Homer uses the idea of sleep to represent the idea of death, which makes the struggle to stay awake and the struggle to survive the same. Great Warrior Odysseus is constantly wrestling to remain alert to avoid revealing weakness. Sleep in The Odyssey displays a negative connotation that exhibits vulnerability, yet this never-ending insomnia eventually aids an exhausted Odysseus in his return to his native land.
Sleep is portrayed as a negative concept in the epic, as bad things come to Odysseus and his men whenever they sleep. In Book 10, Odysseus and his men sail from the land of the Cyclopes to the home of the ruler of the winds, Aelous. Aelous gifts Odysseus a bag of winds, and creates wind to guide Odysseus and his crew home. Within ten …show more content…
The winds escape and create a storm that sends Odysseus and his men back to the home of the Aelous. This time, however, the God denies the crew help, as he is certain that the Gods hate Odysseus and wish to punish him. Without the wind, Odysseus and his crew must row the ship to the land of powerful giants whose king and queen turn Odysseus’s crew into dinner. Odysseus and his remaining men flee toward their ships, but the ships are showered with boulders and sink as they sit in the sea. Odysseus’s ship is the only to escape. Another example of sleep having a negative impact on Odysseus is in Book 12, when Odysseus and his men reach the island of the Sun. Odysseus wants to avoid the island altogether, but Eurylochus insists that the crew needs rest. Odysseus makes the men take an oath to not eat any of Helios’s cattle. The crew is trapped on the island for a month, and eventually their supplies run out and the men begin to starve. One day Odysseus falls asleep and during his slumber, Eurylochus convinces the men to eat the animals. Odysseus wakes up to find that the men had broken their oaths and …show more content…
I laid down my chamber around this … Then, I cut away the foliage of the long-leaved olive, and trimmed the trunk from the roots up...”(Book 23). The bed symbolizes the complex foundation of the couple’s marriage but also connects to sleep. Throughout the novel, Odysseus has negative experiences because of sleep, but once finally reunited, Penelope does not have to cater to the suitors in her home and Odysseus can succumb to his exhaustion. The symbolism is also intensified by the trick that Penelope uses to test Odysseus, which revolves around the immovability of their bed - a metaphor for the strong and committed structure of their love. Only a single maidservant has ever seen the bed, and it is where the reunited couple spends their first night in each other’s arms since Odysseus’s departure for Troy twenty years
Sleep is portrayed as a negative concept in the epic, as bad things come to Odysseus and his men whenever they sleep. In Book 10, Odysseus and his men sail from the land of the Cyclopes to the home of the ruler of the winds, Aelous. Aelous gifts Odysseus a bag of winds, and creates wind to guide Odysseus and his crew home. Within ten …show more content…
The winds escape and create a storm that sends Odysseus and his men back to the home of the Aelous. This time, however, the God denies the crew help, as he is certain that the Gods hate Odysseus and wish to punish him. Without the wind, Odysseus and his crew must row the ship to the land of powerful giants whose king and queen turn Odysseus’s crew into dinner. Odysseus and his remaining men flee toward their ships, but the ships are showered with boulders and sink as they sit in the sea. Odysseus’s ship is the only to escape. Another example of sleep having a negative impact on Odysseus is in Book 12, when Odysseus and his men reach the island of the Sun. Odysseus wants to avoid the island altogether, but Eurylochus insists that the crew needs rest. Odysseus makes the men take an oath to not eat any of Helios’s cattle. The crew is trapped on the island for a month, and eventually their supplies run out and the men begin to starve. One day Odysseus falls asleep and during his slumber, Eurylochus convinces the men to eat the animals. Odysseus wakes up to find that the men had broken their oaths and …show more content…
I laid down my chamber around this … Then, I cut away the foliage of the long-leaved olive, and trimmed the trunk from the roots up...”(Book 23). The bed symbolizes the complex foundation of the couple’s marriage but also connects to sleep. Throughout the novel, Odysseus has negative experiences because of sleep, but once finally reunited, Penelope does not have to cater to the suitors in her home and Odysseus can succumb to his exhaustion. The symbolism is also intensified by the trick that Penelope uses to test Odysseus, which revolves around the immovability of their bed - a metaphor for the strong and committed structure of their love. Only a single maidservant has ever seen the bed, and it is where the reunited couple spends their first night in each other’s arms since Odysseus’s departure for Troy twenty years