Odysseus in The Odyssey
Life is a journey and we all have hardships we face regardless of who we are. These hardships could be doing well in school, getting a driver’s license, or even a death of a loved one. Whatever one’s hardships may be, it is a part of life and one must face them in order to grow as a person. People need to experience hardships to be successful in life. In The Odyssey by Homer, Although Odysseus is smart and has good war tactics, he is prideful, self-pitiful, and rude. After skillfully winning the Trojan war, his ungrateful behavior towards the gods angers Poseidon, keeping him from reaching home for another ten years. One transforming event is when he finds out his mother is dead, another is when his men disobey his …show more content…
Poseidon, enraged at Odysseus, brings huge waves while he is out at sea. Odysseus is fearing for his life when he sees the waves about to hit him. Even in this life threatening situation, his pride takes over. Instead of apologizing to Poseidon, he blames it on his fate. “Would to god I’d died there too and met my fate that day the Trojans swarms of them, hurled at me with bronze spear, fighting over the corpse of proud Achilles!” (5.340-343). Odysseus is also self-pitying. Just as he is about to be punished by Poseidon, he says to himself that he is fated to die a doomed death, once again blaming the fate that the gods have placed upon him. This trait almost kills him because in angers Poseidon …show more content…
Odysseus goes through many hard and painful events such as when he runs into his own mother in the kingdom of the dead. “But look, the ghost of my mother came! My mother, dead and gone now…” (11.94). This event is the “abyss” of Odysseus’s hero’s journey. Although Odysseus is in agony, he does what he has to do first, which is to Tiresias and that is a good decision because Tiresias gives him advice, telling him to control their wild desire and his own desires (11.119). This is good advice for Odysseus because in a previous trip to Ithaca, his crew opens a bag of wind and their ship blows away right as they get close to Ithaca. Another transforming event is when his crew eats the cattle of the sun god, this is significant to Odysseus’s journey because it leads to the whole crew dying and he finally listens to the gods. Odysseus admits what his men have done to the gods (12.400-401). His crew being killed and all the hardships he runs into on the way back home transforms him and he adapts a new personality. After the journey back home, He meets the loyal swineherd in disguise, being careful not to spoil his plan of killing the suitors. The goatherd however, is disloyal and he treats disguised Odysseus with hatred. As he taunts and even kicks him, Odysseus is enraged on the inside. He shows great self-control by keeping quiet.
Life is a journey and we all have hardships we face regardless of who we are. These hardships could be doing well in school, getting a driver’s license, or even a death of a loved one. Whatever one’s hardships may be, it is a part of life and one must face them in order to grow as a person. People need to experience hardships to be successful in life. In The Odyssey by Homer, Although Odysseus is smart and has good war tactics, he is prideful, self-pitiful, and rude. After skillfully winning the Trojan war, his ungrateful behavior towards the gods angers Poseidon, keeping him from reaching home for another ten years. One transforming event is when he finds out his mother is dead, another is when his men disobey his …show more content…
Poseidon, enraged at Odysseus, brings huge waves while he is out at sea. Odysseus is fearing for his life when he sees the waves about to hit him. Even in this life threatening situation, his pride takes over. Instead of apologizing to Poseidon, he blames it on his fate. “Would to god I’d died there too and met my fate that day the Trojans swarms of them, hurled at me with bronze spear, fighting over the corpse of proud Achilles!” (5.340-343). Odysseus is also self-pitying. Just as he is about to be punished by Poseidon, he says to himself that he is fated to die a doomed death, once again blaming the fate that the gods have placed upon him. This trait almost kills him because in angers Poseidon …show more content…
Odysseus goes through many hard and painful events such as when he runs into his own mother in the kingdom of the dead. “But look, the ghost of my mother came! My mother, dead and gone now…” (11.94). This event is the “abyss” of Odysseus’s hero’s journey. Although Odysseus is in agony, he does what he has to do first, which is to Tiresias and that is a good decision because Tiresias gives him advice, telling him to control their wild desire and his own desires (11.119). This is good advice for Odysseus because in a previous trip to Ithaca, his crew opens a bag of wind and their ship blows away right as they get close to Ithaca. Another transforming event is when his crew eats the cattle of the sun god, this is significant to Odysseus’s journey because it leads to the whole crew dying and he finally listens to the gods. Odysseus admits what his men have done to the gods (12.400-401). His crew being killed and all the hardships he runs into on the way back home transforms him and he adapts a new personality. After the journey back home, He meets the loyal swineherd in disguise, being careful not to spoil his plan of killing the suitors. The goatherd however, is disloyal and he treats disguised Odysseus with hatred. As he taunts and even kicks him, Odysseus is enraged on the inside. He shows great self-control by keeping quiet.