Comparing Athena And Poseidon In Homer's Odyssey

Odysseus arrogantly does not think of the safety of his men and does not listen to them, only caring to annoy the Cyclops and to take the credit for blinding him. This shows his pride and his only care, to expand his legacy. By doing so, Poseidon curses his journey and makes it tougher for him to return

Determined, she influentially announces to the gods, “But my heart breaks for Odysseus, that seasoned veteran cursed by fate so long…” (Homer 79). Stealthily, Athena carries out her plans to get Odysseus off of Calypso’s island while Poseidon, the antagonist, is not present. As a result, he cannot interfere with her arguments. This wise action emphasizes Athena’s loyalty and caring gesture toward Odysseus.

Athena is constantly helping Odysseus throughout the book, and making sure he stays safe. She has no regards for Odysseus’ crew members, as she only cares about Odysseus. He tends to think very highly of himself because he is in the God’s favor. When Odysseus is caught up in a bad situation, he often brushes it off like it’s nothing because he knows that Athena will help him. This is not a good mindset to have, because he is not always sure Athena will swoop in and help him out of his mess. Alongside this, Athena only cares for Odysseus, and she only saves him. His crewmembers are not necessarily favored by the Gods, so they might be hurt because no gods are looking out for them. Athena made Odysseus prove his worth in Book 22 of the Odyssey. She had helped him so much along the way, but she finally decided to test him before he killed all of the suitors. Odysseus was frustrated that he had to work for his help from the gods, as he is usually handed assistance from

Though Athena takes the prize for interfering with Odysseus’ life the most out of the rest of the gods, Poseidon also fights and claims the controller, but he prevents Odysseus from reaching Ithaca instead of helping him (please refer to the quote from page 78). Because of Odysseus’ actions against Poseidon’s

In The Odyssey, the god Poseidon chases Odysseus, constantly trying to punish him for his disrespect to him. Odysseus spends almost his whole journey home running away from Poseidon, though Odysseus eventually recognizes that the gods deserve respect, and the conflict is resolved. In O Brother, Sheriff Cooley, the lawman in charge of tracking down the three escaped criminals, plays the role of Poseidon. He has devoted himself to following them on their trek home, and does not give up until he is drowned when the valley floods. Secondly, Polyphemus, Poseidon’s son the cyclops in The Odyssey, is replaced by Daniel “Big Dan” Teague in O Brother. They both have one eye, first of all, but they also try to kill the protagonists. Polyphemus wants to eat Odysseus, and Dan Teague wants to kill them for interrupting a KKK rally, and also because they might reveal his identity as a member of the KKK. Polyphemus ends up getting killed by Odysseus, and Dan Teague is killed by Ulysses and his men. Third, there are many seductresses in The Odyssey that Odysseus must challenge himself to ignore. When he arrives on Circe’s island, she drugs some of his men and turns them into animals. The nymph Calypso wants to keep him on her island as well, wishing to make him immortal and marry him. Lastly, there are the sirens, who Odysseus can listen to safely while his men keep him tied to the mast of his ship,

In one such story, Athena asks Zeus why he is so ”dead set against Odysseus” (1.76). Zeus makes it clear that he “wants to work out [Odysseus’s] journey home so Odysseus can return”(1.93) but states that Poseidon does have a feud with Odysseus due the blinding of the Cyclops. The important part about this quote is not that he wants to help Odysseus but that he is willing to listen to gods or goddesses who ask tasks of him. In Poseidon’s case, Zeus listens to him and also adds on extra punishment, which does make sense with Homer’s portrayal of Zeus because of Zeus’ fervent enthusiasm to help other gods. Much later in Book 9 Odysseus notes that after he kills the Cyclops he sacrifices to Zeus but notes that “Zeus was still obsessed with plans to destroy my entire oar swept fleet and loyal crew of comrades”(9.621) .It’s important to note that Zeus desire to destroy Odysseus occurred before he decided to help him. However, it is possible that this desire to destroy Odysseus overcame Zeus so much that he also decided to punish people who came in contact with Odysseus as well, thus providing evidence for why he may have placed the mountain around Phaeacia’s

Odysseus angirly exclaims at the cyclops,” Zeus will avenge the unoffending guest”( The Cyclops 260-261). Odysseus gets full of courage and pride when calling out that he could have Zeus come after him not even thinking of the destruction that could come from saying that to the wrong person. Odysseus second detriment from anger is shown when he attacks the Cyclops when he did not have to stop and get stuck in the Cyclops cave. In the story leading up to The Cyclops episode people know that Odysseus and Poseidon do not get along so his anger was taken out on the Cyclops. Odysseus tells the Cyclops,” Poseidon Lord, who sets the earth atremble, broke it up on the rocks at your land’s end.”(273-274). If Poseidon did in fact crash his ship then there has to be a dislike between the to leading the readers to believe he is going to harm the Cyclops out of anger. Odysseus third and final detriment through evil thoughts in the episode “The Cyclops” is shown through his boastful attitude when he puts his crew at risk. Odysseus tries to exclaim again across the ocean,“Now when i cupped my hands I heard the crew in low voices protesting.”(492-493). Odysseus is being very boastful wanting the Cyclops to know who he was and how he was better not even considering the fact that he could get his whole crew

