Odysseus's Home example essay topic

The Odyssey by Homer has been translated by several people. In these translations of The Story of Odysseus we can see the reflections of the Greek society in the classical period. We see the hospitality, loyalty, perseverance and vengeance that the Greeks bestowed in themselves. It also reflects upon the Greek politics of this time period and leaves us to imagine why the ancient Greeks found the story compelling. Hospitality was a gesture that Greeks took great pride in. By inviting people into their homes to show their equality as humans and in return they wanted their own people to be showed the same kind of welcome and warmth when they traveled.

The strangers / visitors are those that kept the Greeks up to date on what was taking place in other parts of the world. In The Odyssey we can see this taking place. The Phaeacians, Aeolus, Circe and the Lotus-eaters offer Odysseus help in some way. But at the same time the Sirens and the Cyclops definitely do not reflect this equal hospitality understanding. They are like the suitors that come into Odysseus's home and take advantage of the generosity that the Greeks withheld. Penelope and her son Telemachus is the most obvious example of loyalty in this epic.

Penelope faithfully waits for her husband for twenty years. The public tries to force her to pick a new husband from the suitors that had invaded her home but she holds her ground and does not give in. Although in the Greek society she belonged to Odysseus and would not even want to imagine what would happen to her upon his arrival home if she had taken one of the suitors for a husband. Telemachus also shows us his loyalty to his father with the suitors.

But a less obvious one would be Eumeaus as he talks of his remarkable king and the royal family. The journey home for Odysseus is the major reflection of perseverance. Odysseus makes it through ten years in the Trojan War and then it takes him ten years to return home going through many different obstacles. Since we consider Odysseus's obstacles perseverance then we can also count Penelope's invasion of the suitors perseverance.

She has to be very clever and conniving to hold them off for several years waiting on her husband to return home. The Greeks took vengeance out on people when they felt they had been wronged. Like when Odysseus killed the suitors for there lack of loyalty to him, his property and his family. Odysseus kills there leaders in a gory ways. By first putting and arrow through ones throat and an arrow through the others liver.

In this story we see how Greek politics works. The men of the town want Penelope to pick one of the suitors as her husband so that they can become the new King of Ithaca. They hope that Telemachus doesn't come to reign. Even though Zeus would make him earn the thrown and in the opening to all of this Telemachus could not obviously do that.

The men invade the home of Penelope and take advantage of the hospitality that she holds because she is Greek. Then when Odysseus does return and kills the suitors for what they have done it shows us that even in Greek politics you were punished by death for certain crimes. I think The Odyssey was so compelling to the ancient Greeks because the story held a little something for everyone. It was like a fairy tale but also like a thriller or mystery as to what was going to happen to Odysseus next. It also had romance if you paid close attention to Penelope's character. This book took one mans life for twenty years and showed everyone the struggles you can go through and the glory you can have if you believe and never give up until you have accomplished everything you set out to accomplish.

Odysseus's story shows that there are such things as happy endings in life.