A study from the characters odysseus and poseidon

Odysseus, Poseidon

After the events in the Trojan War, Odysseus fantastic men advancing back home to Ithaca. En route, they unknowingly stopped with the island from the Cyclopes to assemble supplies for long trip home. Regrettably, the inhabitants of the area were not very friendly ” particularly 1 Cyclops named Polyphemus. In an attempt to hide through the other titans, Odysseus wonderful men concealed in Polyphemus’s cave. Polyphemus then captured the men inside with a massive boulder stopping the only way in and out. One by one, Polyphemus ate Odysseus’s crew.

Odysseus, keeping a level head, came up with a plan to escape. Odysseus had a few undiluted wine beverage on his person, and cleverly offered it to Polyphemus without informing him how strong your wine was. Polyphemus eagerly got the wine, became drunk, and promptly fell asleep. Odysseus and his remaining men warmed a wooden stake within a fire, and proceeded to blind Polyphemus’s one eyesight. After howling in soreness, the men hid under the giant’s sheep, wherever they cannot be felt and enjoyed. The next morning, when Polyphemus let his sheep out to graze, Odysseus and his males snuck away underneath the sheep’s wooly bellies, and steered clear of to their send. Polyphemus noticed that the men got escaped following Odysseus had been at ocean. Polyphemus threw a (poorly-aimed) boulder with the ship, and called out to his father Poseidon intended for vengeance. Poseidon, in his craze, destroyed Odysseus’s ship, and his complete crew, over the ten-year voyage back to Ithaca. Odysseus simply survived because he had Athena’s favor and protection.

Odysseus’s Argument:

Odysseus was acting away of self-defense. As chief and california king, he had an obligation to protect himself and his guys at all costs. He used his wits to flee a deadly situation. This individual also would not know that Polyphemus was son of Poseidon. Regardless of who have Polyphemus was, Odysseus did not kill him, despite the danger against Odysseus and his staff, it would had been just as simple to kill him while consumed or in bed. Poseidon, becoming a god, functions out of maximum emotion, and decides the injury of his son warrants mass-murder. Odysseus believed rationally and spared the man-eating Polyphemus, Poseidon acted irrationally, and eradicated Odysseus’s crew. Poseidon could have been more merciful and wiped out Odysseus and his team quickly. Instead Poseidon expanded Odysseus’s abuse and triggered him to suffer as he watched his entire team die throughout ten years. Furthermore, this extended journey brought on turmoil in Odysseus’s Empire of Ithaca.

The moment Odysseus left for Troy, his son, Telemachus, was too fresh to take the throne. This left Penelope running the complete country. While Odysseus was gone, suitors came to the courtroom Penelope, raiding his palace while these people were there. Since there was simply no proof that Odysseus made it through the Trojan’s War, the suitors frequently pressured Penelope to remarry. She would not want to, instead holding on the suitors until Odysseus returned mainly because she presumed that he was still surviving.

Poseidon’s Debate:

Before Poseidon did everything to Odysseus, he had to get his thought approved by Zeus, king of the gods. Furthermore, Odysseus was in Poseidon’s website, the sea, for most of his trip, which puts Odysseus within a precarious position already. Poseidon’s intended focus on was Odysseus, the rest of the team was assets damage, nevertheless also psychologically hurt Odysseus. Odysseus realized he was in the domain of the deity that could wreck him on every level, he had a good amount of opportunities to support himself in the event things proceeded to go wrong.

Poseidon, like a deity, requirements more esteem than a typical human. In Poseidon’s head, this exceptional treatment reaches up to his child. Injuring his son Polyphemus was deemed a personal offend. Unknown to Odysseus, he previously divine protection from Athena ” a competitor deity to Poseidon. Consequently , Poseidon already did not like Odysseus, stabbing Polyphemus in the eye just put into Poseidon’s hatred. Poseidon would not harm Odysseus, but built him undergo, just like his son, simply by killing his men gradually. Let the treatment fit the crime.

Moreover, occasionally Odysseus has not been only self-centered, but truly irreverent. Although Penelope was upholding her marriage vows, Odysseus recently had an affair with Circe, a sorceress who had turned his men in pigs whilst he had his fling. He also deliberately went beyond the island in the Sirens, even though he wanted to hear their particular song intended for himself. Finally, he allowed his men to eat sacred cattle in the god Helios for a week. This one take action condemned his entire fast, ship and men, to destruction. Zeus struck the ship with lightning, pushing Odysseus to swim to a island and live with a Calypso, a sea nymph, to get seven years. The rest of his men drowned. This kind of shows that Odysseus did not usually respect the gods, and acted selfishly whenever this suited him.

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