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Odysseus Does Not Want To Go Home In Homer's The Odyssey

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The Odyssey book was composed right after the Iliad, almost like a sequel, by the author Homer. This epic takes place after the Greeks victory over the Trojans. Odysseus is making his way home and on the way, faces many obstacles. In book 10 lines 149-1597, Odysseus is blown off course and winds up on an island with Circe. His men warn him of Circe and tell him that they should turn back and leave, but Odysseus instead stays. Throughout this passage, the audience can see that Odysseus does not want to go home and can also see how persuasive goddesses can be. Throughout book 10 and other parts of the Odyssey, it is clear that Odysseus does not want to go home. One would think that after being away from ones family, friends, and WIFE that they …show more content…

But this also shows how selfish he is. For example, he does not care how his crew feels about him extending their trip every time he gets. When he gives them news that their journey will continue their hearts break and “they [sit] down right where they [are] and [weep]” (10: 589-590). If Odysseus really cared about his men, he would be taking all measures to get them home as soon as he could. But that is not the case. We can also see his selfishness when we think about Penelope and Odysseus loved ones. They must be mourning and awaiting his arrival and if he cared for them, he would be rushing home to them, not taking extra trips to places he doesn’t need to go and staying places for longer than he needs …show more content…

In this passage it is the goddess Circe. She lures the men in by “singing in a lovely voice as she moved about wearing a great tapestry” (10: 237-238). This helps persuade the men to come closer because she sounds innocent and her voice is comforting to them. They had just been stranded for several days and coming across a beautiful woman draws them to her. If she were some ogre looking woman, the men wouldn’t have stuck around after seeing her. But since she was beautiful and had a luring voice, they stayed, which is exactly what she wanted. She was able to drunken them up and then “[strike] them with her wand” (10: 255-256) and turn them to pigs. The audience can also see her being persuasive when she is speaking to Odysseus. He says that “[he] took her words to heart” and stayed with her for a year. Circe’s words had such an impact on him that he didn’t return to his family and his wife, but stayed with a woman he barely

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