What Are The Obstacles In The Odyssey

The suitors that swarm Odysseys ' house in the hopes that they may acquire her hand in marriage. They are a rowdy, arrogant, and decidedly unpleasant bunch, made only worse by their complete lack of concern for Odysseus and his household. But their incessant pursuit of their prize, though what ultimately condemns them, is, by the context already noted, justified. Though they are the primary antagonists in the story, and they certainly suffer the harshest fate (perhaps except for the sailors), amongst their ranks were some perfect decent, well-natured men. It is simply a natural response (in the context of this culture) for a man, Odysseus in this case, to take revenge upon men, whether they be justified in their actions or not or whether they are well-natured or not, who threaten the stability of his household. This is despite the fact that he himself has been the aggressor at many times. Had he been killed in that pursuit, it would have only been considered natural, and so it is natural that the suitors were killed in theirs. The suitors thought, through a successful marriage to a beautiful woman from a wealthy family, they would be able to further their household in terms of success. A notion that, in the world Homer portrays, is not entirely fanciful.

Throughout Homer’s epic The Odyssey, Odysseus is a hero. In all myths and legends, a hero combats the “monsters.” In the typical story a hero is unselfish and fights to protect his people while the monsters are greedy powerful things that antagonize the people. Yet despite this typical storyline, if we read closely, we may conclude that Odysseus is actually the oppressive hero in many of these situations – provoking the “monsters” into fighting. The “monsters” in the Odyssey are innocent creatures that fight to protect themselves. Another reason Odysseus is not a satisfying hero of this story is because the main reason he pursues conflict is to maintain his own personal image and sense of pride, so that when

There are many times in The Odyssey where Odysseus’ actions are questionable whether they were justified or unjustified. When Odysseus’ saw the way the suitors were treating the women, how they were stealing Odysseus’ things, and eating all of his food which made him mad. Odysseus’ proceeds to get the cowherder and swineherder to help him and Telemachus to take the suitors down. After Odysseus’ returns his actions towards those in his palace were justified when, especially when he killed Antinous and Melanthius.

Odysseus believed he was in the right when killing the suitors “You dogs! You never imagined I'd return from Troy- so cocksure that you bled my house to death, ravished my serving-women- wooed my wife behind my back while I was still alive!” (Homer 22: 37-40). Odysseus was dead set on killing the suitors since the beginning. He even told them “. . . all your necks are in the noose-your doom is sealed” (22: 43), illustrating how he would kill them as to avenge his wife and his honor. In doing so he was perceived as a hero by the most prevalent male figures in Ithaca, displaying an excellent example of Kleos, “fame through having great honor and virtue. Earned pride.”

What kind of human kills for their own good? In the bloody journey of the Odyssey many men were killed by the hands of Odysseus himself. A lot of the men that died were killed by Odysseus but there was a good number of them that were killed by the actions Odysseus made. When it comes down to it Odysseus was wrong for killing the suitors. Odysseus killed the suitors out of his own insecurity, selfishness, and of course out of rage for what was done to him. But what was Odysseus expecting after being gone for 10 years? For everyone to just hold off on their lives just to wait to see if he will be coming back? Odysseus’ actions were not justified.

In books 21-22 of the Odyssey, Odysseus completes the "arrow-through-the-ax heads" challenge, and reveals himself as King Odysseus as Telemachus and Philotius lock the doors to the palace, preventing the wooers from escaping the oncoming ambush. After the slaughter of the wooers, several of the living people are killed mercilessly by Odysseus and Telemachus. Whether or not these killings were ever the right thing to do was never justified.

An Archetype Hero In the famous epic poem, “The Odyssey”, Odysseus is known to be the larger than life hero. Although some parts of this may be true, like his bravery, victories, and great accomplishments, Odysseus also has his faults. He is unfaithful, has a large ego, and is very selfish towards his men. His wrong doing cancels out and rises above his hero-like qualities.

In the story, “The Odyssey,” it is about a man known as Odysseus, he was away from home for 20 years. He was away from home for that long due to being in war, being kidnapped, all of his men and his ships being destroyed. When he does return to Ithaca he finds out that his house is full of men trying to take his wife away from him. After he heard about this he plotted to get them and knowing all this his actions were justified. They were justified because, the wooers are trying to take his wife, they threatened to kill his son, Telemachus, and when he was dressed as a beggar they were rude and unpleasant towards him.

Odysseus was the strong and powerful king of Ithaca. He was a courageous and loyal warrior who was known for his being able to outsmart his opponents. Odysseus returned to home after an almost twenty year absence to find that his home and kingdom had been taken over. He became enraged at the wooers, especially Antonius and the handmaidens at their total lack of disrespect for his home, kingdom and family. Odysseus decided that killing all who were disloyal to him was the only way to gain back control of his kingdom. For this reason I feel that Odysseus was justified in his actions.

One of many questions asked is is Odysseus was justified in his actions. Many would agree that he was not justified. What Odysseus did to the wooers was not right. Instead of politely asking the wooers to leave he decided to kill all of them. This shows that Odysseus was not justified in his actions.

If Odysseus had not killed the wooers, and instead just kicked them out, they would eventually come back with a plot to murder him. Athene actually warned Odysseus, in Book 13, before he arrived back in Itacha by saying, “I will tell you all the troubles you are destined to suffer in your well-wrought house; but you must, of necessity, endure all, and tell no one out of all the men and the women that you have come back from your wanderings, but you must endure much grief in silence, standing and facing men in their violence…” This quote basically means that Odysseus cannot happily come home as he wishes to do, but he must first kick the suitors out, or take their lives. Also, Telemachus holds lots of rage towards towards the wooers, due to everything they put him through. He expresses this by stating, “If only gods would give me such strength as he has to take revenge on the suitors for their overbearing oppression. They force their way upon me and recklessly plot against me. No, the gods have spun out no such strand of prosperity for me and my father. Now we must even have to endure it.” After Odysseus confronts the suitors, he says, “Now the choice has been set before you, either to fight me or run, if any of you can escape death and its spirits. But I think not one man will escape from sheer destruction.” So, Odysseus gave them an option, thus the punishment was not all that harsh, and

In The Odyssey, Odysseus is struggling to come home from the Trojan War. While he is away, wooers, also known as suitors, tried to take over the palace while Odysseus was fighting in the war. At the end of the novel, Odysseus severely punishes the wooers who were in on the plot to take over Odysseus’s palace. At the end of The Odyssey, when Odysseus punishes the wooers, his actions were justified. Odysseus’ actions were justified because all of the wooers were punished for the actions they performed. The wooers’ actions were related to their punishment, meaning they deserved the punishment that Odysseus gave them. In The Odyssey, no one got punishment they did not deserve. They did not get punishment they did not deserve because they were

Odysseus is very rude with his action. he always thinks he knows everything. Odysseus behavior wasn't really that nice when the wooers took over his house. It seemed as if Odysseus wanted revenge for the wooers. “ Now that goodly Odysseus hath wreaked vengeance on the wooers, let them make a firm covenant together with sacrifice, and let him be king all his days, and let us bring about oblivion of the

Once Odysseus reveals his identity he kills all the wooers. Odysseus isn't very humane about it. He kills them all in a bloody mess. In my opinion this punishment was to severe. I don't think he should've killed them especially the way he did.

The wooers disrespected his home and his family. Odysseus, being the king and soldier that he is obligated to retaliate in the way he did. The wooers were in a frame of mind that no other method of reason would work. Odysseus is such an honorable man, that even in his outrage of what the wooers has done, he does not immediately act with violence. He approached the wooers with dignity by suggesting a way out for them.