Examples Of Mistakes In The Odyssey

Katherine Coj Ms.Reik English 1, Period 3 March 12, 2024 Odysseus’ Flawed Journey In Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus, king of Ithaca, is a brave and courageous leader. After beating the Trojans in the Trojan war, Odysseus was targeted by many people. He leads his men on a successful journey home or what he thought to be successful. His arrogance took the best of him, causing him to get not only himself but his men into trouble.

Poseidon hated Odysseus because he showed too much pride into himself and sadly Polyphemus was Poseidon's son. To begin, the way he showed how he was heroic was when Polyphemus was asleep, he made up a plan to get them out of Polyphemus's home because they were trapped. Third, Odysseus showed his heroic acts by blinding Polyphemus because he would open the door and shout for help and during that time Odysseus and his men made a swift escape from beneath him. Finally, Odysseus put his life endangered knowing that he will be blinding a god's

Odysseus’ hubris played a negative role when Odysseus revealed his identity to Polyphemus. Odysseus and his crew had just managed to escape from the Cyclops, Polyphemus, after driving a stake into his eye. But then, Odysseus told the blinded Cyclops his identity by shouting, “Cyclops – if any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shamed you so- say Odysseus, raider of cities, he gouged out you eye, Laertes’ son who makes his home in Ithaca” (9, 558-562). Odysseus managed to tell Polyphemus his name, father, and home. Polyphemus then prayed to Poseidon, his father, to get revenge on Odysseus. Poseidon ended up killing Odysseus’ entire crew and delaying Odysseus for 10 years. None of those terrible consequences would have happened if Odysseus had suppressed his enormous pride. Odysseus’ hubris resulted in a lot of suffering for many people. Odysseus’ hubris prevents Odysseus and his crew from getting back to Ithaca again when Odysseus did

All Poseidon along with Polyphemus wishes is revenge. The number one rule is to never anger a god. Thankfully for Odysseus the other gods are on his side. Odysseus is human, so he too was battling pride. This pride Odysseus is battling is when you have the urge to be in people's faces and be superior. Odysseus and his men knew they were going to be in Siren territory. His men put wax in their ear. Odysseus on the other hand was tied up with no wax in his ear so he could hear the sirens. He wanted to be the only person that has heard them and not died. “ The San Andreas is considered “the ‘master’ fault of an intricate fault network,” the Geological Survey said”(Yan and Berlinger 3). Odysseus is seen as an amazing fighter. People have very high expectations. You could call him a master just like the San Andreas which is considered the “master fault”. Although Odysseus is a master of many strengths, his pride gets the best of him. No matter how strong and powerful you are, pride will always be there. You may think this wouldn’t be a problem for him, but it is. Odysseus is still human and has weaknesses as well. Just like us Odysseus struggles with

Odysseus arrives on Calypso’s island alone, after the loss of his men and ship. Calypso rescues him and loves and cares for him in her cave. At first, it seems like Odysseus doesn’t seem much to mind her taking care of him, but over time it is plainly evident that he is unhappy with her. When Hermes arrives on Calypso’s island to give her the message from Zeus to release Odysseus, he is bawling on the beach a day-long activity for him. Calypso is holding him with her by force; she has no companions to help him back to Ithaka, nor has she a ship to send him in. Athena pleads with Zeus to give Odysseus good fortune, saying that "he lies away on an island suffering strong pains in the palace of the nymph Kalypso, and she detains him by constraint, and he cannot make his way to his country, for he has not any ships by him, nor any companions who can convey him back

Today we landed on a cyclops’ island. The cyclops was Poseidon’s son, Polyphemus. We had escaped his wraith using an ingenious plan devised by Odysseus. However, even after we had escaped, Odysseus decided to taunt the cyclops, frustrating all of the crew. What an idiot Odysseus was, soon after he taunted the cyclops, Polyphemus personally asked Poseidon himself to kill all of Odysseus’ crewmen, including me! Our captain’s foolishness has angered a god, one of the most powerful gods, and we are sailing on his waters! I wish that our captain would give up his pride and leave peacefully. It is just so frustrating to know that I will suffer for his actions. Even though his actions were foolish, I have talked it over with my friends, they all agree

In The Odyssey, Homer depicts that someone’s boastful actions can cause wrathful measures by others even though the boastful person experiences success. Throughout the Odyssey, the struggles of Odysseus are revealed. His journey is very difficult and he is haunted by the loss of his entire crew and seemingly impossible task of getting home to his family Poseidon blows Odysseus and his men off course on their way home from Troy. After fighting a battle against the Greeks, and winning with the wooden horse, Poseidon and his men set sail toward their home Ithaca. However Poseidon “raised the Northwind against [them] till it blew a hurricane, so that land and sky were hidden in thick clouds, and night sprang forth out of the heavens.

