found myself to be treated most graciously by my friends, but every so often, I do find myself to be lost in a friends house. Every person was taught certain morals as a child that they now use in their adult lives, but for some people, hospitality has been thought to be just letting them come into the house. In the Odyssey, so far, we as the readers have come to see how hospitality can be very well done. Whether it be Telemachus or Odysseus traveling and staying at places, they were served at the finest level even though they were complete strangers.…
The ancient Greeks had many customs that were valued throughout the land and were depicted in many of their myths like The Odyssey and The Iliad. The Greeks followed many different customs like honoring the gods and the guest host relationship. The guest-host relationship, which everyone practiced in Greece, explains how everyone should be treated with respect, no matter who they end up staying with or where they end up staying. Greek customs were highly respected and if followed diligently, one could be rewarded, but it could also be very detrimental if someone were to not follow these customs.…
When humans first come into this vast world, they're merely gray clay. Although they never remain the same shape or color for long; easily melded with every encounter, sculpted into works of art with every push and pull of daily life. As they are crafted into individuals, their heart is worn on their sleeve, as their ordeals chisel their talents and character. They will gain color through their actions and when their time is up, who they are is sculpted into every curve, edge, and color of them. Horace was one of the many few who saw the clay and the diversity between every individual. The main cause for this wide diversity is adversity; adversity has a way of fabricating character and talents into every person. Through every anguish, our clay…
The symbolism in the Odyssey shows how for every difficult situation life throws at you there is always a lesson you can take from it that will help you along your journey. By having Zeus torture Odysseus he learned that some times its better not to gloat about who you are and all the great things you’ve done. This helped him when he went to the city of Phaicians because he knew to keep his identity a secret. By taking these lessons to heart Odysseus learns to be a smarter and overall better person which ultimately are what helped him get…
The first example is the house of Menelaus. Telemachus and Peisistratus come to Lacedaemon. “And so they came to the rolling lands of Lacedaemon, deep in the hills, and drove up to the palace of the illustrious Menelaus” (The Odyssey). After Telemachus and Peisistratus reached Menelaus’s house, one of his servants, Eteoneus, told Menelaus who had arrived. Once Menelaus had heard this, he ordered his servants to unyoke the horses and bring them to the feast. “They led the sweating horses from under the yoke and tied them up at the mangers in the stable, throwing down beside them a feed of grain mixed with white barley…When they had feasted their eyes on the sight, they went and bathed in polished baths, and after the maids had washed them,…
In The Odyssey, Homer’s exciting and exhilarating tale of the great Odysseus, the mighty hero, brave and strong, slays and conquers many terrors and great evil. The greatest evil however, is his hamartia, hubris against the gods, his arrogance. Odysseus’ pride is the worst villain of all, keeping Odysseus away from his goal. Does his hubris stop him from being a hero? A hero must be just and moral, meaning they are loyal and selfless, while also having integrity and common sense. And without his hubris, is Odysseus still a hero? Who else in the story shoes heroic qualities? Let’s find out!…
The imagery of nature and culture connects every scene from Book 9 to Book 12 in Odyssey. On the land of Cyclopes, Odysseus’s encounter with the one-eyed uncivilized giant unveils Odysseus’s cleverness as a civilized human being; Nevertheless, Odysseus eventually fails to overcome the flaw of human characteristic, as he tells Polyphemus about his real mortal identity when he is sailing away, which ultimately brings Poseidon's revenge to Achaeans. At one point human civilization teaches Odysseus the skill of using wooden staff and wine to fight with Polyphemus’s strength, but the nature of superpower can easily surpass human beings’ wisdom. When Circe in Book 11 turns Odysseus’s men into pigs, when the blind prophet Tiresias foretells Odysseus’s fate, and when Zeus punishes Odysseus with another storm, Odysseus and his men are powerless but accept their destiny. The conflict between nature and culture connects humans’ world with gods’ world, thus makes every story interesting to follow as uncivilized creatures possess human characteristics and civilized human beings possess “limited” superpower. For example, in book 10, when Circe turns Odysseus’s men into pig, Odysseus can only overpower Circe by following Hermes’ instruction: “Take this herb, which is one of great virtue, and keep it about you when you go to Circe’s house, it will be a talisman to you against every kind of mischief”(Book X, 54). When Odysseus “rushed at her with sword drawn”, Odysseus is in a position where he is even able to overcome the power of an immortal creature.…
In The Odyssey there are important morals and lessons to be learned, just like in Gilgamesh; but The Odyssey does it in a different way. In Gilgamesh it was based in present time as in the morals where explained as it happen to Gilgamesh; but in The Odyssey most of the morals were explained in little stories of Odysseus’s journey back home. Being that said you were able to see how those different stories of different lessons shape the poem itself. The moral of power of cunning over strength was shown in the story of when Odysseus and his men went to Cyclops Island. When Odysseus and his men got trapped Odysseus easily could have been irrationally and just started to attack Polyphemus, but he did not because he did not want to put his men in…