The Odyssey Essay

Submitted By Sherry-Truong
Words: 624
Pages: 3
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Ky Truong.
English 1A
November 4, 2014

The Odyssey

The Odyssey, a great epic, told us the story of Odysseus and his adventures. Its characters , their problems, obstacles and their morals weave their way into our live as well. The morals and beliefs of the Greeks represent to us through stories and incorporate themselves into our mind. I believe the Odyssey to be an allegory, meaning it has two parts of interpretation to it. The obstacles, problems and goals relate to our modern day lives. It symbolizes the events that occur in our life and how we react to them just shown in the Odyssey. Odysseus and his trails put a representation of obstacles that ourselves face in our present day life.
The journey to the Land of the Dead where the dead receive reciprocity was not so much a test for Odysseus as it is an epiphany. His mortality is put in context as he watches shades of warriors, comrades, legendary figures, and even his own mother.
To followed instruction, he must speak to Tiresias, the blind seer from Thebes, before he can allow his mother or any other to approach. Then, he drank the blood to temporarily revitalize the deads , so they can communicated with Odysseus to speak the only truth. First, Tiresias warn him when he goes to the island of Helios his crew shouldn’t eat his cattle. If they does, they would die. At last, he met Achilles, who rather choosing living out a long uneventful life than die in glory on the battlefield. “ I’d rather slave on earth for another man/.../ than rule down here over all the breathless

death.” (Homer 265) In this story, the two heros also brood on the differences between the two worlds they now inhabit, and each find the grass greener on the other side.
Odysseus envies Achilles strength and glory that it won him,and Achilles envies
Odysseus for being alive. “But you Achilles, there’s not a man in the world more blest than you- there never has been , never will be one. Time was, when you were alive, we
Argives honored you as a god, and now down here, I see, you lord it over the dead in all your power.So grieve no more at dying, great Achilles” (Homer 265).Like other
Greek heroes, he too would like to be honored as a god, but he must not lose his wits in his pursuit of glory.
Starvation is torture that can drive even the toughest
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