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Comparing Odysseus And Penelope In Homer's Odyssey '

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Comparing Odysseus And Penelope In Homer's Odyssey '
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Odysseus and Penelope

August 4, 2013
Odysseus and Penelope
This paper will discuss Odysseus and Penelope and their sacrifices for love in this tale of affection. After being dreadfully torn apart, the lovers wait a long twenty years before being reunited. Not long after their marriage, war separates Odysseus and Penelope again. With little to no hope that her husband will return home to her, she continues to oppose the many suitors who are anxious for her love. Odysseus too opposes these urges, turning away a beautiful sorceress who offers him eternal youth and never-ending love. He waits for the day to return home to his true love and their son.
The hero of The Odyssey, Odysseus is an interesting character full of contradictions. While he is looking forward to returning home to his faithful wife, Penelope, and his son he has barely seen, Telemakhos, Odysseus also freely beds down with two beautiful goddesses during his travels and expresses little regret for his infidelities.
The contradictions extend to Odysseus ' mental power. Blessed with physical strength, he has an equally eager mind that gets him out of many terrible situations. There is no better improviser in Greek mythology, though the label attached is often cunning or deceiving. Many Greeks saw Odysseus ' habit of lying as a vice …show more content…
Penelope weeps for Odysseus nightly; she does not even force the suitors to act with proper modesty. However, her faithfulness to her husband does remain persistent, and she even shares his appetite for trickery, promising to remarry once she has finished weaving a shroud for Laertes, but unraveling it each night. Penelope is also over protective of Telemakhos, and speaks out against the suitors when she hears of their plans to kill him. After Odysseus ' disguised arrival, Penelope 's loyalty to her husband is more evident (ClassicNotes™ Study Guides and Literature
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