Preview

Recklessness In The Odyssey

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
338 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Recklessness In The Odyssey
The Odyssey was an epic poem written by a man named Homer. It tells the story of Odysseus’ travels when he leaves the trojan war, and gets his men lost while they try to get home. Recklessness, unchecked pride, and unawareness, are traits Odysseus portraits during his travels that show he is not as smart as he seems. One example of this is when he and his men were escaping the angered cyclops. When they rowed a little distance away, Odysseus yells back to the cyclops, “‘O cyclopes! Would you feast on my companions? Punny, am I, in a Caveman's hands How do you like that beating we gave you, you damned cannibal?’(The Cyclopes. 476)” Odysseus taunts the cyclops even though they are not far offshore. This puts them in more danger just after they
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Odysseus In Homer's Epic Poem The Odyssey
    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Odysseus In Homer's Epic Poem The Odyssey

    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…

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Odysseus Life Depicted In Homer's The Odyssey
    • 577 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Odysseus Life Depicted In Homer's The Odyssey

    The story, The Odyssey, by Homer is about King Odysseus of Ithaca and his long journey and struggles to get back home. He was known as a strong, courageous and cunning warrior. He left home to fight in the Trojan War that lasted 10 years. On his journey back to Ithaca he meets up with different setbacks that ends up taking him 19 years to return home. While he is gone a group of wooers try to marry his wife Penelope and kill his son Telemachus. Odysseus creates a plan to disguise himself as a beggar and take back his throne. Odysseus almost losses Ithaca and everyone he loved. He is justified in killing all of the wooers to keep his wife Penelope, save his son Telemachus’ life and getting rid of every wooer that hurt his family to take back his…

    • 577 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Examples Of Masculinity In The Odyssey
    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Examples Of Masculinity In The Odyssey

    The Odyssey is an epoch poem composed by Homer that is based around the protagonist, Odysseus. He is on a journey to return home to his wife and son after the battle of Troy. Throughout his voyage, Odysseus encounters many obstacles on his way home. Odysseus’ son is named Telemachus. When Odysseus left for the Trojan War, Telemachus was only a child. Odysseus is gone for a total of 20 years. While his father is gone, Telemachus undergoes maturation and takes household power. He takes care of his mother and deals with the suitors constantly. Telemachus wants to prove himself to his father so he goes off on a journey to find him. Telemachus represents the ideals of masculinity in ancient Greece. Like all men, Telemachus wanted to prove himself as a man.…

    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Personal Virtue In The Odyssey
    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Personal Virtue In The Odyssey

    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…

    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Odysseus As An Epic Hero: The Odyssey By Homer
    • 883 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Odysseus As An Epic Hero: The Odyssey By Homer

    The Odyssey, written by Homer, describes an epic hero to be a mortal male, someone who goes on along, dangerous expedition, also who is very brave, intelligent, and responsible. He will face many conflicts yet always manages to prevail. Odysseus possesses all these traits and demonstrates it throughout the entire Odyssey, such as when Odysseus and his men become trapped in a Cyclops’ cave and he needs to figure out a way to escape using his intelligence as well as when he must think up how he is too make it passed a deathly part of the ocean that lures you to your death with divine, angelic songs, and also having to decide between the death of…

    • 883 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Examples Of Heroism In The Odyssey
    • 371 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Examples Of Heroism In The Odyssey

    Odysseus The Cunning The Epic Poem The Odyssey written by Greek poet Homer follows the adventures of epic hero Odysseus, whose main objective is to return home to his family. Throughout his adventures, his heroism is displayed in a plethora of brave acts. Odysseus in The Odyssey possesses the archetype of a hero as proven several times in his adventures.…

    • 371 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Flaws In The Odyssey
    • 459 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Flaws In The Odyssey

    "Cyclops, if any mortal man ever asks you who it was that inflicted upon your eye this shameful blinding, tell him that you were blinded by Odysseus, sacker of cities. Laertes is his father, and he makes his home on Ithaca” (Homer 500-505). Homer’s work of historical fiction, The Odyssey, is the sequel to his earlier story The Iliad. The Odyssey follows Odysseus after the events of the 10 year Trojan war and his long journey home. He clashes with many monsters and it always seems that his pride gets the better of him. The quote above is Odysseus bragging to Polyphemus that he had blinded him, showing how prominent his ego is after clashing with the cyclops. This ego and several other mistakes lead to Odysseus’s entire crew being dead and taking 20 years to return home. Odysseus is not a hero. He was unfaithful to his wife and all of his crew is dead.…

    • 459 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Cyclops In The Odyssey
    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Cyclops In The Odyssey

    The book the Odyssey by Homer has many various episodes and adventures. That is because it's an extended metaphor for our journey through life. Odysseus faces many pearlous adventures in the odyssey, one of them being when Odysseus faces a cyclops named Polphemus and he and his crew enters in his home and gets stuck inside Polyphemus’s cave. So what they decide to do is they try to reason with the cyclops but the cyclops ends up eating some of his men barbarically. Odysseus was mad of this cyclops uncivilized life, so what he does is tells the cyclops that his name is “nobody” and gives him a taste of wine over and over until Polyphemus falls asleep.…

