Why Odysseus is a Hero Essay

In every single encounter, there is a feast that the guest attends, there is a washing of hands and a drinking of wine. Hand washing is something that washes off all of the grime from traveling. The reason that Odysseus was allowed to eat with the kings, even if he was disguised as a beggar was the culture found in Greece had at the time, that anyone that came to their door in need of something, that could be easily given, was something that they could share since…

It’s clear to see why we can’t find the women’s views from texts because women generally didn’t attend school nor did they learn how to read and write. The only education they received was for domestic works so mothers and daughters alike were imprisoned in their homes.…

rest” (Miller 385). Circe–by Madeline Miller–is a retelling of the Greek myth of Circe through the eyes of modern women and through the female lens. Circe had only been mentioned previously in The Odyssey, where she was an antihero and a foil to Odysseus on his journey home. Miller integrates two main arguments into her retelling of Circe’s story: how power leads to destruction and greed, and how patriarchy and misogyny affect the characters. In Greek society, wealth and power held significant…

rooted for the Trojans. Athena- Goddess of wisdom and battle strategy, she rooted for the Achaeans. Diomedes-A brave and strong fighter, his skill on the battlefield captured even the gods attention. Hector- The Trojans champion, he is considered a hero, but he flees from the battle in…

enameling” (27). And he has “sailed the seas and come to the holy city of Byzantium” (16), which again reminds the reader of Greek heroes, like Jason or Odysseus, whose journeys were largely structured through their nautical travels. The title “Sailing to Byzantium” indicates that the journey itself is the important part, just as it would be for a classical hero; but Yeats arrives at the end of the second stanza, subverting the hero’s journey metaphor in its infancy. Byzantium is his one and…

I will be summarizing the argument of “Jupiter’s Aeneid: Fama and Imperium” by Julia Hejduk. I will do so by first deciding what exactly she’s arguing, cataloguing her evidence, fitting the argument and the evidence, then discussing her intellectual influences. Given that Hejduk uses The Aeneid more than any other source, it’s clear that scholars look to primary sources rather than relying on each others’ work. Hejduk argues that Jupiter has a complete dismissal for human life, and only cares…

confused, and perhaps even doubtful of their own way of life. Along with the idea of communal living, Socrates also stresses that the guardians should lead a non-materialistic life (416d-e). Achilles almost manages to illustrate this exchange with Odysseus when he tells him that all the wealth of Troy is not “worth a life” (9.397-398). However, the fact of that matter is that Achilles is rejecting wealth for all the wrong reasons, in all the wrong ways. Achilles is not rejecting materialism – he…

Salammbo transpires during the Punic War. The epic poems examine the impact war has on the character’s environment which persuade them to go to war. Both writings display the intensity of the protagonist’s endeavors to go into the battlefield and become a hero to their loved ones and the public even if it leads to their death. The poems both depict war vividly with graphic death scenes and horrid techniques in the war, while analyzing the role of women contrarily such as Homer demonstrating…

The unjust act of taking Briseis from Achilles alienates the greatest Achaean warrior from his fellow Achaeans and causes him to pull out of the war. As the Trojans triumph repeatedly, Agamemnon seeks to correct his wrongdoing by sending an embassy to Achilles with a goal of persuading Achilles to return to the battle. G. Mitchell Reyes states that there are “four dominant sources of appeal: honor, material, power, and justice” (23). While Achilles does value honor, material, and power; to…

exactly why he left. Some say that it was because of his unpopularity with the Athenian audiences, but this is unlikely because, even though he only won four first prizes in tragedy contests, he was an award-winning playwright, nevertheless (“Euripides”). A different biographer, however, “emphasizes the notion that Euripides was unpopular in Athens by stating that the comic poets attacked him.” (Lefkowitz 92) In Magnesia, he was noted as a public friend of the state, although it is unknown why.…