Characters in the Odyssey

Characters are similar to people in real life in that we all have good and bad qualities. A character without any real personality traits is boring and will not keep an audience hooked. Throughout literature there has been a focus on finding and exposing flaws of characters. A good character is one that has many flaws but many good traits to balance it out. However, how bad should a character be? The myth of Odysseus and the cyclopes from The Odyssey gives insight on Odysseus’ character. While…

Have you ever pondered if the protagonist in an epic is honorable,or is he really the sinful guy.Well so have I,and I know that in the Odyssey,Odysseus is the nice guy.First,he make a plan to take out the Cyclops with his resources,by creating a spear to stab the Cyclops in the eye to escape.Then,he uses his wisdom by giving the Cyclops a fake name. When they first entered the Cyclops‘s cave,they didn’t know anyone lived there.Additionally, they ate goat cheese they found,and drunk of…

Title George F. Kennan, an american diplomat and political scientist, once said, “Heroism is endurance for one moment more.” We often think that being a hero means someone who is fearless. This is not always true as we see in Homer’s The Odyssey. We may think that to be a hero you have to be strong and fearless, but really, a hero is someone who does not give up and perseveres - even in the toughest circumstances. Odysseus is faced with countless and potentially fatal obstacles throughout…

Arete: Active Queen Through Passive Characterization Homer’s Odyssey is a prime example of the ways to describe a character without directly addressing their features. One is to have other characters describe the individual in question. An example of this method is Arete, a queen who aids Odysseus in his adventure home. Homer’s characterization of Arete by way of outside observations is an effective method, providing us with details about her without directly addressing her. However, it creates…

the “likeness”, observing that “Odysseus’ hands and feet were like this boy’s;/ his head, and hair, and the glinting of his eyes” (I.244-6; IV.155-7). This familial resemblance grows over the course of the Odyssey, as Telemachus also becomes more like his father in terms of personality and character traits. While he first appears before Athena (Mentor) as a resentful “boy” who is unable to defend his father’s household and…

to be won. In The Odyssey by Homer, Penelope is shown as a one sided character. She only weeps and waits for Odysseus. She is portrayed as an eternally faithful wife. In The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, we see another side of Penelope. The book is set in the underworld after they have all died and Penelope is telling her side of the story. She is shown as a strong, clever, deceptive woman. She is a more developed character and actually has opinions and thoughts. In The Odyssey, set during the…

In the epic poem, the Odyssey, written by Homer, it tells of the amazing feats performed by Odysseus. He goes on impossible adventures for the average man; He successfully leads his crew through the sea, or does he? Even though Odysseus may show that he is clever, he also shows that he does not listen, is very temperamental, and is untrustworthy; Because of these character traits, he cannot be an effective leader. To begin, Odysseus shows multiple times that he does not listen to his crew.…

Journal Book 11 : Elpenor Compare and Contrast : In The Odyssey, by Homer, many of Odysseus’ men die during the journey. They die from monsters and gods. One of the men that dies is Elpenor at Circe’s house. When Odysseus reached the underworld, souls of people come and talk to him, in which included Elpenor. He says “After I went to sleep on Circe 's house, I did not notice how to go down again by the long ladder, but fell headlong from the roof; my neck was broken in its socket, and my soul…

Nobody is perfect and even the best of people make bad decisions. Those bad decisions might even outweigh the good they have done. This is a lesson that will be learned throughout the two stories Odyssey by Homer, and Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand. Two people that are thought to be great heroes make decisions that put being heroes in question. They also make them seem like the best of heroes. Odysseus was away from home for 20 years and he tried his hardest to get back home to see his wife and…

In Homer’s Greek epic, The Odyssey, Odysseus possesses several characteristics that qualify him to be a man of honor in classical Greek literature. However, in Emily Wilson’s translation, Odysseus’s epithet is described as “complicated”, and in Robert Fagles’s translation, he is referred to as a “man of twists and turns” (Homer, The Odyssey, 1.1). Odysseus’s moral values encompass those of a hero, such as his outstanding capabilities as a warrior and tactician, but his negligence and exaggerated…