Argumentative Essay On Homer's Odyssey

Odyssey Argumentative Essay

In the epic poem Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus encounters many obstacles around the Greek islands on a struggle to get back home to his country, Ithaca. Through many hardships and hurdles, Odysseus as the main “hero”, proves to more sturdy, durable, and enduring than the rest of his crew. Though getting back to Ithaca was the main complication, it is more important to recognize the experiences along the journey and how Odysseus has grown and developed through it. In order to get back home to Ithaca, Odysseus had to show many heroic qualities and learn many lessons on his journey in order to outwit the monsters he meet and even the gods who had tried to stop him. In Odysseus’ journey, he had to learn to deal with problems,
When his crew leaves the island of Polyphemus, he could not resist taunting the cyclops and revealing his name to be Odysseus. “Cyclops—if any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shamed you so—say Odysseus, raider of cities, he gouged out your eye, Laertes’ son who makes his home in Ithaca!”(Book IX Odyssey)He is then cursed by Polyphemus and later receives the wrath of Poseidon. Odysseus also has too much pride of his crew to act alone. Odysseus being too trusting of his crew does not warn them of the bag of wind he receives from Aeolus. Because his crew thought he received gold and silver, they open the bag, and restart their journey again. Finally, at Thrinacia, he trusts his crew with an oath not to eat any of the cattle.”Father Zeus! the rest of you blissful gods who never die—you with your fatal sleep, you lulled me into disaster. Left on their own, look what a monstrous thing my crew concocted!”(Book XII Odyssey) Later, Poseidon and Zeus both destroy his ship, and Odysseus is cast off hanging onto a piece of wood. Odysseus through his journey learns the results of his
There are many examples of this in the epic poem. When his crew were turned into pigs by Circe, Odysseus climbed the high steep cliff onto Circe’s residence. This mission he was on seemed impossible at first, because Circe would just turn him into a pig. Even great Eurylochus warned him. Luckily, Hermes was there to help him. Odysseus cared for his crew. Another example of Odysseus showing and learning endurance is when his ship was destroyed by Zeus’ wrath after his crew consuming Helios’ cattle. He held onto whatever object he found, finally floating onto Calypso’s island to be saved. He probably had a lot of fatigue, but he still valued his home, family, and country, so he held on tight. He even had to row with his own hands as oars. “I rowed hard with my hands right through the straits ...And the father of men and gods did not let Scylla see me, else I’d have died on the spot—no escape from death. I drifted along nine days. On the tenth, at night, the gods cast me up on Ogygia, Calypso’s island” (Book VII Odyssey) Odysseus shows endurance and perseverance for those who he loved and cared