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Examples Of Greed In The Odyssey
    • 1909 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Examples Of Greed In The Odyssey

    “I stormed that place and killed the men who fought…Plunder we took, and we enslaved the woman...equal shares to all…my men were mutinous, fools, on stores of wine” (152, 896), indicating that he was the brave and victorious soldier and while his crew acted more towards savages. Yet Odysseus’ command over his soldiers reflect on himself, making him no better than them.…

    • 1909 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Odysseus In Homer's Odyssey
    • 533 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Odysseus In Homer's Odyssey

    In Homer’s Grecian epic The Odyssey, Odysseus is the heroic main character. Throughout his countless escapades, Odysseus can best be described as reckless, clever, and loyal. In The Odyssey, Odysseus’s journey is a long and tedious one, which partially can be attributed to his careless decisions along the way. Nevertheless, whether he is outwitting Polyphemus or defending his crew, Odysseus’s shrewdness and loyalty always seem to be his saving grace.…

    • 533 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Arrogance In The Odyssey
    • 824 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Arrogance In The Odyssey

    Arrogance is an extreme factor in Odysseus’s journey as he has an alter ego bigger than he; Athena is the cunning and positive side of Odysseus’s alter ego while Poseidon makes up his arrogance and negative side. After the Trojan war, Odysseus begins to make Poseidon turn against him in all ways possible – not only does Odysseus exclaim that he does not need the gods but the hero also stabs the god’s son in the only eye he has as he is a Kylops. Odysseus and his men escape the island of the Kyklops and as they are sailing away, Odysseus calls out and exclaims, “O Kyklops! Would you feast on my companions? Puny, am I, in a caveman’s hands? How do you like the beating that we gave you, you damned cannibal? Eater of guests under your roof! Zeus and the gods have paid you!”…

    • 824 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Theme Of Civility In The Odyssey
    • 1151 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Theme Of Civility In The Odyssey

    When Odysseus arrived back in Ithaca, he went to Eumaeus’s hut. “Odysseus turned his back on the harbor and followed a rough track leading through the woods and up to the hills towards the place where Athena had told him he would meet the worthy swineherd, who of all the servants Odysseus had acquired had shown himself to be the most faithful steward of his property” (The Odyssey). After reaching the hut, guard dogs came after Odysseus, but Eumaeus’s stopped them, and let Odysseus in his hut. “The good swineherd let the way to his hut, ushered Odysseus in and invited him to sit down on some brushwood that he piled up for him and covered with the shaggy skin of a wild goat, large and thick, which served as his own mattress” (The Odyssey). One can see that Eumaeus is a true servant to his guest. After letting Odysseus in, the swineherd went out and prepared an abundant meal for Odysseus. “He selected two, carried them in, and slaughtered them both…When he had roasted it all, he served it up piping hot on the spits, set it in front of Odysseus, and sprinkled it with white barely-meal…he took a seat facing his guest, and encouraged him to eat” (The Odyssey). Through Eumaeus, Homer gave a great example about how one should treat their neighbor with kindness. Once Odysseus had finished telling Eumaeus his story, Eumaeus made a bed for Odysseus so he could sleep in the hut with him. “The swineherd jumped up, placed a bed for him by the fire…

    • 1151 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Odysseus: A Hero
    • 1033 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Odysseus: A Hero

    “Have we never been in danger before this?/ More fearsome, is it now, than when the cyclops penned us in his cave? What power he had!/ Did I not keep my nerve, and use my wits to find a way out for us?” (Homer 526). This long narrative poem is written about Odysseus and it clearly displays the adventures of a hero, not a fool as he faces against great odds. In the epic poem The Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus is a hero because of his strength, intelligence and loyalty.…

    • 1033 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Wrong Doing In The Odyssey
    • 1352 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Wrong Doing In The Odyssey

    The Ovidian opinion of human nature is that humans will always do something wrong. When this wrong-doing offends one or more of the gods, the punishment typically results in negative changes in the person’s life, and often their ruin or death. In the myths Ovid presents in his Metamorphoses, the wrong-doing is brought about in one of three ways. The first of these ways is by an act of the gods, seen in the myths of Io and Tiresias. The second way is through bad luck, as we see in the myth of Actaeon. The third and final of the ways the wrong-doing comes about is through intentional wrong-doing, in which the humans choose an action that they know is offensive to the gods, as we see in the myths of Lycaon and Pentheus.…

    • 1352 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Heroism In The Odyssey
    • 1280 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Heroism In The Odyssey

    Odysses is a story written by Homer who tells a story about Odysses and his men that are stuck with Cyclops. Odysses is a hero because…

    • 1280 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics