Odysseus Obsession Of The Gods In Homer's Odyssey

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Through out the Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus sees the Gods as tangible sources of divinity. However the modern world does not recognize Greek mythology as a religion. This allows the Odyssey to be looked at in a different way. During the course of his journey, Odysseus encounters Poseidon and Athena numerous times, each time resulting in either a misfortune or guidance. Looking at these events from a non-religious perspective the gods can be seen as symbols of Odysseus’ personality. Athena represents the strong-willed side of him, while Poseidon can be seen as his self-destructive tendencies. These conflicting characteristics are keeping him from reaching his final destination of Ithaca. Odysseus is cunning and witty but he can be pompous and arrogant at the same time. Self esteem is not a short coming for him. Very often Odysseus makes poor decisions and gets him self into sticky situations because of this. But is it really Athena “stroking [him] with her golden wand” (Odyssey. XVI, 193) who helps him fix the mess he has created? In reality Athena is merely his subconscious reminder to control himself and use his brain. Therefore every time he acts irrationally it is not Poseidon causing trouble, it is his own behavior.…show more content…
She is obviously the goddess of wisdom and war. However these two things are literally what define Odysseus as the intelligent warrior that he is. Most of the time he takes full advantage of his cunning personality, but when he doesn’t Athena is there as a reminder of his good attributes. As Odysseus prepares to fight Athena is mentioned to be “standing beside him” (Odyssey. XVII, 76). She helps him again when he reaches Ithaca and cleverly disguises him as a beggar. Odysseus taps into his Athena side of his brain each time his wit and intellect needs to be put into
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