Classical Literature - Research Paper Review (Please know the Odyssey)

Mark Anthony Brennan 8

The Odyssey and love

This is a literature analysis on love and heroism in the Odyssey. Apparently, the Odyssey was written based on the desire of the hero to return home to the love of their loved ones. However, if the hero is to successfully make his way home, he has to conquer the challenges on his way. In the Odyssey, Odysseus, the Greek hero is yet to return home to his kingdom, ten years after the end of the Trojan War that resulted into the fall of Troy. Back at home in Ithaca, his people believe that he is already dead but the reader is informed that the reason he has not returned yet is that he is held captive by goddess Calypso as a willing sex captive. But when he is finally sets on his return journey home, he faces one challenge after another. The desire to return home is so strong that he undertakes various heroic acts to express this need for love. Apparently, it is these heroic acts for the need of love that enables him accomplish not only his journey home but also his assigned task. I should mention upfront that other characters in the Odyssey also perform heroic acts to express their need for love. So, this literature analysis will provide instances where characters performed heroic acts to express their need for love, without which they would be unable to complete their tasks or heroic journey. That said, this analysis progresses as follows.

Telemachus performs some heroic acts that exhibit his need for the love of his father, Odysseus. I should mention that Telemachus is a teenage son to Odysseus and Penelope of Ithaca. During his father’s absence, numerous rowdy suitors start chasing after his mother, Penelope. Some of them plot to assassinate him because he is an obstacle to their smooth wooing expedite of his mother. He feels his guests the rowdy suitors, have disrespected his father’s palace by violating the host-guest bond when they start wooing his mother. So, though young in age, he stood up to these disrespectful suitors in his need for the love of his father. Because of this, Telemachus he plucked courage to travel to Sparta and Pylos in an effort to find news of his father. Better still, he showed a lot of courage on his return to Ithaca because he knew the suitors were planning an ambush on him. However, he managed to evade their assassination attempt. Better still, while he was back and saw how the suitors were mistreating and abusing the beggar in his father’s palace, he stood up to them and protected the wandering beggar (13.456), who was actually his disguised father (8.20-22).

Penelope also performed a heroic act when she used her loom and cunning attribute to fend off the rowdy suitors. Apparently, she had suspected the wandering beggar to be his lost husband and therefore took strong interest in him. Obviously, she was in love with her husband and stayed faithful to him even in his ten years of absence. So, on this suspension, she organized a contest where she made known to all suitors that she will marry whoever will string his husband’s bow and shoot an arrow through a row of twelve axes. Of course all of those suitors failed the test except the beggar (book 20). And of course, she organized this contest to express her need for the love of her husband.

Odysseus, the main hero of the Odyssey also performed several heroic acts in his efforts to return to Ithaca, as a way of expressing his need for the love of his family and his people. From now on, in the following section, I will explain while at the same time, provide heroic examples where Odysseus demonstrates the need for the love of his family and his people back at Ithaca.

As a man who is highly driven by the strong desire to return home to Ithaca where the love of family awaits him, he does not want to lose sight of his mission. So, he had to do a heroic act when he forced his Lotus drugged men to remember home and their families. Apparently, after leaving Ithaca and at their first stop, these Ithacan men plundered the stuff of the locals. Some of them even ended up eating the Lotus flower, which poisoned them to want to stay in this foreign shore, idling around and forgetting their home and families. After realizing this issue, the mission focused Odysseus had to order these men be taken back to the ship by force. He even forced them to remember their families that they had left back at home. Apparently, had he not done it, Odysseus would be unable to complete his journey

Another heroic act that Odyssey had to perform was when the Ithacan men came to the land of the Cyclopes and were trapped from escaping through the entrance of the cave of the one-eyed Polyphemos (book 9). Apparently, after trapping these men in his cave, he unfortunately ate some of them. However, Odysseus finally managed to blind this one-eyed giant and succeeded in escaping with his men while riding under the bellies of the flock of sheep belong to these Cyclopes because without doing it, Odysseus would be unable to complete his journey.

