Odysseus Journey Home In Homer's The Odyssey

The Odyssey by Homer relates to a soldier trying to return home after a war because in Odysseus’s journey home, he faces things that may symbolize the hardships that a soldier would face when coming home such as when he is held captive by the Cyclops, when he is on the island of the lotus eaters, and his experience with the Island of the Cicones. Upon finding a large cave on one of the many islands that Odysseus and his crew went to they entered and helped themselves to the food and drinks they found there, and sure enough, shortly after they fell asleep. After some time the Cyclops named Polyphemus that lives in the cave returned rolling a big stone into the entrance of the cave. When the cyclops found that Odysseus and his men had eaten all of his food he became enraged, grabbed two of the men smashed their heads against the
Odysseus did not want to do anything to the Cyclops because he knew that he was the only one with the strength to move the giant stone. So the next morning he came up with a plan to stab the cyclops in the eye with a wooden stake, when he went to sleep odysseus heated up the stake and jabbed it into the cyclops’s eye. Now since the cyclops could not see the men grabbed onto some sheep and the cyclops lead them out of his cave without thinking anything of it. This event from the Odyssey is similar to what would happen in a real life situation if a soldier were to get captured. Odysseus represents the soldier and Polyphemus represents the enemies that have captured the soldier. This is a scary but very real thing that happens to many soldiers fighting in enemy territory, you venture into an unknown area seeking shelter when suddenly you run into the leader of the enemy force