Pain In The Odyssey

In the epic, pain precedes greatness. The gods often time cause the pain of the great ones in the epic, allowing them to overcome their struggles and therefore become great. When talking about Demodokos, Homer wrote, “ By [the Muse’s] gift [Demodokos] knew the good of life, and evil--- for she who lent him sweetness made him blind” (127). Although the Muse takes away Demodokos’s eyesight, she shows him “ the good of life” and makes him an amazing minstrel. In this passage, there is a direct relationship between suffering and success. “She who lent him sweetness made him blind” shows how the Muse both made Demodokos great and caused him suffering. Although being blinded causes Demodokos pain, it allows him to be great. By causing Demodokos pain,
The island of Kalypso is a lens that only lets the unrealistic and godlike parts of life through. There is no struggle or hardship on the island. Odysseus derives his greatness from his ability to overcome numerous pain causing struggles. The biggest example of this is Odysseus’s voyage home, which is a constant and arduous journey in which Odysseus is faced by many challenges, but miraculously is able to overcome them and go back home. On Kalypso’s island, Odysseus can’t experience pain or hardship and struggle, meaning that there is no possible way to earn greatness on the island. However, after Odysseus goes back into the realm of the mortals, he overcomes his final struggle by killing the suitors, causing him to reach the full potential of his greatness. In a sense, the interactions between Odysseus and Athena, and the Muse and Demodokos are similar because the mortals are helped by the gods and both reach greatness after immense suffering. This being said, the way Odysseus and Demodokos’s pain help them reach greatness is much different. Demodokos’s pain allows him to be great whereas Odysseus derives greatness from overcoming obstacles in his life that come with great