Odyssey Theme Essay

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The Odyssey Theme Analysis Once pride crosses a line, it can destroy anyone. Throughout everyone's life, successes help to build a positive pride. In some people, this pride grows and becomes arrogance. An arrogant person makes poor decisions and easily self-destructs. Everyone must learn to control this pride, and if they cannot, learn to accept the consequences. The ability to maintain pride without being arrogant puts some individuals above the masses. Throughout his epic poem, The Odyssey, Homer's use of plot events and conflict emphasizes that while a small amount of pride is helps one to succeed, excess pride leads to arrogance, destroying even the best people. Throughout the plot of Homer's epic, several men make challenges to Odysseus due to their excessive pride and arrogance, pushing them towards their demise. Each of these men makes an ill-advised challenge to Odysseus because of their arrogance and comes out physically or emotionally damaged. One of these men is Seareach who thinks he can easily out-throw Odysseus at the discus and tells him that " 'you never learned a sport, and have no skill in any of the contests of fighting men' ", but is then easily defeated (8. 168-9). Seareach shows that his pride has grown to arrogance in his inclination to assume that he's the superior athlete. This arrogance is what pushes him to challenge (and be defeated by) Odysseus, damaging his, or any other Greek's most prized possession: his honor. Just like Seareach, Iros also greatly overestimates himself, thinking that he can take Odysseus on. In reality, Odysseus breaks Iros's jaw in a single blow, diminishing him to "[sitting] here to keep the dogs and pigs away" (18. 130). Iros shows his excessive pride when he assumes himself to be the superior fighter, saying that "with two punches, [he'd] knock [Odysseus] snoring," and then proceeding to challenge
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