Title:
The odyssey became a word that means for long journey fill with adventures, especially one with
an intellectual or spiritual goal.
Overview:
Odyssey is one of the oldest adventure tales, enthralling readers with the clever hero Odysseus’s
10-year journey home after a long war in Troy.
The Greek Mythology:
Homer talked about the Greek ancient in the Bronze age; where the Greek were believing that
gods still living on earth, but homer while narrating he inserted the form of social structure
which was in the iron age; moreover, he called the Greeks with "Achaeans," which is a name of a
tribe lived in the ancient Greek.
In the ancient Greek they used their mythology to explain everything like cycle of the day and
night; earthquakes, storms, and flowers; also, in the ancient Greek there were multiple gods and
goddesses, and most of the gods lived on the top of MT Olympus and other dwelt other places.
Zeus was the ruler of the gods, and some of the major deities were his siblings, such as Poseidon,
or his children, such as Athena; and the gods were associated with attributed or power, like
Athena goddesses of war and justice and craft skills. Gods were immortal.
The gods were in human bodies; they could love get anger and be jealous, they were directing
human life and their interactions with people. There 12 olm pin gods and many minors, but
among them there is 3 gods mentioned the odyssey
{the Sirens, Circe, and Calypso}. Also, the Greeks believed in other powerful beings like the
giants – the one-eyed Calypso and monsters—such as Scylla and Charybdis. The origins of these
beings varied. The Cyclops Polyphemus was the son of the sea god Poseidon and the sea nymph
Thoosa.
monsters such as the dangerous Scylla and Charybdis, whom Odysseus and his men must evade.
The Iliad
The odyssey is a continuation of the laid, which tells that there was a war for 10 years against troy to
recover the queen Helen, the queen of the Achaean king Menelaus of Sparta. Helen was taken to Troy
by Paris, a prince of that city.
The story talks about a man called odyssey who one goes back home after the end of war Athena gives
him the stratagem of the Achaeans building and then hiding a host in a giant wooden horse before
seeming to depart from the area in defeat. As anticipated, the Trojans brought the horse into the city,
and the hidden warriors emerged from their hiding place at night and opened the city gates to allow the
remaining Achaean host to enter and destroy the city.
Epic poems have several characteristics. The Odyssey and The Iliad helped establish several conventions
of the epic. These conventions include focus on a hero of cultural or national importance who has many
adventures, a wide geographic scope with many settings, battles requiring heroic deeds, possibly an
extended journey, and the involvement of supernatural beings such as gods. All of these elements are
present in The Odyssey.
Other conventions of literary epics involve how the story is told—and these conventions are generally
attributed to Homer. Epic poems typically begin with an invocation of the Muse. The Muses were the
nine Greek goddesses of the various arts and included Calliope, the goddess of epic poetry. The
invocation is the poet's request for divine inspiration. Epics begin in media res, or in the middle of the
action, rather than at the beginning. Events leading to that point are related in flashbacks. Homeric epics
employ epithets, which are phrases associated with particular characters or phenomena that are often
presented when that character or phenomena is referred to anew. Thus, in The Odyssey Athena is often
called "sparkling-eyed Athena" or "the bright-eyed goddess," and the goddess Dawn is referred to as
"young Dawn with her rose-red fingers." Among mortals Odysseus is often "godlike," "great-hearted,"
and "much-enduring." Telemachus is frequently called "clear-sighted," "clear-headed," and "pensive,"
and Menelaus is "the red-haired king." These epithets are, in fact, units of meaning fashioned to fit the
meter of the poem that are variously used depending on the metrical needs of a given line of poetry.
Finally, epics are traditionally divided into 24 sections, called books.
Summary:
Odyssey went to the Trojan War, which lasted ten years; the story begins with Odyssey being
imprisoned by the goddesses Calypso and Hera.Back in his home city, Ithaca, his wife, Penelope,
is being besieged by suitors who have moved into her home, taking advantage of the ancient
Greek custom of hospitality. Telemachus, son of Odysseus and Penelope, must watch the suitors
take over their house while waiting for Penelope to choose a new husband. All except Penelope
assume Odysseus is dead after his 20-year absence.
Athena wants to help Odyssey after seeing him in the Trojan War, so she asks Zeus to help him.
Zeus sends his messenger Hermes to help Odyssey get out of the island, and Athena goes to
Telemachus and Penelope to help them, and she asks Telemachus to go find his father. The
suitors want Telemachus to learn that Odysseus is alive.
After that, Hermes assisted him in leaving the island, and he was on the seashore when the
princess Nausicaa discovered him and took him to the king, and he begins telling the king about
his adventures. They were to lose their memories after eating the lotus, and Poseidon wanted a
deadly odyssey because he blinded his son Cyclops Polyphemus. They also escaped from the
songs of the sirens and a lot of monsters, and they
After hearing that the king gave him a ship, Athena helps him by telling him the worse is
coming, and she reunited him with his son, and they started planning to kill all visitors.
Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, starts fighting them, and he kills them all. On his last trip to his
dad, he offers a sacrifice to Poseidon so that the god will leave him and his family in peace.
Symbols:
Penelope's Shroud
Because Penelope is largely powerless to do anything about the suitors, her shroud ploy symbolizes
that she shares her husband's cleverness and cunning. It also represents her fidelity to her marriage.
That she dismantles a funereal shroud while delaying taking a new husband also suggests that she
is unwilling to accept the death of her real husband. ( she was undoing the shroud which means that
their still a hope. And in a way of hospitality to not tell them to get out.
