“Great heroes need great sorrows and burdens, or half their greatness goes unnoticed. Its all part of the fairy tale”.- Peter S. Beagle. The Odyssey by Homer is an epic about Odysseus. Odysseus is the king of Ithaka and the protagonist of the epic, who goes to fight in the Trojan war. On his way back from the Trojan war, Odysseus encounters many problems due to which held him back. After overcoming all these problems, Odysseus comes home to his wife and son. During his twenty year journey home Odysseus does not successfully complete the Hero’s Journey. What is the Hero’s Journey? The Hero’s Journey is a pattern of narrative identified by Joseph Campbell that appears in various types of storytelling. It describes the typical adventure of the
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For the fourth stage Odysseus encounters the face of death. This occurs when Odysseus visit’s the underworld with the help of Circe. “By god I’d rather slave on earth for another man-some dirt-poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive, than rule down here over all the breathless dead”(200). Odysseus goes to the underworld and comes out alive. This makes Odysseus a God-like person. During his trip to the underworld, Odysseus completes the fifth stage of the Hero’s Journey. The fifth stage of the Hero’s Journey is when the hero is scarred mentally or physically. Odysseus is scarred when he meets his mother. HE learns that she deceased longing for him. “I [Odysseus] bit my lip, rising perplexed, with longing to embrace her, but she went sifting through my hands, impalpable shadows are, and wavering like a dream. Now this embittered all the pain I bore, and I cried in the darkness.”(191).Odysseus finally finds out about Penelpoe and Telemakhos. HE was devastated by the state of his father yet he was proud of his son. This scar of odysseus was always with him in the form of his deceased mother. Odysseus completes the fourth and fifth stages because of these
For the fourth stage Odysseus encounters the face of death. This occurs when Odysseus visit’s the underworld with the help of Circe. “By god I’d rather slave on earth for another man-some dirt-poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive, than rule down here over all the breathless dead”(200). Odysseus goes to the underworld and comes out alive. This makes Odysseus a God-like person. During his trip to the underworld, Odysseus completes the fifth stage of the Hero’s Journey. The fifth stage of the Hero’s Journey is when the hero is scarred mentally or physically. Odysseus is scarred when he meets his mother. HE learns that she deceased longing for him. “I [Odysseus] bit my lip, rising perplexed, with longing to embrace her, but she went sifting through my hands, impalpable shadows are, and wavering like a dream. Now this embittered all the pain I bore, and I cried in the darkness.”(191).Odysseus finally finds out about Penelpoe and Telemakhos. HE was devastated by the state of his father yet he was proud of his son. This scar of odysseus was always with him in the form of his deceased mother. Odysseus completes the fourth and fifth stages because of these