Evils In The Odyssey

Imagine battling with a giant Cyclops, being attacked by a six headed monster or having to navigate around a whirlpool. All of this, and more, happened to Odysseus the famous hero of Homer’s classic work the Odyssey. His journey home from the Trojan War took twenty years and involved unbelievable hardships. “…Odysseus has had to put away childish things and lives in a world where you can freeze to death, as well as be devoured by one-eyed monsters” (Bloom 2). These ordeals might seem far removed from everyday life. However, even in modern times people battle big problems including illness, unemployment and a variety of other troubles. Modern people do not face monsters, but the situations they do confront can seem monstrous. Therefore,
“Aeolus, the god of the winds, gives Odysseus all of the bad winds, so he can safely sail home. Odysseus’ men go against his orders and open the bag, and all of the winds escape” (The Odyssey). Odysseus had strictly ordered the men not to open the bag containing the winds, but they disobeyed him. He trusted them so he did not tell them what was in the bag. The men, though did not live up to his trust. After the men let out the winds they were blown back to the island of Aeolus. This meant that instead of being almost home, Odysseus had to begin the whole journey over again. What made this so difficult for him was that it was his friends who let him down when he thought he could trust them. In today’s world, friends often let others down, causing hard feelings and distrust. Even one of the psalms in the bible says “Put not your trust in princes, in man, in whom there is no salvation” (New American Bible, Ps. 146.3). These trials seem to be the hardest because they affect a person’s trust. Just as they did with Odysseus, this kind of trial can set a person back on his journey. Starting all over again is always exceedingly
Odysseus decided to take his luck with Scylla. For Odysseus, this seemed like an impossible choice. He had to watch some of his men be killed in order to save the ship. This type of trial can easily be seen as a metaphor for the troubles people encounter in everyday life. Even today, anything worthwhile is difficult to do. As Mindy McGinnis says, “It’s going to be hard – everything worth doing is” (Good Reads). Like Odysseus, people today face tough choices. Students have to make choices between going to football practice or staying up late studying for a test. Also like Odysseus, these decisions can seem almost impossible. Quite often it seems that one has to choose the lesser of two