Scylla and Charybdis

According to eighth step of the Hero’s Journey, a character will be at a moment where he is at rock bottom. The test or challenge could possibly result in the death of the hero. Each 12 cities Odysseus traveled to had a different challenge, but Scylla and Charybdis was his toughest…

Once they have passed the Sirens’ island, Odysseus and his men must navigate the straits between Scylla and Charybdis. Scylla is a six-headed monster who, when ships pass, swallows one sailor for each head. Charybdis is an enormous whirlpool that threatens to swallow the entire ship. Odysseus fails to tell the crew about Scylla and Charybdis in an attempt to ease the fear presented to them. As they approach the pass between the two mountainous rocks, he stays silent…

Many of the monsters and villains that Odysseus and his men face on their journey to Ithaca are fairly one dimensional in their presentation. For understandable reasons, many of the original storytellers would not have had the time or inclination to explain the motivations of every antagonist, particularly those that appeared for a single chapter. However, many legends regarding these characters exist outside of the main storyline. Some of these tales may have existed before the advent of The…

In The Odyssey, Homer writes of Odysseus, a good leader. Odysseus does make mistakes, for example when he leaves Ismarus he says, “I sacked the city, killed the men” and then he takes the riches and wives as plunder (9. 46-47). In this situation Odysseus acts similar to a pirate and goes against the Greek value of order. Also, when Eurylochus and the crew asks to land on the island of the Sun God’s cattle Odysseus says, “I’m one against all, the upper hand is yours” even though this island is…

visiting an island, a witch named Circe gave him a sound piece of advice while giving him his future: “Hug the cliff of Scylla, take your ship through on a racing stroke. Better than to mourn six men than lose them all, and the ship too.” This means that Odysseus should pass by the island of Scylla and guarantee a loss of a few men rather than pass by the whirlpool named Charybdis and risk losing everyone and getting his ship destroyed. He decided to follow Circe’s advice, and when he approached…

are three major conflicts in The Odyssey. Such as man vs nature, man vs himself, and man vs society. However, for the majority of the epic, man vs nature is a reoccurring conflict that Odysseus faces. It states in book 12: The Sirens; Scylla and Charybdis “Then Scylla made her strike, whisking six of my best men from the ship. I happened to glance aft at ship and oarsmen and caught…

Through cannibalistic islanders, one-eyed giants, and being held captive by Greek goddesses, Odysseus’ voyage teaches readers quite a bit about Greek values and beliefs. The Odyssey was said to have originated around three thousand years ago as an oral epic recited by the blind poet, Homer. Since then, the poem has been recited and built upon, and even deemed a poetic masterpiece. Archetypes make the world feel united; they create a sense of relation between different ethnicities, cultures, and…

clutch at the fig-tree’s height, like a bat I clung to its trunk for dear life- not a chance for a good firm foothold there, no clambering up it either, the roots too far to reach, the boughs too high overhead, huge swaying branches that overshadowed Charybdis. But I held on, dead set… waiting for her to vomit my mast and keel back up again- Oh how I ached for both! And back they came” (12, 464,473) This helps show the courage of Odysseus. Instead of hiding in his boat and hoping for survival,…

In the epic poem "the Odyssey", Odysseus, the king of Ithica is sailing home from the Trojan war, when he is swept off course by Zeus. Along his way home, he stops at multiple islands for provisions, and encounters a different setting on each one. Odysseus shows his strengths and weaknesses along the way and shows a different one each time they encounter something. The first island Odysseus and his men encounter is home to the Lotus-Eaters. These are people who live on the island and eat lotus…

Your culture influences your morals and ideas, shaping you from the youngest age, and yet one incident can change your perspective. A person’s view of life changes throughout and by their experiences; traumatic, dramatic, or otherwise. Death is a averse subject at best in any culture, however, it is one that needs approaching more often. Even as it needs to be more talked about, it also needs to be said that perceptions of it change from culture to culture and person to person as well. It…