Characters in the Odyssey

In The Odyssey, Homer chronicles Odysseus' journey and how he demonstrates characteristics, that are essential to navigating challenges that also apply today. Even though Odysseus goes through countless challenges and tests, it is his character and actions that define him as a person and shape his journey. Homer reveals the three main defining traits that Odysseus demonstrates throughout the entire epic as honor, courage, and guile. These traits which we witness Odysseus use consistently…

An epic poem starring a heroic character, and a novel which follows a 10-year-old boy may seem quite different. However, they do share similar traits that make both texts parallel to each other. Odysseus and Oskar travels in hopes to solve their problems, such as loneliness and anguish. The Odyssey is written with objective narration, which allows holistic analysis of the events. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is written with Oskar’s voices, therefore provides highly subjective analysis of…

Through characters such as: Alkinoös, who offered Odysseus shelter; Nausikaa, who bathed and clothed him; and Nestor who prepared a feast for Odysseus, Homer is able to create a warm and comforting mood in his Epic Poem, The Odyssey. The hospitality shown by these characters was common courtesy in Ancient Greece, and though it would be rare to see an American invite a complete stranger into one's home, it would be instinctual for one of Greek culture to take that stranger in and offer them food,…

The Similarities of the Greek and Hindu Culture: Based on the Mahabharata and the Odyssey Similarities between cultures exist throughout history, even with cultures that are separated by time and distance from each other. The Greek and Indic civilizations are no different; in that we can see that they took multiple essences of storytelling from one another and used it in epic poems and stories that fueled the religion and backbone of these societies. The Mahabharata in the Hindu culture was…

themes prevalent throughout the tales. Certain events, character traits, or even narration patterns are all vital to the understanding of a piece of literature. When examining the similarities between the epic poem, The Odyssey by Homer, and As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, there are key connections that can be drawn from both texts. The first theme, divine justice, is an especially interesting similarity between both stories as the characters within the two accounts seem to have their fates…

One of the three main characters, Odelle Ballard, is a FET [Female Engagement Team] soldier on duty in North Africa. According to co-creators Adam Armus and Nora Foster, Odelle’s story is a play on the popular myth of Homer’s Odyssey (Armus and Foster 2015). The journey of Odelle from North Africa, back to her home in the United States of America is riddled with dire situations…

The epic that is called The Odyssey has inspired lots of new epics in this time and was one of the two most famous greek poem that was an epic poem. Homer, the author of The Odyssey first before he starts his narrative he concludes to a tradition of the greek culture a prayer to the muses. This prayer is an essential part of the story because there is many foreshadows, but the main foreshadow is that homer includes that Odysseus was the only survivor that hasn’t died trying. There was many…

mermaid-like creatures who sing beautiful songs that lure nearby sailors to their death by shipwreck. Two variations on this classic character are found in Homer’s Odyssey and Margaret Atwood’s “Siren Song”. In both of these pieces of literature, we find very different tone usage, contrasting points of view, and various techniques of conveying the Siren's to its reader. In the Odyssey by Homer, we see a suspenseful and mysterious tone that makes the Siren's seem evil. By saying things like,…

The Roles of Women in The Iliad and The Odyssey As the world has evolved, women have held many different roles in a male dominated society. Men have been held at a higher rank than women since the dawn of time. In Homer’s heroic poems, the readers can clearly identify how women can be perceived. In the Iliad, women were seen merely as an object of possession that played a relatively significant role to the story. Whereas in the Odyssey, women were seen in their own light and played a key role…

Compare how Homer and Zemeckis highlight the ways in which key characters survive through the challenges of their life. Entertaining survival genre texts like playwright Homer’s Greek mock-epic mythological poem, the Odyssey and director Robert Zemeckis’s American epic film, Cast Away portray the support mechanisms that even Herculean individuals rely on in every society. Noting that Homer starts the Odyssey in media res after his previous poem, the Iliad while Zemeckis starts from the…