Examples Of Poseidon In The Odyssey

During his stay with the Cyclops, Odysseus heroically saves his men from death, but during this encounter he demonstrates the character flaw of selfishness. On his

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 in addition is very selfish with his actions towards his men. For example, when Odysseus insists on staying in the Cyclops habitat the see what he has to offer instead of taking some things and leaving. He put all of his men in danger without a good cause. Furthermore, Odysseus knew he would lose some of his men when encountering Scylla and Charybdis who were monstrous creatures waiting to try and take Odysseus and his crew down.

Both Athena and Poseidon are gods, and both are under the rule of Zeus, however they are very different in the way they have interactions with Odysseus. Athena, the gray-eyed goddess help Odysseus on his journey, and also helps Penelpoe and Telemachus with their personal struggles. Poseidon, on the other hand has a grudge against Odysseus for maiming his offspring, the Cyclops. When Odysseus revealed his real name to the Cyclops, the Cyclops called upon Poseidon to curse him and make his journey even harder. In a way, it is like Athena and Poseidon are battling against each others' will. Athena is trying to make sure Odysseus makes it home safe, while Poseidon is trying to make his homeward journey as difficult as possible.

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

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

The Merriam dictionary defines a villain as a character in a story who opposes the hero and is blamed for a particular evil or difficulty. At this point in history our American government was a hero and Aaron Burr opposed the US government. Aaron Burr’s personal life did not reflect his public/political life. He might have been a loyal father, but not a loyal American. From a U.S historical perspective Burr was a villain because his plan of separation of the West and East was particular evil to the eyes of the government (87).

Throughout the Odyssey, Odysseus has the tendency to be a narcissistic, selfish and inconsiderate leader towards his men. When Odysseus and his men finally escaped certain death from the giant cyclops, Polyphemus, the not-so-heroic king of Ithaca shouted a taunt above the pleas of his aghast crew, towards the blinded cyclops. He yelled to the enraged cyclops,”If any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shame you so--say Odysseus(Homer IV. 558-560).” With this reproachful act of arrogance, Polyphemus, son of the wrathful Poseidon, cried out to his father, praying that Odysseus' travels be cursed and that he would return home a “broken man” and with “all shipmates lost(IV. 593).” This event shows how he is too unworthy

The best villain I have ever known is President Snow from the hunger games. He would kill his own people to make his world better. He was always after Katniss and Peta in the Hunger Games. He didn’t like how they were seeing through all of his lies and knew what was going on. He wanted to rid of them for good and that was to change the rules of the Hunger Games.

374-378). Odysseus having excessive anger towards poseidon lead him to be a vengeful person which then lead him to stab the eye of poseidon’s son ,Polyphemus. The detriment of having excessive anger is, it allows a person’s life to be controlled and all your actions would revolve around that anger. The problem with having Narcissism, unearned pride is, it gives you the impression that you are greater than you are. Odysseus yells,” How do you like the beating we gave youm you damned cannibal?...

The way that their ship was destroyed by Zeus shows how they were punished for actively disrespecting Helios, which conveys how important reverence of the gods was to the Homer and the Ancient Greeks. Lastly, in what is perhaps the epitome of Poseidon’s wrath, Homer conveys the importance of respect for the deities. This value is portrayed in book 13 when Poseidon attacks the Phaeacian ship after they bring Odysseus home, “[striking] her to stone,” and, “[rooting] her to the ocean floor,” (291). This act of violence by Poseidon illustrates just one example of how mortals are punished for disrespect throughout The Odyssey. Because the Phaeacians chose to help Odysseus, thereby contradicting Poseidon and in a sense disrespecting him, they were punished which again, illustrates how disrespecting the gods, however unintentionally, can have disastrous and even deadly consequences. Homer’s use of violence by the gods in these three instances helps to convey the cultural norm of reverence of the gods in Ancient Greece.

The true villain behind the mask Chris Colfer wrote, “ A villain is just a victim whose story hasn’t been told.” A basic definition of a villain is a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot. Villains are like the terrorists of a cartoon. While Poseidon is one of the most powerful villains, he also has many hero characteristics, the shadow man is more of a villain than Poseidon will ever be. Some might say Poseidon is a villain because he is powerful, smart and vengeful, but he isn't as much of a villain as Shadow Man.

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.

The best villain I know would have to be Darth Vader from Star Wars. He kept on trying to kill Luke Skywalker and Obi-wan-kenobi. He tried so hard to fight for the droids they had and so he could get Princess Leia. He is also mysterious he will not show his face until the end and it makes me and other people think what his face looks like. He also kept it a secret that Darth Vader was Luke’s father “ I am your Father.”

When Odysseus fulfills his prophecy and blinds Polyphemus, he prays to his father to grant him revenge on Odysseus by either “never letting him reach his home, or if he must, let him come late after long suffering, with all of his comrades dead, and let him find trouble waiting for him at home” on page 110. Poseidon hears his prayers and creates a storm that nearly kills Odysseus on page 60. The Greeks may value Poseidon's drive to avenge his son because this shows that he wants to defend his son and hurt those who have done wrong to him. They may also value that Polyphemus could depend and trust his father to carry out revenge on Odysseus.