Punishment In The Odyssey

In Homer’s epic poem, Odysseus is justified in killing the suitors when he returns home to Ithaca from Troy because the suitors have been tormenting and harassing his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus while freeloading in his palace for years; therefore, Odysseus deserves revenge. The suitors constantly badger and pursue Odysseus’s family behind his

In the story the Odyssey Odysseus travels from island to island to try to get back home to see his family . While on his journey, a group of people known as the wooers had brought themselves into his lifestyle and felt the need to vandalize his old lifestyle. Once Odysseus returned to Ithaca he soon realize the wooers had taken over his house and possessions. I believe justice was served because they wanted to take his wife, his food, and his home.

            Indeed those who occupied the lord’s manor during his absence did so with no honor.  But one may argue that Odysseus’ method of punishment was far too brutal, especially for the murder of the ladies who had

The Odyssey by Homer is a great text that manipulates the skill of storytelling bringing out the meaning of being human, the spiritual and physical homecoming. It is an archetypal epic expedition essential for understanding ourselves and other modern texts following the same pattern. The text brings out the ancient Greek beliefs and customs that are essential in studying Western Literature through the evaluation of different characters, and the themes manifested are essential in establishing a good foundation for any literature student. The themes therein such as leadership skills, folly, retaliation, mythology, death, ogres, temptation seduction, deceit, and warfare make the text an essential student companion in the quest of comprehending literature.

In The Odyssey by Homer, many characters feel prejudiced toward others. Many of these characters have opinions solely based on rumor. Such characters are influenced by many factors,, but all of them lead to improper judgement. In the same context, many characters in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird also possess such prejudiced thoughts. Through her use of the characters within Maycomb, in her novel To Kill A Mockingbird; Harper Lee shows how injustice and prejudice between African American and white people was impossible to beat at this point in history, however some characters attempt to fight it anyways.

These suitors spent the amount of time that Odysseus was away gorging on food and drinks, lounging around in his castle, and also trying to wed Penelope. The suitors were plotting to kill Telemachus, Odysseus's son, too. Odysseus slays the suitors to settle something that could have been discussed verbally. The suitors even apologize and try to bargain with Odysseus for the lives. He still does not make peace with the fact that the suitors offer to repay for all of the vandalism that they had created.

The Odyssey gives a great outlook on how a person can develop through time as well as how one’s actions can cause the trouble later and lead to unfortunate circumstances. In the book, there are several cases when Hubris, an excessive pride and arrogance as characteristic of a particular, is shown by different figures. Consequently, this is often followed by Nemesis, as justice has to be determined by the gods for the actions taken to maintain a heroic status, most of the time in form of a punishment. In “The Odyssey” by Homer, Hubris is exhibited by the main character and hero, Odysseus, in the Ancient Greek world, who proves it by his self-confidence in his adventures. Homer uses inter alia alliterations, similes, concrete details, and vivid imagery throughout the

I think Odysseus’ punishment was too severe because of the way he treated the maids and servants, his torture of Melanthius, and the way revenge is part of his justice. Odysseus is very angry when he returns from his travels. He discovers that he has been betrayed: “Ye dogs, ye said in your hearts that I should never more come home from the land of the Trojans, in that ye wasted my house, and lay with the maidservants by force, and traitorously wooed my wife while I was yet alive, and ye had no fear of the gods, that hold the wide heaven, nor of the indignation of men hereafter. But now the bands of death have been made fast upon you one and all.” Despite his feelings, Odysseus went beyond civil behavior in trying to get even with them.

The Odyssey by Homer is a literary classic that presents many themes about the natures of both man and god. Although the characters of the book display characteristics relatable to those of the people today, one of the most prevalent differences between the two eras and their people is the intense violence that takes place throughout the entirety of the epic. This violence serves several functions in the work as a whole. The violence that is enacted upon the characters of The Odyssey serve as a device to convey the Greek cultural value of reverence of the gods and as a method for the author to create nuances to his characters.