Another heroic act that Odysseus performed was when he sought the help of the gods to turn back his men now pigs into men again. Apparently, after escaping the Cyclopes, and landing at the island of Aiolos, these Ithacan men met with the god of the wind who helped them sail though the waters. However, they made a mistake of loosening the wind filled bag given by the god of the winds. This mistake led them to the island of sorcerers Circe, who turned most of them into pigs. However, after this incidence, Odysseus sought the help of the gods and turned his pig turned men back into their human form because without it, Odysseus would be unable to complete their journey.

Another incidence where Odyssey performed a heroic act is when he travelled to the underworld in search of prophesy and advice about whether he will return to Ithaca. At the Underworld, Teiresias forecasted that Odysseus would make it home, yet not without trouble. Odysseus addressed a few different well known dead individuals (like his war pals Achilleus and Agamemnon). He additionally met the apparition of his mom, Antikleia, who had kicked the bucket of pain over her child's drawn out nonappearance. At that point, after a brisk pit stop back at Circe's island for more headings, Odysseus and his men cruised on for a progression of undertakings.

Odysseus equally performed heroic act when passed by the Sirens and ordered his men to pug their ears and tie him to the mast lest the monstrous women with their beautiful voices lured them to death. Apparently, when they go by the Sirens, massive ladies with lovely voices who attempt to draw mariners to their passings, Odysseus made his men plug their ears and attach him to the pole so he could tune in to the melody without pursuing it. He turned into the main man to hear the Sirens' melody and survive. Next, they met two frightful creatures (inquisitively, likewise female) named Scylla and Charybdis. As anticipated by Circe, Scylla (who has six heads) ate six Ithacans; the rest scarcely got away Charybdis (monster vortexes who sucks up the ocean and heaves it retreat once more). Next, they arrived on the island of Helios, the sun god, where his exceptionally unique cows were kept. In spite of having been cautioned by Teiresias and Circe not to eat the dairy cattle, Odysseus' men couldn't control their yearning. That was an awful call. Not long a while later, everybody kicked the bucket in a tempest—aside from Odysseus.

On the eyes of the Phaiacians, Odysseus was a hero. He had to narrate to them his story if he had to earn their sympathy and help. What's more, that is it for Odysseus' story to the Phaiacians. They're so moved by his affliction that they stack him up with fortune and ship him back to Ithaca. (Tragically, stuck in an unfortunate situation, the god Poseidon transforms them and their ship into stone.) But the fun isn't over yet—despite everything he has each one of those bothersome suitors to manage.

When Odysseus returns home, Athene camouflages him as a poor person so he can investigate the circumstance. Odysseus then enrolls the help of the swineherd, Eumaios, who puts him up for the night while Athene flies to Sparta to recover Telemachus. At the point when Telemachus gets back, Odysseus uncovers himself to his child and afterward heads to the castle, still masked as a poor person. Without uncovering his actual character, he tries to persuade Penelope that Odysseus is en route home and sasses out which of his hirelings are as yet faithful to the family unit and which have joined the suitors.

In conclusion therefore, Odysseus, his wife, Penelope and their son, Telemachus performed various heroic acts as a way of expressing their need for love. Telemachus had to pluck courage to stand up to the rowdy suitors who were disrespecting his mother and father’s palace in the absence of Odysseus. On his part Odysseus had to perform several heroic acts to escape from danger in various ways as he made effort to return back to Ithaca after the end of the Trojan War. Penelope used her cunning attributes to fend off the irrespective suitors. Apparently, all of these characters had to do whatever heroic act they did because, had they not done so, the hero would not have been able to successfully perform their journey or task at hand.

Works Cited

Homerus, ., Pope, A., & Wakefield, G. (1796). The Odyssey: 4. London: Longman [u.a..

Homer, ., & Rees, E. (1977). The Odyssey of Homer. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Educational Pub.

Homer, . (n.d.). The Odyssey. New York.

Homer, . (1802). The Odyssey of Homer. London: Printed by T. Bensley, for Vernor and Hood.