Introduction
The main character of the epic poem Odyssey is Odysseus, the ruler of Ithaca and the brave warrior who is ready to do everything possible and impossible to return home to his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus. Some gods do not seem to be very generous and prevent Odysseus’s returning home. The companions and friends that accompany the main hero on his way experience the same difficulties as Odysseus. Though he is courageous and fearless, he dislikes being deceived by gods that promised to leave him and let him go to his native land. The family of the main character consists of a wife Penelope and a son Telemachus who was only a month when Odysseus went to the Trojan War.
On his way home Odysseus faces dangers and difficulties, he is forced to fight with cruel creatures and to resist temptation of abandoning the thoughts of home. The main character of the Odyssey encounters a great number of problems and mean people and gods that tend to hinder him to turn back to his kingdom, however, he meets a lot of people that help him and provide him and his companions with water and food.
As the most important goal of the protagonist is to come back home and see his family, he acts in accordance with his principles and against the gods’ decisions and desires. The only goddess protecting Odysseus is Athena who recognized in Odysseus a male person identical to herself, so, she feels urgent to carry of him as of her own son. Odysseus was creative and capable of great endurance, and the gods paid heed to him, and it was due to his temper (Moore 1). However, it turned out that being gods’ favorite is not enough because the fate can change your position in society as well as can change the wind that was supposed to bring you home.
A Brief Summary of the Odyssey
Odysseus is a brave warrior who finds himself at Trojan War, though he did not want to participate in that battle. After ten years of the war, Odysseus sets off in order to return home where a beloved wife Penelope and a son Telemachus are waiting for him, but he does not know that his adventures will last for ten more years; so, the whole journey of Odysseus took about twenty years. The kingdom of Ithaca is the native land of Odysseus who is the ruler of this land which “breeds brave men” (Homer and Mackail 68) and these men would not change their native land to any earthly blessings. Some actions of Odysseus at war were not valued by gods, so, he had to suffer from severe temper of Zeus and Poseidon who were doing everything in order to prevent him returning home. As Odysseus travels along the seas, he meets many people and various creatures. Some of people and creatures he encounters are kind and generous while others are cruel and mean because they try to either captivate Odysseus as Calypso did or kill and eat him and his friends as Cyclops tried to do.
Nevertheless, Odysseus happened to be under Athena’s protection and all his adventures where he could find himself in danger were not difficult because the great goddess helped him in his every task when it did not cross the pass of Zeus or Poseidon. The goddess’s favorite, Odysseus was lucky and brave, his temper and persistence on the way to his goal made him a courageous leader and a wise ruler. Moreover, when Odysseus finally returned home, he found his house full of his wife’s admirers that would not leave the treasures of that land; this was the reason they wanted to marry Penelope who did not want to believe that Odysseus would not come back from the war.
Odysseus as the Ruler of Ithaca
As “[b]ook 9 of the Odyssey contains the first flashback in the western literature” (Matthews and Platt 46), it is necessary to take into account the story narrated by Odysseus about his adventures in the cave of the goddess Calypso and on the island of Cyclopes. Though Odysseus was a wise ruler of the kingdom of Ithaca and a brave warrior, he could do nothing with mighty gods that tried to kill him and destroy his fleet. The main character was brave enough to struggle his whole life but he was not sure that his kingdom, his people, and his family would manage to cope without him. Thus, Odysseus decided to participate in the unequal battle between his temper and brevity and mighty Olympic gods that were considered to be the strongest ones in order to achieve his goal and return to Ithaca. However, he did not know that gods had prepared a great number of ordeals that the main hero had to undergo.
So, the first adventure led Odysseus to the island where a beautiful goddess ruled because she was ordered by Zeus to release Odysseus after seven years of captivity. Calypso was admirable and charming, though she was not going to simply help the main hero because she wanted to make him stay on her island and forget his native Ithaca, his friends, and family. Calypso tried to captivate Odysseus and force him to marry her. However, her plan turned out to be a failure for the Ithacan ruler would not agree to change his family and country for a “splendid (a) home he may have in a foreign country” (Homer and Mackail 68). Although Calypso was a goddess, she did not manage either to force him marry her and live with her on the island in her cave or to capture and make him stay against his will. As we all know, a woman’s desire can cause a great number of troubles and she becomes furious when not having what she wants the most.
The next journey which was a real ordeal for Odysseus on his way to native Ithaca was the island of Cyclopes. These creatures were created as separate ones and they lived in harmony and did not have to work as the land was fertile and rich in harvests. On this island travelers wanted to have some rest and met a Cyclops who wanted to eat them instead. However, it is necessary to take pity on the Cyclops who had found strangers in his cave that ate his provisions and tried to steal everything that he was accumulating.
In this case, Odysseus and his friends were acting like genuine thieves and they deserved for being punished. The work should be appreciated regardless whether this work is performed by human beings or other creatures, though Odysseus and his companions decided to use the ‘hospitality’ of Polyphemus. It turned out that Odysseus and his crew did not realize the appearance and nature of the genuine owner of the cave. Nevertheless, they should not have entered the dwelling of a stranger in the absence of the owner, it was wrong to think that the creature whose cave was enormous and stocks of food were as large as were enough to feed the whole crew would let miserable people escape with his provisions. Odysseus let Polyphemus the wine from his ship and blinded him with a heated spear in order to escape from the cave of the Cyclops and not to be eaten by the Cyclops.
