Brutality And Violence In Homer's The Odyssey

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Looking throughout the world today, there are so many acts of violence and brutality taking place. To add on, movies, books, and more are projecting these cruel scenes. Similarly, in ancient greek times violence was also a part of many stories. In The Odyssey, by Homer, there are multiple scenes of violence shown. The story of Odysseus tells the tale of an Ithacan king named Odysseus who is out at sea on a wild 20 year journey before being able to return home. During his struggle home, Odysseus faces many obstacles of violence. The scene of Polyphemus though, has always been a well known hurdle Odysseus faced and the ending scene with the slaughter of the suitors is the climax of the book. In The Odyssey, these pieces reveal and illustrate …show more content…
This belief is that only men should do the fighting and woman should not. This is shown when Homer described how Odysseus and his men were trapped inside the cave and had no way to get out (Homer 110). Here, Homer is explaining that there were only men no woman. Thus, one can infer that only men did the fighting. Another supporting detail that only men did the fighting is when Odysseus and his men blind the cyclops (Homer 112). In this part of the violent scene, there are no women mentioned. Actually, in the whole of this scene, only men are mentioned and not woman which can lead one to believe that the Greeks were sexist. In the scene with the suitors, sexism is also depicted. Odysseus has Eurycleia “lock the hall’s close-fitting doors; and if a woman from the inner room hears moaning or strife within our walls, let not her venture forth” (Homer 268). Men had more power than women during ancient Greek times and the fight scene between Odysseus and the suitors reveals the power men had. Odysseus had the women locked up for it was the men who must fight. Today, men and women can be in armies and such. It is not just the men. Back then though, things were different and Homer clearly shows this through both scenes of

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