Poseidon and Odysseus are the most noticeable representatives of the theme of vengeance. In order to escape from the cave of the Cyclops (Polyphemus), Odysseus blinds the one-eyed giant (Book 9). Unfortunately, the Cyclops is the sea god Poseidon's son; Odysseus has engaged a formidable enemy. Poseidon can't kill Odysseus because the Fates have determined that he will make it home. 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.
Unlike hospitality and faithfulness that can bring rewards to the people who show it, when Odysseus and his men show hubris towards the gods and their families it almost always has consequences. This can be seen when Odysseus and his escape from Polyphemus’s cave after blinding him and taking some of the Cyclops’s sheep in the process of escaping. While feeling extremely proud about escaping Polyphemus, while sailing away Odysseus shouts to the group of angry Cyclops on shore, “Cyclops, if ever mortal man inquire how you were put to shame and blinded, tell him Odysseus, raider of cities, took your eye. Laertes' son, whose home's on Ithaca!” (Homer 439-443). Odysseus shouting this is what keeps Odysseus from being able to sail home.
He wants to return home to his family and once again rule over his kingdom at Ithaca, but the gods and goddesses play a large role. Odysseus angers Poseidon, the god of the sea, when he tortures the Cyclops Polyphemus, who is Poseidon’s son. Odysseus’s fatal flaw is hubris or excessive pride. It is this excessive pride that causes Odysseus to belittle the Cyclops after he has blinded him. Odysseus had no need to yell at the blinded Cyclops; he had already escaped from the Cyclops’s harm.
First off he raised the bar for rage. Since Agamemnon is the king of all kings of Greece he technically has a right to plunder Brisies away from Achilles. But that does not give him the right to openly mock Achilles and then be sympathetic and say that his honor never was up there with Achilles, which is just saying that honor doesn’t matter. Achilles, boiling like a pot, is just shaking with anger at Agamemnon when he says “Agamemnon may rue his blindness in offering insult to the foremost of the Achaeans” (Homer page). Wow I feel for Achilles I was mad at my brother and it takes me forever to forget about it, just like Achilles.
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).
This diction at the beginning of the poem communicates the idea of temptation being strong and powerful. The speaker immediately opens the theme of dangerous desires in the first line by expressing her view that “everyone/ would like to learn” this song to lure the men in close to themselves (1-2). This line also represents an element of exaggeration because the sirens never left their cliff and so to claim that “everyone” has a desire to learn the song is a hyperbole (1). This shows the speakers attitude towards her lifestyle and that she is attempting to convey that she is indeed trapped away from everyone. Atwood also uses colons in the first stanza to represent that the poem in its entirety is a description and definition of the irresistible siren song.
First, in various stories Odysseus is very contradicting to himself because he is only hero-like some of the time. When he and his men were raiding the Cyclops’ cave they could have left before the Cyclops got there and they could have avoided a lot of trouble. But Odysseus wanted to be a hero and wanted to stay and fight the Cyclops. This was a very selfish move of him and ended up being the wrong decision because it cost him a few of his best men. Later when he redeems himself he tells the Cyclops his name is nobody and gets him drunk.
In Homers Odyssey the sirens are described as luring, tempting, beautiful creatures that show no fear. Odysseus explains all the hardships and troubles him and his ship crew go through to avoid getting lured into the sirens with vivid imagery. “Now with a sharp sword I sliced an ample wheel of beeswax down into pieces, I kneaded them in my two strong hands” tells u that Odysseus isn’t going to take any chances and fight the irresistible song. Odysseus and his crew seem almost helpless when it comes to avoiding the sirens. Odysseus’s desire to listen to their deadly song is portrayed when his heart “throbbing to listen longer.” This helpless sense seems to be present throughout the entire passage.
At one point in the Odyssey, the hero makes the decision to enter the cave of a cyclops despite his crews objections. His pride causes him to ignore his shipmates and it ends up getting him into so much trouble that it makes the cyclops' father, the god of the sea, furious. Since most of Odysseus's journey is made by the sea, this gave the sea god a chance to cause even more trouble for the hero and his crew. Kevin also showed his little streak of pride which gets him into trouble too. When Gary David relayed Gary's message to Kevin about being careful driving the truck over a rut, Kevin responds by hitting the gas as soon as they approached it.
On their way home, they arrive at the land of the Lotus-eaters. The island offers a lotus flower which is eaten by the troops. Odysseus quickly realizes the mistake his made have committed without them noticing. The lotus flower's affects as a drug to those who choose to digest it. The troops forget about their homes and families.