The Odyssey: Themes In Homer's Odyssey

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In the end, most of the problems are solved by Odysseus using his cunning and tactics to outsmart the suitors, monsters, and any obstacle that gets in his way. New problems were created by him because he couldn’t control the urge to keep his mouth shut. Most of the obstacles were caused by Poseidon and his ship mates. Because his shipmates couldn’t control their urges and had to know what was in the bag, or had to taste the cattle, a lot of his problems could have been prevented. Also, if Odysseus hadn’t teased the Cyclops, he could have made it home faster. All of the characters have their own tests that apply to their specific situations. Telemachus goes through seeing his mother full of misery and sadness, while the suitors are pursuing her, and having to deal with the suitors without any guidance from anyone. Penelope goes through the grief of losing a husband and then losing her son, and having the suitors demanding her to marry one of…show more content…
The temptations mainly affected Odysseus’s crew, because a lot of Odysseus’s failures had something to do with them. At the Aeolian island, the king had given Odysseus a sack full of winds so they wouldn’t push him off course. Later on, on the tenth day, when they could see Ithaca, the crew decided to open the bag to find out what treasures were in it. When they opened the bag, they let the winds loose and blew the ship off course. Another example of the crew giving in to temptation is when they ate Helios’s cattle when Odysseus had told them not to do it. These events really stood which made the theme more obvious because the sailors had brought their demise onto themselves by not listening to Odysseus and by not focusing on getting home like Odysseus did. They were drawn away by the temptations on the journey, and they didn’t have the strong will that Odysseus

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