Mercy In The Odyssey Essay

After reading the poem "The Odyssey" by Homer, i believed justice was served. First i believe that Odysseus was justified in his actions, Secondly, everyone deserved their punishment, Lastly, the punishment wasn't severe.

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.

In Part II of “The Odyssey”, the characters inflict retribution to those that harmed them and this causes much of the conflict. “He drew to his fist the cruel head of an arrow for Antinous/ just as the young man leaned to lift his beautiful drinking cup,/ embossed, two-handled, golden: the cup was in his fingers:/ the wine was even at his lips: and did he dream of death?/ How could he? In that revelry amid his throng of friends/ who would imagine a single foe- though a strong foe indeed-/ could dare to bring death’s pain on him and darkness on his eyes? Odysseus’ arrow hit him under the chin/ and punched up to the feathers through his throat./ Backward and down he went, letting the winecup fall/ from his shocked hand. Like pipes his nostrils jetted/ crimson runnel, a river of mortal red,/ and one last kick upset his table/ knocking bread and meat to soak in dusty blood. (II. 7- 20) Odysseus is wondering if Antinous is aware that he is about to die. He is enjoying a cup of wine just before Odysseus is about to get his revenge. Antinous was a suitor that was pursuing his wife while he was away. Odysseus hated Antinous and all the suitors. Antinous was just the first of the bunch to meet his untimely death. Odysseus portrayed vengeance to all the

Every human being that has ever lived has gone through that life changing event that immediately changes the way of living. The loss of a family member, a break up, or even the loss of a close friendship. Whatever the situation, atonement can be made. Even though the goal gets the character to the desired place, the journey itself is more important because it teaches the character more about life, and the state of living more than the goal does. After reading The Odyssey by Homer, the same question of whether the journey or the goal was more important continually came to mind, and the story helped to conclude the answer.

Revenge is one of the many examples of a universal story in “The Odyssey.” For example, when Odysseus returns home on Ithaca, he had killed all of the suitors that had invaded his home and tried to have the hand of his wife, Penelope. Revenge is something that anyone can relate to in some point in their life. For example, say your obnoxious little brother gets you in trouble for something you didn’t even do and possibly gets you grounded. So you return the favor by doing the same and hopefully have the same thing happen to him. “You yellow dogs, you thought I’d never make it home from the land of Troy. You took my house to plunder… You dared bid for my wife while I was still alive. Contempt was all you had for the gods who rule wide heaven, contempt for what men say of you hereafter. Your last

I consider myself to be a fairly traditional American white woman, with non-denominational Christian beliefs. My ethnicity is sort of a mixture of Irish, German, Native American and a few others, but my main cultural background is traditional American. I do not put a lot of emphasis on my ethnicity, because in my opinion and the opinion of many others as well, Caucasian American can be race and ethnicity. I celebrate traditional American holidays such as Christmas, Independence Day and Thanksgiving. I do eat traditional American foods, but I also love ethnic foods of all kinds. According to McKinney, James, Murray, Nelson and Ashwill (2013), “Belief in Jesus Christ as the son of God and the Messiah comprises the central core of Christianity” and “Study of biblical scripture; practicing faith, good works, and sacramental rites (e.g., baptism, communion, and others); and prayer are common among most Christian faiths” (p.44). I am non-denominational; however, I do believe this statement sums up the main core of my beliefs. I pray, I have been baptized, I believe in good deeds, and attending church. The only difference is that I do not believe that you must attend church or partake in communion to have a relationship with God; I believe that relationship is rather personal. Now in terms of American culture in the healthcare setting, Euromed Info Online indicates that Western industrialized societies such as the United States, which

Justice is in many stories with different reasons justice is being delivered or sought. In Antigone, justice is sought for a dead brother, in the Theogony, justice is brought by divine beings, and in Lucian’s stories, justice is often contradictory. Antigone and Theogony are to be taking more seriously than the comedic stories of Lucian, and that is shown by how justice finds its way through the story. However, the Theogony and Lucan’s stories have a more ironic element to them to how justice play out.

Back when the book was written, the justice system was not as complex as it is today. The killing of men to defend your honor was seen as justifiable. In addition, the god and goddess in that time had more of a meaning than in our society today. In the book, Homer assumes that we know about the god and goddess, but nowadays, many of us do not know their significance. In contemporary times, the reader would understand why Athena is helping Odyssey achieve his revenge.

Even though she deceives and traps people, she tells Odyssey how to get past the sirens. If she didn’t have the slightest of kindness then she wouldn’t have told him how to pass the sirens, and would have known they were as good as dead. Circe is not the best of characters since she is deceiving, and uses her intelligence to trap people, but that little bit of kindness shows that she is also not the worst of

In the three Stories Oedipus, Othello, And Challenger deep They all displayed how reaching out for help can benefit you or how not reaching out can hurt you. The three Characters Oedipus, Othello And Caden all showed how they needed to seek help and how it benefited them getting help or how it hurt them to not get the help they needed. In Oedipus Oedipus never got the help he needed, Oedipus talking about the murder he says “ Let the man drag out his life in agony, Step by painful step” (sophocles). This is exactly what Oedipus put himself through because he did not reach out for help, If he had gotten the help he needed and was offered maybe his journey would not have ended so tragically.

Cicero does not have a specific stance on justice because he does not worship any one god. In The Nature of the Gods, Cicero’s main questions include whether or not gods exist, if they are involved in human lives, and if they care about humans. These questions are incredibly important when talking about justice because the entire idea depends on the existence and intervention of gods. First, if there are no gods then there is no one to create the higher laws that must be followed, and there is no one to inflict punishment in the case that one of these rules is broken. Second, if the gods are not involved in our lives and do not care about the actions of humans, then there are again no rules and no inflictor of punishments.

Revenge is a kind of wild justice. Throughout many texts, the notion of justice has been debated on whether it is an act that vindicates those who have been wronged or an excuse to pursue revenge. Through Medea, Medea’s actions have been judged and criticised whether her murders are an act of justice that she deserves or simply the idea of inflicting pain on those she loathes.

Although Oedipus performed many acts of righteousness, Oedipus’ understanding of morality was incorrect. Oedipus believed the more selfless acts you perform, the greater your superiority grows. Oedipus expected good deeds to end in good results, but only if you do not expect to get anything in return. Justice is performing acts of kindness without any malice. Furthermore, Oedipus is convinced he can overpower the gods and change his

The play commences and we learn immediately that our protagonist, Oedipus, Will be the one who attempts to seek justice. As ruler of Thebes, oedipus was a man to take charge and responsibility. His city was suffering from a plague ,and because Olympus was a ruler to care about his people, he was suffering as well. Oedipus suffered for himself and for every single one of his citizens. As soon as it is revealed he is an emotional man, we know Oedipus will want to try to save them all from their misery.

Oedipus guilt and justice towards this play was very pleasing because he was born with a curse and didn’t recieve what he deserved because of the way he turned out and it’s bad because he isn’t one to blame for in this situation. Jocasta who wasn’t necessarily a main character didn’t show her character in the play until towards the end her justice was that she never thought that the curse would happen as a reality and in complete honesty she didnt deserve it because she didn’t do anything wrong to serve for the punishment of her son becoming the way he became. Laius didn’t deserve what he got because it was honestly a tragedy of him being the one killed by his son.