As you can see, journeys of the Ithacan ruler were successful and unsuccessful, though every time he found a way from the difficult situation he found himself in. Different creatures, gods, and goddesses were trying to prevent his returning to Ithaca, though their attempts failed because of his temper and brevity. Odysseus saw a lot of strange things which can be considered common for ancient mythology and he turned out to be a wise leader and a fearless friend.
Gods and goddesses are an integral part of the ancient mythology; they are embodiment of people’s hopes, fears, desires, and beliefs. Gods play an important role in the development of Odysseus’s character as their tasks and problems set for the main hero make him stronger both mentally and spiritually. Some gods are likely to help Ithacan ruler, while others do everything to destroy him and make him suffer because of deaths of his friends and people he appreciate. Thus, Odysseus’s crew was doomed to experience the same difficulties as their leader because they were together with him.
Zeus was obsessed to destroy Odysseus’s fleet and make him struggle for the right to return home to his family because Odysseus did not admit that he would not win the Trojan War without the help of gods. Though Odysseus did not want to participate in the Trojan War, he had to do this because he was a brave man and all brave men fought on that war. The reason of the Trojan War was a woman who was taken away from her home. This fact was outrageous and courageous warriors from all parts of the world had come to fight for the beautiful woman and the genuine rights of a wife.
Poseidon had his reasons for taking vengeance on Odysseus because the latter had blinded his son Polyphemus, the Cyclops. Though Odysseus was favored by the goddess of wisdom, Athena could not help him with such mighty gods as Zeus and Poseidon. Athena was trying to make the Ithacan ruler take appropriate decisions in certain situations as well as influenced his son and son’s decisions. Athena is Odysseus’ companion, his deity-counterpart. She is able of taking any appearance, “to take on strategic disguises in order to slip out of the traps set for him along the way”; ability of being in disguise appears to be a powerful weapon of the hero. Finally the main character turns to Ithaca; only disguise helped him to take the matters into his hands (Hawhee 51).
Gods and goddesses play an important role in the fate of the main character; their interventions prevent him from reaching his goal or help him in achieving it. So, throughout the story Odysseus demonstrates that gods control the lives of mortals and regardless of their brevity and temper; mortals should esteem gods and their benevolence. Athena treats Odysseus as her counterpart in the male body. She does everything possible in order to help the Ithacan ruler to come home and embrace his wife and a son. Telemachus is the son of Odysseus; he experiences the help of a wise goddess as well as his father because Athena found his strength and brevity similar to those possessed by Odysseus.
The next phase described in the book by homer is the process of returning home. Though this process took the whole book to describe all adventures and events faced by the main character, it is necessary to emphasize the moment when the hero came back home and found it full of uninvited guests. These people appeared to be the admirers of Penelope’s beauty and Odysseus’s kingdom’s richness. Telemachus was too young to make them leave their home, though led by Athena’s prompts he found strength in himself and set off to search for his father.
Penelope is the wife of Odysseus; she is beautiful and she is the mistress of the great kingdom. As all people believe that Odysseus would never return home, she became a nice bit of goods for those who wanted to get the kingdom of Ithaca. Penelope was influenced by the great goddess when she decided to introduce an examination of the most appropriate applicant to be her husband in the form of a contest. The task was to twang the bow of Odysseus and aim a target through twelve axes. As the bow was tight, no one managed to perform at least a half of the task, though a bagger came and fulfilled the requirements of the contest.
As only Athena knew that this bagger was Odysseus, people in the yard did not recognize him. When everything was over, Penelope made out a trick in order to check whether the strange really was her husband. She made an attempt to deceive him and told her nurse to “take his bed outside the bed chamber that he himself built. Bring the bed outside this room, and put bedding upon it with fleeces, good coverlets, and blankets” (Homer and Mackail 189). These words made Odysseus angry and he told everything about this house and the bed chamber. When Penelope had heard what he told her, she realized that this man was her husband. I believe that such feelings can be based only on pure love and mutual trust. If you can trust your significant other, you can be considered Odysseus and Penelope of the modern time.
Conclusion
Gods and goddesses can influence the lives of mortals, though they did not manage to defeat the brave temper of Odysseus. All attempts to make Odysseus abandon his idea to return home were not successful as his desire to embrace his family was stronger that the power of gods. Though Odysseus is an ancient hero, we can take into account his mistakes and not underestimate the power of fate.
Works Cited
Hawhee, Debra. Bodily Arts: Rhetoric and Athletics in Ancient Greece. University of Texas Press, 2004
Homer, and John William Mackail. The Odyssey. Plain Label Books, 1932
Matthews, Roy T., and DeWitt Platt. Readings in the Western Humanities. Sixth Edition. Volume One. New York: McGraw-Hill 2007
Moore, Rees John. “Voyaging with Odysseus: The Wile and Resilience of Virtue”. Humanitas 13(1), 2000