“Cyclops- if any man on the face of the Earth should ask you who blinded you, shamed you so- say Odysseus, raider of cities, he gouged out your eye, Laertes’ son who makes his home in Ithaca!” (Homer, 227). This act puts him and his crew in danger because the Cyclops is the son of the god Poseidon. Polyphemus then offers a prayer to his father to take revenge on Odysseus. “Hear me, Poseidon who circle the earth, dark-haired. If truly I am your son, and you acknowledge

Homer’s The Odyssey is not just a tale of a man’s struggle on his journey home from the Trojan War, but of his struggle from the consequences of revenge. The Odyssey weaves in different characters’ tales of revenge from the gods and what impact revenge actually had on those characters. Revenge is an important underlying theme in The Odyssey because, in essence, it explains why Odysseus’ journey was so prolonged and treacherous. A few examples of revenge in the poem include Orestes’ revenge on Aegisthus, Zeus’ revenge on Odysseus and his men, and Poseidon’s revenge on Odysseus. These different examples of revenge in The Odyssey show the importance of the gods’ revenge in the epic journey of Odysseus.

Once they have successfully blinded the Cyclops, they ride out on the goats bellies to safety. It is here that Odysseus truly angers the Cyclops, by taunting him from safety on the deck of his ship; this causes the Cyclops to fire rocks at the ship, missing every time. When the Cyclops reaches his breaking point, he raises his arms up to the sky and prays to his father “Hear me Poseidon … if I really am your son and you claim to be my father grant that Odysseus, raider of cities, Laertes son who makes his home in Ithaca, never reaches home.” (Homer 228). Charles Segal states, “The spoken word of the prayer, the invisible and distant fulfillment, proves, after all, the more effective instrument of revenge.”(504). This highlights the fact that, with the wrath of the Poseidon placed upon him, Odysseus will have much more to overcome than just plain brute force of the Cyclops himself. Stavros Frangoulidis infers that it is this prayer that, “Marks the beginning of Odysseus’s troublesome journey back home and, therefore, his odyssey.” (45).

Polyphemus also happens to be Poseidon’s son. It would upset Poseidon enough that Odysseus blinded his son. Odysseus made it worse by gloating afterward, and humiliating Polyphemus, making him angrier and more upset. “Come back Odysseus and I’ll treat you well, praying the god of earthquake to befriend you- his son I am, for he by his avowal fathered me, and, if he will he may heal me of this black wound- he and no other of all the happy gods or mortal men.” Polyphemus is saying that if Odysseus comes back, he will tell his father to befriend him. But Odysseus does not do that, he only makes Polyphemus angrier, ensuring Poseidon’s hate for him. His ego only hurts him because he cannot set it aside and do something that will hurt his ego but ultimately save himself and his men. Poseidon does end up delivering revenge as Polyphemus said, simply because Odysseus had to boast.

Poseidon, the god of the sea, also called the “earth-shaker”, only inflicts harm to Odysseus during his journey home due to an incident on Odysseus’ first trek home to Ithaca.

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

Odysseus' obstacles can be traced back to a mistake he made when he blinded Polyphemos and let his pride get the best of him, announcing to the Cyclops his real name. This allowed Poseidon to enact Polyphemos' wrath on Odysseus, vowing that he

Odysseus pride causes Poseidon to get revenge on him by never letting him go home. Odysseus pride was a problem because on part of his journey home he had to blind the Cyclops. As they sailed away, his pride caused him to make a grave mistake “Cyclops , if any mortal man should ask about the shameful blinding of your eye, then tell him that the man the gouged you was Odysseus... Laértës’ son.”(Homer 185) By revealing himself, Odysseus has given Poseidon someone to blame and get revenge on for the blinding of his son.If he would not have said his name he wouldn’t have gotten into that situation but because of his pride, he felt like he was on top