Odysseus's Bow and Arrow
Penelope's final contest for the suitors requires them to wield Odysseus's bow and arrow to shoot
through 12 axes. This symbolizes, first, her search for a man who can rival Odysseus's strength—or
that she is looking for Odysseus himself to appear. It's telling that none of the suitors can even string
the bow; only Telemachus comes close, and he is Odysseus's son. The bow and arrow symbolize
Odysseus's strength, as well as how well matched he and Penelope are
Eagle Omen
The vision of an eagle appears at least four times in The Odyssey. First, Zeus sends an omen at the
assembly Telemachus has gathered to announce that he will go in search of information
about Odysseus. The vision that Zeus sends is of two eagles fighting each other to the death, which
a person in the crowd skilled in lore reads to mean the death of the suitors. Later in the book,
Telemachus again sees the omen of the eagle, this time clutching a goose in its talons, as he leaves
to return home to Ithaca. He sees this as a sign from Zeus that he is helping him. The significance
seems to be that the family is connected through this symbol of an eagle, and the fate of their family
can be seen in it.
Themes:
Hospitality
Modern readers tend to be surprised at the overwhelming emphasis placed on hospitality in The
Odyssey. It seems to dictate not only social interactions among mortals but also treatment by the
gods. Hospitality is how characters assess one another's moral code, and it's how they stay safe in a
world where people are constantly venturing into foreign and unknown lands. Travelers in ancient
Greece (and there were many) had to rely upon the kindness of strangers for food, shelter, and
warmth. To invest in being a hospitable host meant that it was more likely that the host, too, would
encounter a warm welcome should he or she ever be lost or in need. Hosts usually enjoyed having
strangers visit—strangers who brought tales of strange lands and stories of adventures to entertain
them with.
Odysseus encounters a range of hospitality throughout the epic—from the helpfulness of the
Phaeacians to the murderousness of the Cyclops. Even Odysseus must return to his own home to
punish the suitors who abused the rules of hospitality that custom dictated must be extended to
them.
Justice
Adherence to customs decreed by the gods rules much of mortal behavior
in The Odyssey. Disregarding those customs can get a mortal swiftly punished, both by other mortals
and by the gods. The gods feel justified in punishing mortals any time they feel disrespected or if a
mortal has reached too far—for example, become too arrogant. Zeus is the ultimate dispenser of
justice, or at least the ultimate rule-setter. Even a powerful god such as Poseidon must submit to his
decisions.
Fate
Fate seems to be the strongest force in shaping mortals' lives. The gods determine mortals' fate,
though human action has weight. Sometimes it seems as though the gods decide the bigger picture
but leave mortals power to make specific choices. No one counseled Odysseus on how to handle
the problem of Polyphemus. Anchinous and Arete chose to offer Odysseus hospitality. Tiresias
warns Odysseus that his men should not eat the cattle of Helios, but he didn't say that they had no
choice in the matter. He only told them they would suffer dire consequences if they did. That he was
right did not mean those consequences were inevitable—only that fate was unavoidable if they
made certain choices.
Deception
Deception touches nearly every major character in The Odyssey. Athena is nearly always in disguise
when she advises Odysseus, who is often in disguise as well or is careful about how and when he
reveals his true identity. It's no coincidence that it is often Athena who masterminds Odysseus's
disguises, altering his appearance to make him seem stronger or weaker as befits her plans.
Illusion and trickery are traits that both Odysseus and Athena admire, and not just when it comes to
physical appearances. Odysseus deploys deception when he cannot rely on strength alone, such as
when he tricks Polyphemus into believing that his name is "Nobody" in order to deter his neighbors
from coming to his aid. Penelope and Telemachus both dissemble as well; being cagey is apparently
a useful survival mechanism.
Homecoming
The central drive of the epic is Odysseus's desire to return home, to reach the love of his family and
the comfort of his palace. With home is tied the idea of loyalty and fidelity,
with Penelope, Telemachus, and the loyal servants being the chief representatives. Penelope
endures years of importuning by the obnoxious suitors, demonstrating her worth by keeping them at
bay through stratagems worthy of her cunning husband's mind. Telemachus, despite his father's
two-decade absence, feels the proper fidelity and devotion of a son, an indication of his virtue. While
Odysseus must first disguise himself upon reaching Ithaca—as he does so often throughout his
adventures—home represents the place where he can finally be his true self: master strategist,
skilled warrior, loving husband, guiding father, and dutiful son.
The stories of Menelaus and Agamemnon, related by Menelaus to Telemachus, provide interesting
contrasts. Menelaus must also undergo trials and effectively do penance to the gods in order to
reach home peacefully. Agamemnon, however, came back to the danger of an unfaithful wife and
her murderous lover. The success of a homecoming depends on the merits of those one comes
home to.
Temptation
Temptation befalls many of the characters in The Odyssey, and the outcome is usually a frustrating
setback. Odysseus and his men succumb to temptation on numerous occasions, usually with
disastrous consequences. Odysseus's men fall prey to the Lotus-eaters and barely escape with their
memories intact. They open the pouch of winds out of curiosity, only to find themselves blown far
from the home they had almost reached. When they encounter the songs of the Sirens, they protect
themselves from temptation by plugging their ears with beeswax but must lash Odysseus to the
mast because he is too tempted by the alluring song to apply this countermeasure. Perhaps their
greatest fall to temptation, however, is eating the cattle of Helios, after repeatedly being warned not
to. Zeus is so angry that he slaughters every last one of them.