Culture And Society Exposed In Homer's The Odyssey

The Odyssey is a well known historical epic poem from the one and only famous Homer. The folk story has been around since the 8th century BC and is still widely known up to this present day. Throughout all these years, this story is considered very important to society since I personally think it teaches us more about how things were like in the past instead of reading about things in textbooks and how we can take some qualities shown in this story and apply it in our lives. The Odyssey has taken place when the Trojan War ended and the descending of Troy took position and how the main character Odysseus went through many trails and many years, ten to be exact, to make his way back home with his family. From the epic poem we see how family life was, the relations they had with their gods, and how their cultural and society was. To begin with, this story had loads of quotes that showed how many people in that time period were very pious. In the version by George Herbert Palmer when the council of the gods is happening and Telemachus says “Poseidon now was with the far-off Ethiopians…who form two tribes, one at the setting of the exalted one, one at his rising; awaiting there a sacrifice of bulls and rams. So sitting at the feast he took his pleasure (5).” This quote shows how in this stretch of time they believed that the gods had dealt with the way certain …show more content…
Although many may think it’s an old book and has nothing to do with today’s society, we can actually learn quite a lot about the past from it, we can see how family life was, the relations they had with their gods, and how their cultural and society was. From reading certain parts of the story I can now understand why this story has lived up to present day. The Odyssey is not only a story about a man’s journey to his home but about how love can be so strong and how continuing to work is important in order for you to get where you want to