Examples Of Greed In The Odyssey

In the Odyssey by Homer, an epic story is told. Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, was sent to fight in the Trojan War. After Odysseus and his crew had won the war, they set sail on their long journey home. Their journey lasted 20 years and they had to overcome many tragic obstacles along the way. Eventually, Odysseus makes it home to his beloved wife, Penelope, only to find his homeland has been taken over by suitors. The tale of Odysseus's long journey home, the Odyssey qualifies as an epic poem. Throughout the Odyssey many greed deeds were displayed. For example, while Odysseus and his crew were trying to escaping from the cyclops they blinded the cyclops with an olive tree, Homer writes, “..as more than natural force nerved them; straight forward
Along the way there has been many setbacks drawing on their adventure, for example Odysseus came so close to getting home after the war but was pushed back, “I might have made it safely home, that time, but as I came round Malea the current took me out to sea, and from the north a fresh gale drove me on past Cythera” (191-194). Homer is showing that the land Odysseus’ travels is vast, drifting on for days at end without recognizing his location. It also shows that Odysseus’ has a great distance to go on his 10 year journey back to Ithaca. In addition, later in the story while Odysseus and his crew were on Circe's island, Odysseus was given directions to obtain his destiny, Circe responds to their pleas with the command that “...Odysseus alone descend to the Land of the Dead…(Pg 675). This shows one that not only is Odysseus’ world large, but he even travels to the land of the dead, practically another dimension. Furthermore to be an epic poem you need to have a setting ample in scale and by going to the underworld it furthers that point. The setting in the Odyssey is ample in scale thus classifying it as an epic