Revenge in the Odyssey

The Greeks, as portrayed by Homer, are a very vengeful people. Throughout The Odyssey, a theme of vengeance is dominant. These displays of retribution come from different entities for fairly different reasons. So why is revenge such a factor in The Odyssey? Fear and the overwhelming feeling of payback are two answers. Homer gives numerous examples of how certain characters demonstrate their power in a fury of rage. He writes of the payback Zeus gives to those who break the rules, of Poseidon’s hatred towards Odysseus, and of Odysseus’s revenge to those who have dishonored his home. Zeus is the most powerful of all gods. All the Greeks with sense know not to cross him. A major practice in their culture is to invite in visitors that come to their doorsteps. This practice involves caring for the visitor by bathing and feeding them. After the visitor has been cared for, the host and visitor discuss the lineage of the visitor. This is done with the fear of Zeus and those who don’t follow the practice are dealt with. Those who don’t follow this practice are considered barbarians. Homer gives a clue into the extent of the fear when he writes that Telemakhos was “irked with himself / to think a visitor had been kept their waiting…” (5). One example in The Odyssey is when Odysseus comes to the home of the Kyklops. Odysseus states: “We will entreat you, great Sir, have a care for the gods’ courtesy; Zeus will avenge the unoffending guest” (153). Kyklops just answers that, “We Kyklopes care not for your thundering Zeus…”(153). This is a big mistake because directly after this statement, the Kyklops eats some of Odysseus’s men. Zeus does avenge the men through Odysseus. Odysseus gets the Kyklops drunk and stabs out his eye, allowing an escape. One thing that is bad for Odysseus, though, is the fact that Kyklops is the son of Poseidon, god of the earthquake.