The Odyssey

The Odyssey

Introduction

The title of the Odyssey (or Odusseía in ancient Greek) is formed on the Greek name of Ulysses (Odysseus). This poem is attributed to Homer, a bard from Asia Minor, in effect tells the adventures of Odysseus on his return home at the end of the Trojan War. This epic, cut into 24 songs, is written in dactylic hexameters and has 12,109 verses. It is thought to have been composed in the eighth century BC. AD, after the Iliad, another epic telling of Homer's Trojan War. This epic poem is a seminal work in European culture. He inspired many parodies and rewritings, whose novel Ulyssesby James Joyce (1921). Homer, the largest and perhaps the least known of all the poets. After so many centuries, all the details of his life are still a subject of doubt, and its very existence is a problem.

Discussion

Having spent ten years since the fall of Troy, Odysseus is still unable to return home to the kingdom of Ithaca in Greece. Meanwhile Penelope, his wife resisted the suitors who courted and tried to persuade the Greek hero. Aided by Mentor, faithful friend of Odysseus, Penelope raised the prince Telemachus, son of Ulysses. Telemachus yearned desperately to expel the suitors of his mother, but had no confidence or experience to fight them. One of the suitors, Antinous, planned to assassinate the young prince and thus remove the only obstacle in his plan to dominate the palace (West, 1997).

Little did the suitors know that Odysseus was still alive on the island, Ogygia. Ulysses wanted to return with his wife and son but had no way of escape. The goddess Athena decided to help Telemachus. Disguised as a friend of the father of Ulysses, leads the prince to Pylos and Sparta, where the kings Nestor and Melenao, comrades of Odysseus during the war, he reported that his father is still alive and trapped on the island of Calypso. Telemachus plans to return to his home in Ithaca, but Antinous and the other suitors were waiting with an ambush to kill him.

On his way to Ithaca, Odysseus is shipwrecked off the coast of Phaeacian and is rescued by the young Nausicaa, who falls for him and leads him to the palace of his father, King Alcinous. During the party held in his honour, Odysseus reveals his true identity and tells his hosts by the adventures he went through during the Trojan War and the misadventures that prevented him from returning to Ithaca (Homer & Stanley, 2000). Odysseus tells how, after leaving Troy, he and his companions sailed to the region of the Cyclops, where they were captured by the Cyclops Polyphemus, son of the god Poseidon. Tricking, Odysseus got drunk the giant, and once asleep, drove a stake through the eye and fled with his family. The crew, led by curiosity, opened a bottle in a hurricane and dragged them to the Aeolian.

Following the advice of Athena, Odysseus arrives in Ithaca disguised as a beggar. The shepherd Eumaeus tells the arrogance of the suitors of Penelope and fidelity of ...