After reading all of the famous stories from The Odyssey, I think that Odysseus does not live up to my expectations because he focuses so much on being a hero that sometimes, he doesn’t realize what is going on in the reality. For instance, Odysseus is always trying to save everyone’s lives when it is impossible. In Book 12, Odysseus tries to seek for a way to “escape from Charybdis and still protect [his] men”, but in the end, he loses all of his companions instead (181).
I like Odysseus because even though he makes wrong decisions sometimes, he demonstrates all the Greek qualities. For instance, he is loyal to his family and homeland, which represents the Greek quality “Xenia”. Even though staying with Calypso means that he gets to be loved, be in safety and live a rich life, Odysseus still insists in going home because he misses his wife, Penelope. Moreover, Odysseus shows respect to the Gods, which is why he gets help from the immortals everywhere he goes (except for Poseidon, who hated him for blinding his son). One example might be the fact that Odysseus is always praying to the Gods, especially to Athena. Furthermore, he stood on Agamemnon’s side at the end of the Trojan War and stayed to offer sacrifices to Athena in order to pray for a safe journey home.
I think that the most interesting part about the stories is that each of them has either a significant meaning behind them or teaches a lesson to the readers. For instance, when Odysseus was talking about his troubles with the Cyclops in Book 9, the author also evoked the reverse of the Greek quality “Nostos”. Instead of inviting Odysseus’ crew to dinner and serving them with food and gifts, the Cyclops ate Odysseus’ men and blocked them in the cave so they wouldn’t escape.
Last but not least, the scene where Odysseus’ crew opened the bag of wind in Book 10 frustrates me a lot. That is because Odysseus and most of his crew could have made it back home safely if his men haven’t mistrusted Odysseus and open the bag out of curiosity. They were almost at Ithaca when this scene happened, which is when all the major troubles start to happen to Odysseus. Despite of all these terrible events that Odysseus encountered on his way home, I still like this book in overall because of its interesting stories, which gives us life lessons.
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