In book nine: the Cyclops fate is demonstrated; these are the times you see that the gods take action in Odysseus life. Odysseus is talking to the terrifying Cyclops; Odysseus is explaining to the Cyclops how fate has brought them to his island. Odysseus says on page 116 lines 159 thru 163. “We are Achemans…took the wrong route as Zeus I suppose instead that we should.” Odysseus says that he

By looking that the contacts between Athena and Odysseus from their conversation, I can easily define the personality of Athena and Odysseus. For Athena’s personality basic on chapter thirteen, I can define as helpful and lovely, she brave to love a guy who blinded her cousin Polyphemus (son of Poseidon), she doesn’t fear her uncle Poseidon to challenge Poseidon to help Odysseus to return home. Also as a god of Greek she doesn’t has the haughtiness of a god, she talks like a human kind. For Odysseus’s personality basic on chapter thirteen I would say he is a tricky man, who always want to test other people, he never trust any people

Right after the Trojan War Odysseus and his fleet do not go straight home instead they take a detour and the get lost etc. Their first stop was the Cicones. At the Cicones Odysseus’ men got super comfortable and started to steal things and find women to have sex with. Odysseus didn't stop them. Then some of the girls got free of the men and went to tell the men of their island. So the men of the island came to fight and ultimately lost but not before slaughtering a ton of Odysseus’ men. After that Zeus becomes undoubtedly upset because Odysseus and his crew went against Greek culture, which was disrespecting the gods. Another time Odysseus has stolen for no reason and disrespected the gods, was with the cyclops

Throughout the Odyssey, the struggles of Odysseus are revealed to the reader through the well written epic. His journey is very difficult and he is haunted with the loss of his entire crew and seemingly impossible task of getting home to his family. While journeying homewards, Odysseus makes the mistake of harming the Cyclops, who happens to be Poseidon's son. Poseidon is so angry at Odysseus for the harm he inflicted on the Cyclops, that through the influence of all powerful Zeus, he punishes Odysseus along with his other children, the Phaeacians, who can be seen to parallel as well as contrast with the Cyclops.

Though Athena is a female, she is not known for her beauty or stature, but for her wisdom. Whenever Athena creates her plan to rescue Odysseus, everyone is thoroughly surprised because no one had yet to think of one. The rest of the gods at the assembly had known that Odysseus had been trapped but were not sure of how to rescue him without facing Poseidon’s wrath. The gods did not expect a plan from Athena because she is a female, she is not supposed to be smart or have an opinion. Athena exceeds everyone’s expectations and uses her wisdom to rescue Odysseus. Additionally, Athena proves herself when she gives Odysseus the plan to disguise himself once he reaches Ithaca. Athena constantly saving Odysseus shows her critical thinking which she applies to show her wisdom. Most people do not expect that from her because she is a woman and she cannot be thinking superior to men, but Athena proves that wisdom is one of her prized traits. Because Athena is a female, most people would think of her as beautiful, but she proves her important trait to be wise.

Athena has a great interest in Odysseus and tells him everything he should know on his journey home so he can come back alive. For instance, when Odysseus reveals himself to the suitors, she makes their spears miss him while they are in a fight. “But Athena made their shots all come to nothing, one man hitting the doorpost, another the door, another’s bronze-tipped ash spear sticking into the wall. ”(Book 22, lines 272-275). She also releases him from being trapped on an island for seven years, and she influences his son to keep faith that his father is still alive.

In various encounters throughout the book, Athena, the goddess of wisdom influences the lives of Odysseus’s family in order to improve their fate due to her favoritism for the persistent mariner attempting to return home and respect of his cleverness. Her preference to Odysseus is seen in the beginning of Book 1 stating to her father, Zeus that she is concerned of the whereabouts of Odysseus and pleads for support to deliver him

Odysseus thinks that his reasoning are final and his activities are constantly just and right, although he frequently allows his ego control his rational thinking, resulting harm to his group and messing with the gods’s plans. His men could have went back home Securely for it is the desire of Athena and the other heavenly gods who surround to her in Mount Olympus, however Odysseus takes it to himself to outrage and blind Polyphemus, the monstrous son of Poseidon, adored by his dad yet abhorred by the people, In this way distrusting their whole arrangement . Subsequent to being blinded by the heroine, Polyphemus tosses huge pieces of rocks at Odysseus's ship, nearly obliterating them at the same time. But instead of retreating for safety, Odysseus keeps on provoking Polyphemus and “[calls] out to the cyclopes again, with [his] men hanging all over [him] begging him not to”(Book 9, 491-492). His feeling of pride and presumption influences to disregard the requests of his people even in these critical circumstances . He will fulfill his own feeling of interest and pleasure without thinking of the result it would have on his crew. Despite the fact that he is bound to get away from all passings and assaults, his group isn’t so blessed. Their lives are in mortal peril since Odysseus considers them as child sheeps who should forfeit their lives for him when the circumstances comes, much the same as how mortals make conciliatory offerings of sheeps for the heavenly gods. He is willing to fulfill his own feeling of interest without thinking of his groups lives or their suppositions and is regularly infuriated when they negate his request. If they hurt his sense of pride and self-importance and pomposity , Odysseus will be overcome with outrage and