Loyalty In Homer's Odyssey
Paul Salamy
Mrs. Ebersole
English 10 Honors
21 August 2012
Thesis: The final part in Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, expresses the importance of loyalty as well as the issues caused by trust being ignored due to ignorant attitudes.
I. Odysseus’s close friends and family were the ones who were most loyal to him, as they mourned his absence and longed for his return back home. a. Odysseus’s wife, Penelope, although her faith was slowly growing dim, for a very long time believed that her beloved husband Odysseus would return to her and their son. i. Penelope was determined to delay choosing a suitor because she was hopeful that her husband Odysseus would come home and the suitors would no longer try to come anywhere near Penelope again. …show more content…
1.
“ Young men, my suitors, now my lord is dead , let me finish my weaving before I marry, or else my thread will have been spun in vain”(Homer XIX 168-169) ii. Penelope did not on finishing her weaving, she would weave all day and then at night secretly she would unweave all the work she had done. 2. “ Everyday I wove on the great loom, but every night by torchlight I unwove it; and so for three years I deceived the Akhains” ( Homer XIX 175-177) iii. Penelope did truly miss her husband Odysseus; “ she wept for Odysseus, her husband, till Athena cast sweet sleep upon her eyes” ( Homer XIX 697-699) b. The old nurse, Eurykleia, was very loyal to Odysseus, recognizing him by the scar he had. iv. “Oh Yes! You Are Odysseus! Ah, dear child! I could not see you until now-not till I knew my master’s very body with my hands!”(Homer XIX
550-553) c. Eumaios is fully dedicated to Odysseus, and is ready and willing to do anything for him. v. “ If ever Odysseus burnt you a thighbone in rich fat- a ram’s or kid’s thighbone, hear me, grant my prayer: let our true lord come back, let heaven bringhim to ridthe earth of these fine courtly ways” (Homer XVII 309-313) d. Odysseus’s son Telemakos was very young when his father left for Troy. It has been many years since then, but Telemakos never gave up hope that his father would one day return. Telemakos travels the sea and put himself in danger to find out where his father is. II. While Odysseus was gone many people allowed pride to take over their heart and mind, this created great consequences for them as Odysseus returned home. e. All of the suitors that were trying to marry Odysseus’s wife Penelope were brutally murdered. vi. “ In the hall full of dead men she found his father spattered and caked with blood”(Homer XXII 448-450) f. Eurkleia brought to Odysseus the disloyal servant women, they were commanded to clean the mess and blood caused by the killing of the suitors. Then the disloyal servant women were hung. vii. “So now in turn each women thrust her head into a noose and swung, yanked high in the air, to perish their most piteously. Their feet danced for a little, but not for long”(Homer XXII 523-526)
Mrs. Ebersole
English 10 Honors
21 August 2012
Thesis: The final part in Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, expresses the importance of loyalty as well as the issues caused by trust being ignored due to ignorant attitudes.
I. Odysseus’s close friends and family were the ones who were most loyal to him, as they mourned his absence and longed for his return back home. a. Odysseus’s wife, Penelope, although her faith was slowly growing dim, for a very long time believed that her beloved husband Odysseus would return to her and their son. i. Penelope was determined to delay choosing a suitor because she was hopeful that her husband Odysseus would come home and the suitors would no longer try to come anywhere near Penelope again. …show more content…
1.
“ Young men, my suitors, now my lord is dead , let me finish my weaving before I marry, or else my thread will have been spun in vain”(Homer XIX 168-169) ii. Penelope did not on finishing her weaving, she would weave all day and then at night secretly she would unweave all the work she had done. 2. “ Everyday I wove on the great loom, but every night by torchlight I unwove it; and so for three years I deceived the Akhains” ( Homer XIX 175-177) iii. Penelope did truly miss her husband Odysseus; “ she wept for Odysseus, her husband, till Athena cast sweet sleep upon her eyes” ( Homer XIX 697-699) b. The old nurse, Eurykleia, was very loyal to Odysseus, recognizing him by the scar he had. iv. “Oh Yes! You Are Odysseus! Ah, dear child! I could not see you until now-not till I knew my master’s very body with my hands!”(Homer XIX
550-553) c. Eumaios is fully dedicated to Odysseus, and is ready and willing to do anything for him. v. “ If ever Odysseus burnt you a thighbone in rich fat- a ram’s or kid’s thighbone, hear me, grant my prayer: let our true lord come back, let heaven bringhim to ridthe earth of these fine courtly ways” (Homer XVII 309-313) d. Odysseus’s son Telemakos was very young when his father left for Troy. It has been many years since then, but Telemakos never gave up hope that his father would one day return. Telemakos travels the sea and put himself in danger to find out where his father is. II. While Odysseus was gone many people allowed pride to take over their heart and mind, this created great consequences for them as Odysseus returned home. e. All of the suitors that were trying to marry Odysseus’s wife Penelope were brutally murdered. vi. “ In the hall full of dead men she found his father spattered and caked with blood”(Homer XXII 448-450) f. Eurkleia brought to Odysseus the disloyal servant women, they were commanded to clean the mess and blood caused by the killing of the suitors. Then the disloyal servant women were hung. vii. “So now in turn each women thrust her head into a noose and swung, yanked high in the air, to perish their most piteously. Their feet danced for a little, but not for long”(Homer XXII 523-526)