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Odysseus: Lessons Learned Essay Example

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Odysseus: Lessons Learned Essay Example
Odysseus: Lesson Learned

In the Odyssey, Odysseus goes on a journey that lasts twenty years. He is faced with many challenges and must overcome these challenges if he is to get back home to his son and wife he has left behind. Along the way Odysseus learns about himself and learns many truths. When he returns home he is a wiser man because of what he has seen and also by what he has done himself. Odysseus is a very strong man but Odysseus learns that even the strongest men sometimes have to ask for help. He has to ask King Alkonoose for help returning home. Odysseus has to ask for a ship and crew because with out it, it would not be possible for him to make it home. Odysseus has lost all of his men. His men were warned not to eat the cows of Hilios but they did. To punish them Zues sent a thunderbolt on the ship during a storm and all the men were killed. King Alkonoose agrees to give Odysseus a crew of fifty men and a ship. Another example of one of the important lessons Odysseus learn on his journey is that no matter what great battle a person wins or what great creature he defeats, he should not be proud or boastful. When Odysseus confronts the Cyclops, he says that he blinds the Cyclops and tricks him to save his men. Odysseus is so proud of his trick and accomplishment that he tell the Cyclops “ Cyclops if ever mortal man inquire how you were put to shame and blinded tell them is was Odysseus render of the cities who took your eye. Laertes son whose home is on Ithika.”(Page # 160). This has and important impact on Odysseus and his men. Cyclops calls on his father Poseidon to make Odysseus’ journey home one the sea even more unbearable. Through his journey Odysseus learns yet another very important lesson. He learns how important family really is and how they will stand by a person’s side when no one else will. Penelope stays faithful to Odysseus for twenty years even though she had many suitors who were in her home all the time who wanted

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