Lines 201-383 The Odyssey

Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey translated by Robert Fagles completely illustrate Odysseus’s journey home after The Trojan War. Separated into twenty-four different books, the poem describes the hardships Odysseus faces and how he overcomes obstacles. Though this poem is composed for listeners and may seem incomprehensible, Homer includes a plethora of literary devices to help audiences better understand, follow, and enjoy the context of The Odyssey. Throughout this poem instances of epic simile, foreshadowing, epithet, and xenia are included to help the poem flow.

Book 19 of the epic poem The Odyssey is written by the great poet Homer. Homer’s specific use of language and epic conventions help develop the plot, specifically Odysseus’ disguise and whether or not it will work on the people in the house. It also helps to establish Eurycleia, the nurse, and the suitors as well as Penelope. In the passage, Odysseus has entered his home for the first time since his return when he left almost twenty years ago. Disguised as a beggar, Odysseus tells his own story through the beggar’s words to his wife, Penelope, but never reveals his true identity. After Penelope is deeply moved by the knowledge that her husband is still alive, she offers the stranger a place to sleep and new clothing. Odysseus kindly declines

Throughout the epic poem “The Odyssey”, the protagonist Odysseus is viewed as a very strong person and an amazing leader. However, Odysseus displays many flaws and weaknesses that helps us connect to him. The biggest flaw represented by Odysseus is that he cannot control his men very well, which is shown in various parts of the epic poem. Since Odysseus demonstrates this weakness, it causes him to have many more obstacles and problems that he has to deal with in order to reach his goal. Odysseus needs his men in order to succeed so without them he cannot defeat his enemies and obstacles that await him. In the epic poem “The Sirens”, Odysseus’ men butchered and ate the Cattle of the Sun God. In the “Land of the Dead” which is

With all their food gone, the cows in the distance are beginning to look really tasty. When Odysseus left his men to pray, honestly, not the best idea, his men kill and eat a cow. This angers Helios and Odysseus’ ship ends up being struck by lightning, killing all of his men except for himself. Odysseus possibly should have thought a little bit more about what the gods would think before

Focus on the descriptions of the palaces of Nestor and Menelaus. Find quotations that describe their virtues:

Despite “...vow[ing] they’d never harm the herds…” ,the temptation of the cattle overcame their sacred oath (12.329). As “... hunger racked their bellies…” and Odysseus drifted into a “... sweet ,sound sleep…”, the shipmates “...drove off the Sun God's finest cattle…” because the temptation was greater than their loyalty to Odysseus and the gods (12.358, 364,380). Instead of just taking what they needed from the cattle, “... for six more days [his] eager companions... feasted on the cattle of the Sun…”(12.428). Although the crewmembers needed to kill cattle in order to survive, they seem to have been greedy and shows their lack of respect/fear for the gods and Odysseus. Thus the Sun God Helios, angry at what Odysseus’ crew members had done, demanded punishment for them.

After being stranded and half-starved on the island for a month, Odysseus and his men refrain from eating the cattle. However, Eurylochus, convinces the crew, “‘all deaths are hateful to miserable mortals, but the most pitiable death of all is to starve. Come along, let us drive off the best of these cattle’” (157). Since Eurylochus and the rest of the crew killed and ate the cattle, “Zeus at the same time thundered and struck [the] ship with his bolt,” killing them all, except Odysseus (159).

The crew tries to survive on the provisions on the ship, but when they run out hunger drives the crew to slaughter Helios’s cattle of the Sun. Odysseus had warned them not to kill the cattle, and now he knows they will die. After six days the storm stopped and they set out again, but another storm came from

Book IX lines 291-331 in The Odyssey starts off with Odysseus and his men coming in Polyphemus’ house to inquire for food and hospitality after they landed on his island. What awaited Odysseus however was not hospitality, but rather despair. In this book by Homer demonstrates Homer’s linguistic use of imagery and tone to illustrate epic conventions Odysseus displayed, as well as paint the horrifying picture of Polyphemus eating Odysseus’ men. The passage begins with Odysseus inquiring for care under the Kyklopes roof as a guest in the custom of Xenia, however he was greeted savagely by Polyphemus, one of the many Kyklopes on the island, for using the name of Zeus to him.

cattle and lost their lives. There were a lot of times where Odysseus did this and got his

B. After the escape from Scylla and Charybdis, the remainder of Odysseus’s men go hungry on the island of Helios. They remember Odysseus’s warning about not eating Helios’s cattle but proceed anyway because of their need for food. Even though they give offerings to the cattle they still eat them and Zeus punishes them with a lightning bolt destroying all the men besides Odysseus. Instead of listening to Odysseus’s orders and obeying Helios’s command, his men act in a selfish manner and consume the food.

Throughout this passage, I believe that Mark was trying to teach us two different lessons. In the beginning of the passage, the message that is portrayed is that we should pay more attention to the word of God rather than other rules or traditions that we know of. We are taught so many different rules and life lessons over time that we are expected to follow, but in the end, it is most important that we always rely on God’s example to lead us through life. We also need to make sure that we are practicing what we preach and actually doing what God would want us to do, and not just speaking of it. This example is shown to us in the passage through this quote “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Mark 7:6).

The epic poem The Odyssey by Homer is the tale of Odysseus and his men sailing home towards the island of Ithaka from Troy. On the men’s valiant journey home they encounter several curses and diversions that kept them from reaching Ithaka for years. The gods influenced the meeting of several people and places they come across on the trip home from Troy, but of the obstacles they come across that are not god-influenced, they are because Odysseus was selfish. His selfish desire for knowledge and his other inane cravings were the undoing of many of his men. Odysseus also is selfish in the sense that he had relations with several deities and women on his voyage home, showing his lust for women to

Again, the gods’ warned of revenge if Odysseus’ men did not obey them in not eating the cattle. Yet, while Odysseus was sleeping, Eurylochus convinced Odysseus’ men to eat the cattle (Homer 408). When the Sun god Helios found that Odysseus’ men had slaughtered his cattle, he rallied to the gods to strike revenge on them. Helios sought out revenge by asking Zeus, “’Father Zeus! The rest of you blissful gods who never die-punish them all, that crew of Laertes’ son Odysseus…’”(Homer 409). Zeus responded with vengeance by striking Odysseus’ boat with a lightening bolt and killing his men (Homer 410). By Zeus striking Odysseus’ boat with a lightening bolt and killing his men, the reader is definitely aware of the severity of revenge associated with disobeying a god; especially the most powerful of all gods. This severity greatly shows the important role that revenge plays in the poem and the affect revenge has on Odysseus.

Chapter 1- Ten years after the Trojan War, everyone reached home except for Odysseus. He remained a hostage at Ogygia by Calypso. Meanwhile, Telemachus (Odysseus’s son) is told by Athena, disguised as Mentes, that his father will return home and tells him to dispel the suitors who keep devouring his father’s estate.