Jason And Odysseus Comparison

There are only so many ways that a story can be told. Unsurprisingly, there is overlap among stories and their characters, as well as the meanings they can hold. Stories in Greek myth are no exception. However, despite similarities, each hero in Greek myth is an individual with a unique story. One similarity between Odysseus and Jason is that they both have matrilineally divine and patrilineally noble lineage. In fact, in some stories the two of heroes are related. Both Odysseus mother, Anticlea, and Jason’s mother, Polymede, are daughters of Autolycus, a son of the Olympian god Hermes and the nymph Chione. Although their fathers are both completely human, both are kings. Odysseus’s father, Laertes, is the king of Ithaka; Jason’s father, Aeson, …show more content…
Odysseus takes a ten-year journey over land and sea to return to his island kingdom, Ithaka, after battling in the Trojan war, which is chronicled in Homer’s Odyssey. Odysseus uses his brute strength and tactical skill, as well as divine intervention, to physically fight and cunningly outwit a myriad of misadventures. These include: escaping the Lotus-Eaters, who tempt the sailors into eternally staying on their island by feeding them drugged lotus flowers; blinding and escaping Polyphemus, a man-eating Cyclops who traps Odysseus and his men in his cave; escaping Circe, a witch who turns his men into pigs; enduring the Sirens, bird-women who kill sailors by enhancing them with their voices, driving them into throwing themselves overboard; navigating the Strait of Messina and its two guardians, Scylla, a monstrous woman with six dog heads around her waist, each of which kidnaps and devours a man from each ship that passes her, and Charybdis, a demon-whirlpool that swallows ships whole; surviving a horrendous storm sent by Zeus to sink his ship, killing his crew; and escaping Calypso, a kind but lonely nymph that rescues Odysseus from the storm only to trap him on her