Greek Mythology In The Odyssey

The Importance of Greek Mythology and Homer’s Epic Poems
By: Ashley Allen “Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and their own cult and ritual practices. Modern scholars referred to the myths and studied them in an attempt to shed light on the religious and political institutions of ancient Greece and, in general, on the ancient Greek civilization.” (citation) Mythical narration played a very large, and also important role in the lives of the ancient Greeks, they relied mainly on the mythical stories to guide them through crisis and gave them something to believe in; as many people follow God’s words and the Holy Bible in our current time. The epic
Odysseus begins on Calypso’s island and he has been led to believe he owns everything, except for the most important thing, happiness. Odysseus’ becomes depressed because he realizes how much he misses his home land. Homer introduces Odysseus at a bad time to emphasize the growth of Odysseus’ spirit from beginning to the very end. If Homer would have written about Odysseus in high spirits from the beginning, then the growth would not have seemed as prevalent. Odysseus seems to brighten up quite a bit as he sees the light in sailing home. He is brutally tested Poseidon nearly kills him when on the coast of the first island that he reaches, Scheria. The Odyssey says, “and trapped within that backwash of the brine, Odysseus would have died before his time had not gray-eyed Athena counseled him.” This is only one instance of many that seems to shows the lesson of spiritual growth in “The
In The Odyssey, there remained three main characters that stood out and showed their trustworthiness to Odysseus while he was away fighting in the Trojan War and trying to make his way back to Ithaca. It seems that out of all the characters, the most loyal person to Odysseus could have been simply overlooked, but it most definitely would have been Odysseus’s wife, Penelope. She remained faithful to her husband even after almost twenty years apart from him. She refused to marry one of the suitors that hassled her day by day; so it came as a surprise to learn that Odysseus is most unfaithful to his wife. This part of the epic poem represented the human-like personality of Odysseus in showing that even he could make mistakes, and also wasn’t anything close to perfect. Telemachus, at one point, shows his loyalty to Odysseus by joining him on going on a voyage to learn more about his father,