As Mahatma Gandhi once noted astutely, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” Gandhi’s assertion challenges this moral code established in both the Odyssey and the Old Testament, just as Aeschylus challenges the validity of vendetta as a successful technique for maintaining societal order in his Oresteia trilogy. The revenge ethic plays a key role in the story because it makes justice the personal responsibility of the person insulted; the killer must be killed, and the act of retribution must be carried out by the most appropriate person--preferably a close blood relative. It is a radically straightforward basis for justice, linking retribution to the family and its collective honor. Like the storied blood feud between the Hatfields

Homer’s Odyssey is an epic tale set in the world of ancient Greece - a world dominated by men. Admirable men such as Odysseus, the story’s protagonist, are strong, cunning, and wise; they have control over their lives and the people within them. In The Odyssey, the quintessential man is characterized by his authority, including control of the women who surround him. As is suggested throughout the novel, the patriarchal world would fall into disarray without the force of intrinsic male authority. Odysseus’s struggles with his wife, his son’s search for manhood, and the wiles of cunning women like Clytemnestra and Calypso highlight the disordering powers of women. These disordering powers justify, to the men within this world, the necessity

In the time of the so-called Heroic Age (roughly the Mycenaean Age, the time of the Trojan War, 1200-1100 BCE or thereabouts) standards were much, much different, and some of them, at least, for very good reasons. Probably by those standards (or the standards of Homer’s time, some 400 years later) Odysseus was considerably closer to a hero than he would be in our eyes today. Perhaps, what might now be seen as grotesquely excessive blood letting, would then have been seen as an understandable or even necessary act of retribution

Establishing a justice system is essential for any society to stand the test of time. As human nature is irrational, emotional, and self-serving, there must exist an ordered method of discerning who is at fault and what the fairest outcome of conflicts should be. Without this, justice becomes entirely subjective and becomes a relentless cycle of revenge following the ‘an eye for an eye’ mentality. Through the trial of Orestes in The Eumenides, Aeschylus highlights the transition from the old law of the Furies, based on personal retribution for wrongs done, to the new law of Athenian democracy held in the hands of the state and backed by the new gods (Aeschylus, 571-888). While it is known that women were not equal to men in Greek society or even within families, this institutionalization of justice also served to cement a lesser status of women in dealing with their personal affairs. Not only does this represent a change in the who holds justice in society, but it also depicts a strengthening of the law as it changes hands from the women of old to the male-dominated democracy.

In Homer’s Odyssey women are responsible for many of the problems that Odysseus faced during his journey back to Ithaca. This essay will analyse how far women were responsible and also compare it to far other things caused problems for Odysseus.

In most circumstances ending the life of a criminal as their punishment usually reflects the magnitude of the crimes that they committed, crimes that often involve the deaths of others or equally heinous actions, yet one historical example stands out for not following this rule. In 399 BC, in Athens, Greece, two men put a meek philosopher named Socrates on trial for two crimes he purportedly committed: not following state gods and corrupting the youth. These charges alleged against Socrates reflected the general sentiment of Athenians regarding Socrates; namely that he was an atheistic charlatan. The jury found Socrates guilty of these crimes and executed, a punishment that does not logically befit the supposed crimes that he committed. No sane or logical jury would find him guilty of such vague claims, especially in such a vehemently democratic polis as Athens, and they would never have executed Socrates for such meager offenses, nonetheless he was. Execution was especially unnecessary because Socrates himself was on the verge of death; he was in his seventies in the Greek era, so he was bound to die soon anyways. The central focus, then, is of understanding how on Earth the birthplace of democracy could have gone so awry and when they tried, convicted, and executed Socrates. Athens sentenced Socrates to death because his beliefs were against the flow of the changing Athenian ideological landscape, people regarded him as a pompous, elitist charlatan who impugned their core