Statement of Intent Homer’s epic poem, “The Odyssey” is irrefutably a story of an archetypical hero, Odysseus’, journey home. The poem begins ten years past the fall of Troy in Ithaca where a mass of aggressive suitors continue to pillage Odysseus’ resources and court his wife. Nevertheless with Telemachus’ departure from Ithaca and Odysseus release from Calypso’s island, Ogygia, the situation takes a turn for the better. Subsequent to fighting countless battles Odysseus finally lands in the safety of the Phaeacians’ island. Here, he recounts his adventures, including the occurrence involving Helios’ cattle in Trinacia.
However, up until this point Odysseus has suffered a great amount. Odysseus, returning from Troy after ten years of war a hero and “city sacker” admired for his godlike persona and his even more impressive cunning, had faced many ordeals prior to meeting him in book 5. In books nine through 12 Odysseus recounts these ordeals to the Phaiakian leaders Arete and Alkinoos after leaving Calypso’s island to return home. Odysseus encounters dangers on the island of the Cyclops after he and his men are held
The recent popular movie, starring Brad Pitt as the main protagonist and the tragic hero of the film, Troy, is a screen adaptation of an epic poem The Iliad attributed to Homer. Although covering the last of the many days in the final year of the nine year siege between the Greeks and the Trojans, it tells of the battles and trials during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles. It is interesting to note that during the last scenes of this movie, Aeneas, also the central character of the poem The Aeneid, is shown fleeing the burning city of Troy with his father and son, and fellow Trojan warriors through a tunnel. This very scene literally and metaphorically gives way to the Roman version of what would be retold by the Roman poet, Virgil in his account of Homer’s story, The Iliad, in the first century BC. In Virgil’s The Aeneid, after sailing for Italy, where Aeneas’s preordained destiny to found a city of Rome lay, a terrifying storm throws them off their course to a land named, Carthage, where Dido, the queen of the land welcomes them.
After Philip is assassinated, Alexander becomes king of Macedonia. Ptolemy briefly mentions Alexander's punitive campaign in which he razes Thebes and burns Persepolis, then gives an overview of Alexander's west-Persian campaign, including his declaration as the son of Zeus by the Oracle of Amun at Siwa Oasis, his great battle against the Persian Emperor Darius III in the Battle of Gaugamela and his eight-year campaign across Asia. Also shown are Alexander's private relationships with his childhood friend Hephaestion and later his wife Roxana. Hephaestion compares Alexander to Achilles, to which Alexander replies that, if he is Achilles, Hephaestion must be his Patroclus (Achilles' best friend and his lover). When Hephaestion mentions that
Jose Marti, the hero of the Cuban people, both talked about this fighter for the independence of Latin America, freed from Spanish colonial rule, several countries: "On Bolivar need to speak to the mountain top, and that thunder and blinding lightning, talk about it listened to all liberated peoples, and at their feet lay prostrate and decapitated tyranny. " Back in August 1805 on the Roman hill of Monte Sacro Simon Bolivar vowed to fight for the liberation of South America from the Spaniards, and dedicated to this great cause all my life. The overthrow of Spanish colonial rule took many years of struggle, in which lesions were interspersed with successes and brilliant victories over the forces of colonialism. In the vast expanses of Mexico to Tierra del Fuego, under the blows of the people in revolt crumbled foundations of
What is it about the heroes of ancient Greece that continues to fascinate readers thousands of years after their origination? Perhaps it is the tales of glory and the impossible feats of the heroes or the certain death that awaits them. Whatever the reason, the life of the Greek hero is one of intrigue and intoxication. The life cycle of the Greek hero is divided into events spanning his extraordinary birth to his untimely death and accentuated by his accomplishments throughout his life. This essay will analyze the recurring events, patterns, and traits in the typical hero in conjuction with the lives of Achilles, Heracles, and Odysseus.
The Odyssey Literary Analysis Homers classic poem “The Odyssey” recounts the tale of a man’s ten year journey home from war, in which he faces trials and many life threatening situations. Throughout Odysseus’s journey he faces various tribulations in which his loyalty is tested. The epic poem proves that Odysseus will do anything to make it home. In the odyssey, Homer utilizes, Alliteration, Anaphora and diction to communicate that Odysseus will go to any extreme to make it home to his family. Homer utilizes Alliteration consistently through the epic poem, thus in result helps the theme in the text stick out more clearly.
Personal Background Leonidas was born in Greece Peloponnesian Peninsula in 530 B.C. (Leonidas I, par.1) Leonidas was the second son of Spartan King’s Anaxandridas first wife. Leonidas’ mother was his father’s niece. When he was a child, he received very strenuous physical conditioning for many years of military training, trying to reach to the top of the martial perfection to hone his warrior’s skills. One in a few Spartan kings received this harsh training.
Miltiades, a great general for Greece, convinced other Greek commanders that the Greeks should fight the Persians at Marathon. The Athenians sent a runner named Pheidipiddes to Sparta, in desperate need of help. He ran such a long time and eventually died. He is still remembered today. The Spartans although, could not help because they were celebrating a religious festival, and couldn’t leave their homeland until the next full moon.
By 1970 he had published his first book, The Boo, and married Barbara Boiling, a Vietnam War widow with two daughters. The couple had their own daughter, Megan, later that year. After 1972's The Water Is Wide, Conroy began writing The Great Santini, the fascinating tale of a heroic but cruel fighter pilot who terrorizes his wife and children; it helped make Conroy a house-hold name. The book infuriated his father who said that Pat blamed him for all of his lifetime woes, that he was a marine and he played hardball and Pat needed to move on. Exploring his violent childhood and his father’s anger nearly drove Conroy to suicide; in 1975 he tried to kill himself with an overdose of pills.