The Odyssey Analytical Paper In the Odyssey, Odysseus is faced with a lot of conflict on his voyage home. There is debate on whether internal or external forces hinder him more. In the Odyssey, external forces such as monsters and godly intervention prevent the character from reaching their goals. Godly intervention prevents Odysseus and his men from reaching Ithaca. When Odysseus encounters Tiresias in the underworld Tiresias tells Odysseus about a smooth journey home “but a god will make it hard for you…because you blinded the Cyclops, his dear son (11.113.116).
The Odyssey Long years after the Trojan War the Greek hero Odysseus still hadn't arrived to his home and wife in Ithaka. Many thought he was killed in battle. The auther of The Odyssey informs us differently though. According to Homer, the author, Odysseus is a sex slave on an island where the goddess is Kalypso. The god of sea, Poseidon, does not like Odysseus and intends to keep him captive..
Through these hardships our hero, Odysseus, shows a great amount of restraint that helped protect himself and get him and his men out of sticky situations.. Towards the middle of The Odyssey Odysseus is trapped inside of the Cyclops cave and is trying to figure out how to escape. “I considered whether to go near and draw my sharp sword and drive it into his breast; I could feel about till I found the place where the midriff encloses the liver. But second thoughts kept me back. We should have perished ourselves in that place, dead and done for; we could never have moved the great stone which he had planted in the doorway” (112).
However, the sea god can help to fulfill his son's wish that Odysseus should arrive in Ithaca late, broken, and alone, his shipmates lost, and his household in trash. In one of the more part of the epic, Poseidon takes his frustration out on the Phaeacians whose only offense is following their tradition of hospitality by sailing Odysseus home. The Odyssey contains the theme of appearance versus reality is at the core of the relationship between Athena and Odysseus. Athena is the maven of makeovers. Her most memorable illusions in The Odyssey are disguises for herself or Odysseus.
Odysseus showed that he was crafty or cunning in the Cyclop’s cave when gets the Cyclops drunk and tells him that his name is Nhobdy. This helped Odysseus and his men to escape the cave because when Odyesseus blinds the Cyclops, the Cyclops can only yell for help, telling the other Cyclops that Nhobdy blinded him. Odysseus demonstrates how clever he is again when he ties his men under the bellies of sheep, so that when the blinded Cyclops rolls the stone away from the mouth of the cave to send his sheep out in the morning, he won’t feel his captives escaping. After the men are all safely aboard the ship, beginning to
Odysseus deceives the Cyclops twice. First, Odysseus lies to The Cyclops how he and his man come to the cave, he “Shot back in [the] crafty way”(9.318)and told the Cyclops they just escaped death. Second, Odysseus gives the Cyclops a fake name, he says: “ Nobody—that’s my name./Nobody so my mother and father call me, all my friends”(9.410) we can infer that the Greeks neglects the importance of honesty since the great Odysseus who is seen by a hero has demonstrated dishonesty when dealing with the Cyclops; Odysseus’ dishonesty is referred as “crafty” which is not a strongly negative word. The ancient Greeks values were slightly different from those of the modern society. The portrayal of Odysseus and the contrast between him and the villain Cyclops in this adventure emphasize hospitality and religious faith that we often would consider secondary.
Odysseus shouting this is what keeps Odysseus from being able to sail home. Polyphemus’ father was Poseidon and he was angered at the fact that Odysseus had blinded and harmed his son. Poseidon’s goal then became to stop Odysseus from returning to Ithaca (Hubris in the Odyssey). Another example of hubris show in the Odyssey is, “Odysseus receives a bag of wind from Aeolus as a gift to help him return home. The men aboard the ship thought the bag had gold and silver and other gifts.
The cave was home to a Cyclops. He was going to eat my men and I but I got the Cyclops drunk which caused him to pass out. Then, I poked the Cyclops eye with a red hot burning stake. Several of my men and I made it out of the cave stealth from tying us to the bottom of his sheep because I knew that the Cyclops always, as a daily routine, let his sheep out to do their business. "The Cyclops bellowed and the rock roared round him, and we fell back in fear.
Polyphemus returns home with his sheep and finds Odysseus and his men; he blocks the caves entrance with a stone, trapping them inside. Polyphemus begins to stomp and eat the men for his dinner. Trapped over night with the giant he eats more men for breakfast. Odysseus comes up with a plan for escape before they are all eaten. When Polyphemus returns from herding his sheep that day he
Poseidon is mad a odysseus because he blinded his son the king of the Cyclops Athena disguised herself as an old friend of odysseus, then as a captain among the soldiers, then as the son of anchialus and an old friend of odysseus. Athena advises telemachaus to look for his father. If he finds his father he kills the suitors if not they have a proper funeral and his mom can remarry penelopie says that she cannot choose a husband until she finishes weaving which she unravels each night An omen is a sign of what is to come Zeus sends eagles as a sign Athena took the shape of telmeachus and gathered a ship and crew. Nestor has opinions of odysseus Nestor was amazed when he realizes that telemachos’s companion is Athena he says telem.