The Greek Values Faced By The Greeks In The Odyssey

What teaches people the way to live their life? There will always be something that affects people's belief system. There is the Bible on one hand that teaches people in Western cultures how to live honorable lives. On the other hand there is The Odyssey, a major greek epic poem about a man named Odysseus that teaches Greeks how to live their lives according to greek values. The Odyssey is able to teach Greek culture about respect for the gods, love for one’s home and family, and obedience to the laws of hospitality. Throughout The Odyssey the biggest lesson being taught to the greeks is respect for the gods. This lesson is an outstanding part of Greek mythology. In many of other stories this lesson has been taught by showing what will happen if you disrespect the gods. That same thing is said for The Odyssey displaying in many different parts of the story that disrespecting the gods will only cause great disvalue to an individual. In The Odyssey this lesson is taught by showing all the things that happened to Odysseus when he disrespected Poseidon by blinding his son Polyphemus. Poseidon …show more content…
A big reason why hospitality is so important to the Greeks is a person never knows whether an individual is a god or a mortal. This can be seen in two occasions of The Odyssey. One when Telemachus meets Nestor and also when Odysseus meets King Alcinous of Phacia. “When they saw strangers, they came up in a body and welcomed them, and bade then seated” (Homer 28). “Alcinoös, it is not right and proper that a stranger should sit on the ground amid the ashes of the hearth” (Homer 87). In both of these situations neither of the people knew Odysseus and Telemachos, they were strangers, but they treated them as if they knew them. This goes hand in hand with respecting the gods. Due to the gods giving grave consequences for mistreatment it was without a doubt to grant great